Discussion – Credit Scoring Systems with the Rhode Island Storehouse Team
The FICO credit score is used for all sorts of purposes nowadays. It is checked when you apply for a job. It is checked by governments and municipalities for appointments and civil service positions. By the police during investigations even private detectives. It is checked when you rent a house or apartment. It is checked when you apply for any bank or finance company credit. This is far beyond the original envisaged purpose. History of the FICO Score.
So, is it a good thing or a bad thing? Should we endeavour to increase our credit score to get what we want from those who check it, or is that a mistake? We discuss.
This is what we call “mission creep”. Or, we could say, perhaps this is how “the frog got boiled in the kettle” slowly but surely ?
We also discuss the credit bureaus and credit history. How it is created. How difficult it is to get an error or misunderstanding straightened out.
In a partial acknowledgement of how unfair credit scoring can become, and how even the sick and poor get left out in the cold, the government recently changed the regulations to remove all medical debt from people’s credit score
Credit Score Apps
So what about the numerous apps that are not available for people to obsessively check their credit score, but attempt to improve it by clicking on buttons like a video game!
Boiling it all Down
So, what about all of this considered in the totality of society? Sure, capitalism and profits benefit from algorithms and statistics – even turning people into numbers. But is that a good thing? A healthy thing? A biblical thing?
Thesis
Credit Scoring and relation-less lending enslaves people.
Credit Scoring is a way people are being conditioned to take the “mark of the beast” Rev 13:17
God’s Perspective: People should be relationally evaluated on the content of their character in the communities they live and are a part of. If they need financial help, we should work with them and give help. It can be more empowering to have someone borrow and repay than just giving gifts only.
Strategic Lie
Your credit score is a reflection of your character.
Truth
Your credit score reveals how good of a slave to debt you are.
More Truth
Proverbs 22:7 The borrower is the slave of the lender
Psalm 37:21 The wicked break their promises, borrowing money but never paying it back
Deut 15:1 At the end of every seventh year, cancel all debts
Ezekiel 18:7 The righteous does not oppress anyone, but returns what he took in pledge for a loan and does not lend to them at interest or take a profit from the poor
The Twisted Truth
If you can’t pay back because you ran out of money you are wicked
Scriptures on Predatory Lending
My people, your leaders are misleading you, so that you do not know which way to turn. Moneylenders oppress my people, and their creditors cheat them
Isaiah 3:12
Nehemiah 5:1-12 Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews. Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.” Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.” Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.” When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are charging your own people interest!” So I called together a large meeting to deal with them and said: “As far as possible, we have bought back our fellow Jews who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your own people, only for them to be sold back to us!” They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say. So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let us stop charging interest! Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the interest you are charging them—one percent of the money, grain, new wine and olive oil.” “We will give it back,” they said. “And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.”
We discuss. We share testimony. We evaluate. We pray.
