Ursury

What is ursury?

Ursury is lending money and receiving interest on the repayments, especially loans with high interest. It is as old as the hills and until more recently was taboo in Christian countries. Jesus overturned the money lenders tables in the temple and there is various quotes in the bible saying money should not be lent with interest.


Lending money at very high interest rates is considered 'ursurous'. You might have heard of Islamic mortgages. As with Christianity, Islam forbids ursury, so muslims get mortgages that have a fixed administration fee instead of paying interest. In general, they are now much stricter regarding ursury than Christians.

If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. Bible - Exodus 22:25

Younger people under the age of 25 might not realise just how recent getting in debt was a real taboo. Credit cards only came into use in the 1970s and the WWII generation, brought up with Christian teachings at school and high church attendance were very much of the belief that you should not spend what you don't have and many would save for a new TV or holiday and would never have dreamt of putting it on a credit card to pay it back later.

Here is the Wiki page about ursury.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usury