Forgiving Our Debtors

 Bill Meuhlenberg in his recent post, "Jesus, Socialism, and Forgiveness", takes on an analogy you may have heard concerning the student loan bailout,

 "far too many clueless Christians have said we should happily 'forgive' student debt, since Jesus offers us forgiveness of sins."

(Recall the translations of the Lord's Prayer which read, "forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors." - UGP) 

"Um, talk about apples and oranges. Talk about a basic inability to think straight. Talk about biblical illiteracy. Talk about historical, political and economic ignorance. Governments forcing taxpayers to pay for the mistakes or irresponsibility of others has NOTHING to do with what Christ did on the cross – absolutely nothing..."

"...It is our sins’ debt that we are over our heads in – not college loans. And there is no way that we can ever get out of this crushing burden of debt. Only by Christ taking our place at Calvary, and taking the punishment that we deserved for our sin (and NOT on an innocent third party), is it possible for the sin debt to be wiped clean so that we can be reconciled to God.

Again, it was entirely voluntary on Christ’s part, and it had utterly zippo to do with the state and coercive fiscal policy. Those who come to Christ in faith and repentance can indeed find their sins forgiven. That is glorious news. But it was the voluntary action of God which we simply respond to in gratitude and thanksgiving.

There is no coercion here whatsoever. Biden’s student debt plan – like all socialist programs – is entirely based on coercion. The taxpayer WILL pick up the tab for these students whether he likes it or not. And if he has been through college himself and managed to pay all his bills, he is being slammed here twice – it is double jeopardy. He paid his own bills and now he is being forced to pay the bills of others."

I like many others had a government backed student loan to the tune of only $5,000 which I used to pay my rent, and I paid it back as planned once I started earning money (actually when I could defer it no longer ;-)). 

Today, student loans are ten to twenty times that amount in part because colleges and universities raised their tuitions once the government started loaning kids all that money. It is simple economics. 

Jesus has nothing to do with it except that wasteful government spending is sinful, and this nation needs to get down on its knees and pray for better leadership.