Breaking Free From a System Based on Usury

We live in a world where everything is on payments.

You want furniture?

Payments.

A phone?

Payments.

Your car, your truck, your mattress, your groceries, your fucking dog food?

Payments.

It’s death by subscription, dressed up in clean interfaces and pretty pastel marketing.

But behind all that branding sits one ancient, poisonous reality:

Usury never died. It just upgraded.

And if you’re Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, or anyone who believes in basic human decency, you can’t escape the moral weight of this:

Profiting off someone’s hardship is wrong. Period.

The early Christians said it.

Scripture said it.

The Church Fathers said it.

Islam says it.

And your conscience whispers it every time you swipe a card for something you can’t afford.

Let’s walk through what usury really is, how it operates today, and how you can break free without becoming the thing you hate.

1. WHAT USURY REALLY MEANS (AND WHY YOU SHOULD CARE)

We need to be clear and simple, because modern finance muddies the water on purpose.

Usury = taking advantage of someone’s need, crisis, or poverty by lending money in a way that traps them.

It’s not about “any interest.”

It’s about exploitative interest.

Interest that grinds people down.

Interest that feeds on desperation.

Interest that makes the lender richer and the borrower poorer with every payment.

The Bible is explicit:

“If you lend money to any of My people who is poor… you shall not be to him as a usurer.” — Exodus 22:25

“He who does not lend money at interest… shall never be shaken.” — Psalm 15:5

“Do not exact interest… Do not lend your brother money for interest.” — Deuteronomy 23:19

That’s as direct as it gets.

Jesus takes it a step further:

“Lend, expecting nothing in return.” — Luke 6:35

In other words:

If you’re going to help someone, actually help them.

Don’t pretend generosity while planning profit.

2. FROM THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS 

The Church Fathers weren’t the “peace and love” crowd.

They pulled no punches.

St. Basil the Great

“Usury is the snare of Satan.”

“The usurer is the avaricious man who sells time—time that belongs to God.”

He believed that charging interest was equivalent to claiming ownership of something only God can control.

St. John Chrysostom

“Nothing is more inhuman than usury.”

“The usurer takes from the poor man that which he does not have, and then demands impossibilities.”

Chrysostom saw usury as slow murder—and said so plainly.

St. Ambrose

“If you have money, do not lend it at usury… for this is to kill a man alive.”

No flowery language.

No ambiguity.

Just truth.

St. Gregory of Nyssa

“Usurers farm the misfortunes of others.”

Imagine calling someone a farmer of suffering.

That’s the level of moral clarity the early church brought.

St. Clement of Alexandria

“Lend freely to those who need, and do not seek any return.”

The Fathers saw usury not only as a social evil, but a spiritual cancer.

It destroys both the body and the soul.

3. CATHOLIC AND ORTHODOX TEACHING: CONSISTENT FOR 2,000 YEARS

The Catholic and Orthodox Churches have always held the same position:

Interest that exploits the poor is absolutely forbidden.

The Churches do acknowledge modern complexities; mortgages, business loans, inflation, investments but the core principle has never changed:

You cannot make profit by squeezing the desperate.

The Catechism, moral theology, and canon law all point to the same truth:

“Those whose avarice leads to the hunger and death of their brethren commit indirect homicide.” — (Catholic tradition based on patristic teaching)

Orthodox canon law forbids clergy and laity from lending at interest to the poor.

It’s seen as a direct violation of Christian charity.

The consistent Christian message is simple:

If a person’s need is your opportunity, you’ve already lost your soul.

4. ISLAM STANDS SHOULDER TO SHOULDER ON THIS ISSUE

Islamic teaching on riba (usury) is uncompromising.

“Allah has permitted trade and forbidden usury.” — Qur’an 2:275

“Give up what remains of usury, if you are true believers.” — Qur’an 2:278

In Islam:

• Lending must be transparent
• Risk must be shared
• Profit cannot be guaranteed

No one should profit from another’s hardship

Islamic finance created alternatives:

• Murabaha (cost-plus sale)
• Ijara (lease-to-own)
• Mudarabah (profit-sharing)
• Sukuk (asset-based bonds)

It’s not loopholes.

It’s a moral system—a mirror of what the early Christians believed.

5. HOW USURY DISGUISES ITSELF TODAY

We like to pretend we’re modern and sophisticated, but the same sin just comes with better branding.

Modern usury hides under:

• credit cards
• “buy now, pay later” apps
• payday loans
• rent-to-own stores
• adjustable-rate mortgages
• overdraft fees
• subprime auto loans
• student loan interest capitalization
• title loans
• cash advance apps
• predatory refinancing
• subscription traps

Let’s call things by their real names:

Payday loans

400–700% APR.

This is legalized poverty farming.

Credit cards

Up to 36% APR with penalty interest.

Designed to keep you paying forever.

Rent-to-own stores

A $900 couch for $2,400.

This is usury wearing a polo shirt.

BNPL apps

No interest… until you miss a payment.

Hidden fees = modern parasitic lending.

Overdraft fees

$35 because you were short $2.

That is theft from the vulnerable.

Subprime auto loans

High APR + kill switches.

You’re one missed payment from losing both the car and your job.

If Chrysostom were alive today, he’d rip modern lenders to shreds.

6. HOW TO AVOID USURY ENTIRELY 

People get trapped in usury not because they’re bad with money

but because they don’t have margin.

Here’s how you break that cycle.

A. Build a Cash Cushion First

Even small savings kill dependency.

Start with:

$500

Then 1 month of expenses

Then 3–6 months

Cash is dignity. Cash is freedom.

B. Kill Lifestyle Debt

If it wears out, don’t finance it:

• clothes
• trips
• cars you can’t afford
• phones
• tech toys
• furniture
• appliances

Save first. Buy later.

C. Treat Credit Cards Like Loaded Weapons

Use them.

But never carry a balance.

Ever.

Once interest starts, you become the product.

D. Take Only “Healthy” Debt

Good debt is:

• stable
• transparent
• fixed-rate
• productive
• Examples:
• mortgages
• modest auto loans
• simple small-business loans

Bad debt is:

• confusing
• variable-rate
• filled with penalties
• based on emotion

If the paperwork is suspicious, walk away.

E. Use Sinking Funds Like a Pro

Break big expenses into tiny monthly pieces:

• car repairs
• home maintenance
• Christmas
• insurance premiums
• phone replacements

You eliminate emergencies before they happen.

F. Build Community

You don’t need a lender when you have:

• friends
• neighbors
• church community
• coworkers you trust

Borrow tools, not money.

Share resources.

Look out for each other.

This is how humans beat usury for centuries.

7. ESCAPING USURY IF YOU’RE ALREADY TRAPPED

You’re not bad.

You’re not stupid.

You’re not immoral.

You’re just in a system that profits from your panic.

Here’s the way out.

1. Pick one debt to kill first

smallest balance or

highest interest

Both work.

Momentum matters more than math.

2. Freeze lifestyle inflation

No new payments.

No “upgrades.”

No ego buys.

3. Increase income temporarily

Not forever.

Just long enough to rebuild margin.

4. Build savings while paying off debt

Even $20–50 a paycheck builds freedom.

5. Replace debt with planning

Everything you know is coming?

Prepay it.

6. Break the shame

Shame keeps people trapped.

There’s nothing shameful about wanting freedom.

8. A WARNING TO ANYONE TEMPTED TO PRACTICE USURY

This is where we get real.

If you’re in a position of strength, financially, emotionally, socially, you will someday face a choice:

Profit from someone’s desperation… or help them out of it.

That choice will define your character more than anything you earn or own.

Hear the warning:

Jesus:

“Lend expecting nothing in return.” — Luke 6:35

St. Basil:

“Usury is the mother of lying, injustice, and shamelessness.”

Chrysostom:

“The usurer kills the poor by slow degrees.”

St. Ambrose:

“He who practices usury is guilty of murder.”

You don’t want that stain on your soul.

You don’t want that curse in your house.

You don’t want to become the villain in someone else’s life story.

No amount of interest is worth what it does to your heart.

9. THE  CALL TO ACTION

Here’s the stripped-down truth:

A free man doesn’t oppress others.

A responsible man doesn’t let himself become prey.

And a Christian man refuses to profit from pain.

You can live clean in a dirty system.

You can stay clear of modern usury.

You can help your neighbor instead of trapping them.

You can build margin, freedom, and dignity into your life.

And when you do, you’ll sleep at night knowing your hands are clean.