As household debts become unmanageable and once stable finances spin out of control, many struggle with the idea of filing bankruptcy or seeking other forms of debt relief. These struggles may reflect concerns about having personally failed one's family, business, or oneself. Further, these concerns may be exacerbated by questions speaking to the moral and philosophical appropriateness of full or partial legal debt forgiveness.
In light of Biblical concepts addressing general honesty, maintaining a lack of indebtedness, and honoring debt obligations, persons placing primary life importance on faith, obedience, and trust in God may harbor additional concerns relating to how their religious community, their clergy, and most pressingly God, may view their thoughts and behavior in contemplating bankruptcy.
In response to the foregoing concerns, those considering bankruptcy may be surprised and relieved to learn that substantial sections of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code were designed, at least in part, around well known chapters of the Biblical Old Testament or Jewish Torah. In fact, Christian or Jewish adherents to the Old Testament might recall God through his inspired word, ordering the release of debtors from their obligations every seven years. The Christian Bible and the Jewish Torah in the Book of Deuteronomy 15:1-2, state this divine proclamation of periodic release from debt in the following manner:
1) At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. 2) And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the LORD's release.
We find also in the Book of Nehemiah 10:31, among other sources, reference to the same standard practice of periodic debt forgiveness:
...and that we would leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt.
Other bankruptcy code sections were also derived from ancient Biblical verbiage, for example Biblical language exempting from capture by a creditor, a worker's "tools of the trade":
No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone to pledge: for he taketh a man's life to pledge." Deuteronomy 24:6.
Examples of mandated periodic debt forgiveness, laws against usury and forgiving the debts of the impoverished can be found in the Holy books of our nation's major faith groups, and traced as the source of much of the language we find in contemporary bankruptcy statutes and rules.
Ultimately, when it comes to interpreting the laws of God and man, people need to come to their own conclusions, or consult trusted resources when considering the discharge of debts, or entering into debt relief plans under the U.S Bankruptcy Code. Further research into one's own faith related comfort levels pursuant to exercising a bankruptcy option may do one's conscience well; and it is noteworthy that resources and opinions from multiple perspectives on the topic abound...
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Thompson Legal Services, LLC
P.O. Box 5060
St. Cloud, MN 56302
Phone: 320-310-4040
Fax: 320-310-4221
Email: john@mnchapter7.com
We are a debt relief agency. We help people file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code.
