Good stuff, but it would take me hours to read all this, and right at this time, I don’t have those hours. I am dealing with a very fluid family medical situation of a loved one (good news today, doctor called, it wasn’t a stroke, very thankful to Almighty God for that), sole cook, errand-runner, and caregiver for the entire family, and homeschooling my son on top of that. The plate’s pretty full. But I will bookmark both articles.
I am entirely in favor of “going down this rabbit hole” — though the situation is quite a bit more nuanced, I would hate to see usury be another Humanae vitae situation, that is, nobody believes, everybody does what they want to, many people aren’t even aware there’s a problem, and you never hear about it from the pulpit. It is kind of “apples and oranges” but it still bears looking into.
In the meantime, I would advise the OP and anyone else that there is a principle called in dubio libertas — “liberty if there is a doubt” — and not to worry oneself to death, or fear that something is sinful when it’s not. Again, it is a bit more nuanced than saying “you can never, ever, get more money back than you loaned out to someone”. And as I said earlier, I have never understood why you can rent everything else on God’s green earth, but you can’t “rent money”.
