Hope is a verb
When I think of debt, hope certainly isn’t the first word that comes to mind. In fact, on the surface these two concepts seem inherently contradictory. Where hope implies liberation, joy and freedom; debt implies subjugation, enslavement and burden.
But it’s for that reason I believe it's even more important to hold onto hope. Not as wishful thinking despite the huge scale of injustice we’re facing, but as a tool to fuel our action.
Here are just some of the reasons why.
Hope – a path laid out in the Bible
We have a faith rooted in scriptures that lay out a vision of a just financial system. As Kenyan theologian Bob Kikuyu says, 'The Bible endorses lending as solidarity, not as exploitation'. The Hebrew scriptures encourage lending - without interest - as an expression of community, reciprocity and eventually justice.
Lending, as laid out in the Bible, was intended as a means to restore equality between people. Not as an opportunity to entrench and profit from poverty.
If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them.
The Bible had backup measures too, ensuring nothing fell through the cracks. The concept of Jubilee existed to periodically restore equality.
In Deuteronomy 15:1 we read 'Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts'. God instructs us to have mechanisms, like the jubilee, to reset societal structures, provide relief for those who are economically oppressed and prevent inequality exponentially growing. When I look at the world today in which the twelve richest people now hold more wealth than the poorest half of humanity (that’s four billion people), the need for Jubilee seems ever more pressing.
Whilst we may feel disheartened seeing that humans have continued over thousands of years to harm, exploit and wield power over one another, I draw hope from seeing how even thousands of years ago God has shown us an alternative way we can live well collectively.
Hope in the changes we've made
Many of you reading may remember the Jubilee 2000 campaign or were even involved in it. For those young’uns like me who weren’t around yet, Jubilee 2000 was a mass mobilisation of communities around the world calling for the cancellation of debt for countries in the global South. In the UK, faith communities stepped up and joined the call on mass.
In 1998, 70,000 people headed to Birmingham as the G8 was taking place. Joining hands, they created a human chain surrounding the meeting to represent the calls to break the chains of debt.
Jim Atkins was a teenager and fledgling campaigner at the time, he recalls the power of the day over 25 years on, 'I still feel emotional recalling how many of us stretched our arms to reach the next person in the human chain, knowing every person there mattered.' The chants of the protesters were so loud they were audible to the negotiators in their conference room.
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Seeing that many people mobilised for debt justice is a win in itself. But what’s even greater is that it was successful. $130 billion dollars of debt was cancelled for 37 countries. That’s over 1000 years of fundraising. The International Monetary Fund and World Bank estimate that public spending on 'poverty reducing expenditure' almost doubled as a result.
The impacts were huge. For countries that received debt relief, the number of births attended by health professionals increased from 45% in the 1990s to 73% by 2019 – reducing the risk of complications for mothers and babies1.
I find it difficult to understand what numbers this large really mean. If 1 grain of rice represents £1, $130 billion dollars of rice would fill the size of an Olympic swimming pool2. That’s a lot of rice, and a lot of money.
It was ordinary people from all walks of life who made that money move, and we can do it again today.
Hope sits alongside challenge
Sovereign (government) debt is a driver of poverty around the world today. The same dynamic of the borrower being slave to the lender that angered God in the Old Testament continues to play out.
Low-income countries are held captive by predatory private lenders through debt. These countries are not free to invest their resources in essential public infrastructure like schools and hospitals. And in turn, millions of people are denied their human rights and the dignity of life free from poverty.
But this debt crisis hasn’t emerged from thin air. It has been produced by political choices to allow private lenders to act on their greed. Poverty exists because systems and structures exist to create and uphold inequality, for wealth and power to be concentrated into the hands of the few at the expense of the majority.
But if political choices have created this crisis, choices can resolve it. And we can be part of shaping those choices for good.
Returning to scripture
One of my all time favourite passages from the bible is Jesus overturning the tables of the money-changers. It’s a passage that gives me hope, seeing Jesus directly challenge exploitation and lay out an alternative vision for our relationships.
This event takes place in Jerusalem during passover, when millions of pilgrims would have made the journey into the city and required the exchanging of currency. These changers were exploiting pilgrims and overcharging them. In Jesus’ radical act of turning over the tables, we see God’s heart and hope for just financial relationships free from exploitation.
The desecration of a temple was treated by the Romans as a capital offense. Jesus therefore didn’t just cause a scene or risk upsetting people, but risked his life and safety. As a campaigner, I love that Jesus gives us an example of direct action and protest.
In Luke 4:18, Jesus says that part of his mission and those who follow him is to 'proclaim release to the captives' and to 'let the oppressed go free'. By refusing to believe in the inevitability of poverty, exploitation and debt – even when we see it play out in countries like Kenya – we follow in Jesus' mission and we hold onto hope. This is our call as Christians.
Hope must come with action
Kenyan activist and artist Javan Ofula says hope is not just an affect or emotion, but a verb. Our God is a God of hope, who sent the spirit so that we can share in this.
In Romans 5:13, Paul addresses a divided church, calling blessing upon them as we read: 'May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit'.
Let us abound in hope and build it in solidarity with our global neighbours, for a world liberated from debt. A world in which relationships between people, planet and heaven are restored so that all can thrive. Each day that we pray, spread the word about debt, and campaign, we are abounding in hope. This is our call.
1 Calculated by Debt Justice from World Bank World Development Indicators database
