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Freedom! -- And Debt

by Christian Huebner 

More than two-and-a-half millennia ago, Solomon observed that “the borrower is slave to the lender.”  If that is true, then we are the generation of servitude.

Debt has become the American way of life. The average American household now owes more than $90,000. The average household income is about half of that. Treading in a steady stream of interest payments is so common, that most of us will never even think it’s possible to live another way. 

A life in debt seems to happen to us without even trying. Even if we’re young enough not to be in hock (yet) on a mortgage, our car payments, credit card balances and student loans still put newly minted adults tens of thousands of dollars in the hole right out of the starting gate.

I’ll admit, I fit the pattern quite well. Even though I count myself blessed that my parents taught me never to put more on a credit card than I had in my checking account, I do carry a small car loan. And a not-small-at-all student loan. Like I said: Perfectly normal.

Here’s what I’m learning, though: Normal does not feel good. An informal survey confirmed for me that I am not the only one who feels this way. One recent college grad told me:

I HATE being in debt. I go for long periods of time without touching my credit card, even knowing that I have enough money to pay it off at the end of the month. Being indebted, even to my parents, bugs me. Why is this? I don't know if I can really explain.

Another young woman finishing professional school said:

As a student, it’s simple to simply fill out your FAFSA, check a few boxes online, and poof!, your tuition is paid for another year. I’m dreading the day (which will be here in only a few short months) that I can no longer sit back, accrue debt, and not think twice about it. It makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about it.

A student at an elite law school noted the irony that because of student loans, “while I am entering an ‘upper middle class’ profession, I will be hovering around the federal poverty line for much of my career.”

That kind of angst may explain the popularity of someone like Dave Ramsey, the personal finance guru. Through radio, books, TV, live seminars – you name it – he preaches a simple doctrine: Get out of debt – all debt – as quickly as possible, and stay there for the rest of your life.

It’s hard to say just how many people have taken up Ramsey’s idea and stuck with it (though he, of course, has his own numbers). What’s undeniable is the enthusiasm generated by even the thought of living without debt. I witnessed this last Saturday, when I saw Ramsey deliver his message to a packed arena in Houston.

What makes Ramsey so compelling, I think, is that he draws the connection between the checkbook and the spirit. It’s implicit in his central slogan: “financial peace.” Order in one usually reflects order in the other. No, more than that – freedom in one reflects freedom in the other.

That is not the prosperity gospel, the false correlation between material abundance and divine favor. Mother Theresa and St. Francis enjoyed financial (and spiritual) freedom in their poverty as much as any Warren Buffet or Croesus in their wealth. And bondage in money and soul can likewise visit the poor and rich alike. 

What this talk about freedom is, is an observation about human nature. The most material things about us – our money, our bodies – are deeply connected to the most immaterial things about us – our minds, our emotions, our spirits. For good or ill, there is something sacramental at work every time we pull out our wallets.

Debt, I believe, is not entirely bad. There is something very natural about it. We might make wise or foolish decisions about which debts, or how many, we take on, but in some sense paying for what we receive is a basic human experience. It happens in proportion to what we get: To whom much is given, from that one much will be expected.

The only really harmful thing is staying in debt. Under the strange logic of the felix culpa, we all need the experience of exodus out of slavery; what’s harmful is never leaving.  Redemption implies prior slavery, but in ways large and small, we are indeed meant to be redeemed.

Let me offer an example. One of the most popular parts of Dave Ramsey’s call-in radio show, of which I am an occasional listener, is “debt-free Fridays.” At the end of the week, Ramsey reserves airtime for listeners to share stories about how they worked their way out of debt. In most cases, you can hear the unmistakable ring of joy in their voices.

What Ramsey doesn’t point out, but what is implicit in every story, is the blessing of the journey, not just the destination. These are tales of accidental sanctification, where former financial slaves have reaped benefits to their character as much as their savings accounts.

So take heart! For those of us at the beginning of the road out of debt, what lays ahead is a gift.

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(The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Headline Bistro or the Knights of Columbus.)