Welby vs Wonga – what can the payday loans struggle tell us about how Christianity engages with society? – Celia Warrick

Justin Welby’s recent criticisms of payday loan companies stirred headlines for many reasons.  Firstly, the short-term high-interest forms of lending given out by companies such as Wonga have been making the news all by themselves, meaning that criticism from any public figure was likely to send the story shooting to the top of the page.  With recent stories including Papiss Cisse’s refusal to wear a football shirt emblazoned with the Wonga logo^[1], and the OFT’s ultimatum to the top 50 lenders^[2], it doesn’t take much to bring the companies back into the public eye.  However, I think that the story was notable for much more than the subject of the critic’s ire – it caused debate because it marks another circumstance where the Anglican Church has taken a stand on issues that go beyond the scope of spirituality.  Like Rowan Williams’ 2011 call for the Coalition’s welfare cuts to be abolished^[3], Welby’s criticism of Wonga et al creates discussion because it brings the Church into the realm of wider society, and not everybody will be happy about that.

As with all news stories involving religion, this one is ripe for exploitation in the classroom.  In this article I will be outlining the different lines of enquiry that students can follow in order to use this summer’s story as a case study for different topics.  Primarily, I would suggest that this story would support the topic of Christianity and money (or materialism), and Christianity and the poor.  By linking back to Williams’ criticism of government cuts, we can also use it to discuss the relationship of Christianity and the government.  While I won’t discuss it in much detail here, there is also scope with older or more advanced classes to compare this relationship to those in other countries, most notably the separation of Church and State in the US.

I feel it’s worth mentioning that, when discussing payday lending, I am aiming to be objective.  I do have my own personal opinion about whether these services are a positive or negative thing (and consider that there are significant arguments for either side of that debate), but to espouse that here would detract from the point of this piece.  What I am looking at is how Justin Welby’s criticisms of payday loans – a legally available service – can show us the relationship between the Church and society.  Whether he is objectively correct or not is another debate for another article.

Christianity and the Poor

One of the main charges levied at payday lending is that those who use the service are often already in financial difficulties (typically with poor credit) which are potentially made a lot worse by the terms offered.  Firms such as Wonga advertise their fees upfront, but if deadlines are repeatedly missed then interest and charges stack up quickly.  It might only cost a couple of tenners to borrow £300 for a month, but when loans designed for the short-term are taken for longer they can become become unmanageable.  One of the main areas of concern for the critics of payday lending is that they cause the poor to become poorer and don’t make adequate provision to protect the more vulnerable members of society.  These concerns make the current debate a great way to start talking about Christianity’s responsibilities towards the poor.

One approach that may be fruitful is to consider The Golden Rule and how it can relate to poverty.  For younger students this might be simply to present them with an outline of how a person in a tough financial situation feels about it and ask them what help they would want if they were having that experience.  For older students, particularly GCSE candidates, this task can be taken further to examine the limitations of how help can be given (i.e. lack of public funds) and come up with a plan that they think the Church would present to the government.

Another consideration, rooted more in the day-to-day life of the Church, would be to ask students to find out what Christians are actively doing right now to help the poor.  With a little direction, KS3 students will find a wealth of schemes to research, from food banks^[4] to the support of the credit unions being championed by Welby^[5].  Some of these projects are nationwide and supported by the whole Church, some will be small groups acting out of their local congregation, but they are driven by the faith of their members and reflect real, everyday Christianity.

Christianity, Wealth and Charity

Criticisms of payday lenders aren’t just about a perceived targeting of the poorest in society, they also relate to the charges and rates of interest levied by these companies because an APR of 4000% and profits of £1 million a week^[6] are generally considered a little excessive.  This brings us onto another topic that’s important for understanding how Christianity relates to the world of poverty and finance – how do materialism and charity fit into a Christian worldview?

The classic Bible reference for this is the eye of the needle in Luke (18:18-30), in which Jesus advises giving up all worldly possessions as they prevent man from reaching the Kingdom of God.  Younger students could use this story to think about what their absolute necessities in life are, are what examples they can think of to illustrate excessive consumption (a quick perusal of MTV’s Cribs or various celebrity reality shows may throw up some useful examples).  Of course, care must be taken not to make young Christian students feel guilty for owning an iPad…  Older students can examine the parable in more depth, examining the concept that the Kingdom of God could be a spiritual state that materialism prevents access to, rather than a physical place at the end of life.

Given that this parable suggests giving money away to the poor, it seems natural to move on to looking at charity within Christianity.  In particular, I think it would be helpful to focus on how charity doesn’t always require money, because time and action can also be donated.  There are scores of examples to choose from, but I think that Jesus’ story of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:35-40) works well here.  Younger students can look at the specific examples of those in need and research how our current society works to help them.  Older students can begin to explore what Jesus meant when he said that he was there with the least of those who were in need.  For A-level students doing theology modules, this could even be linked to some of the Liberation Theology concepts.

Finally, we come to the topic of usury.  As this excellent article from the BBC describes^[7], there is a large amount of Old Testament precedent for not charging interest on loans at all, but this was re-interpreted during the Reformation.  Despite this, there is still an argument to be made in Christianity that making money from excessive interest rates (particularly when lending to the poor) is unethical and incompatible with a Christ-led outlook.  As this concept is more complicated, it’s probably best for GCSE students and above to consider, but I think there is definitely mileage in asking students to compare their thoughts on the Golden Rule with their opinions on high interest rate lending to those with little money or income.  For those studying Christianity alongside Islam, usury is an excellent topic for comparing the stances of the two religions.  Students could expand this to draft letters or articles about payday lending written from the point of view of a Christian and a Muslim, using suitable scripture references to back up their ideas.

Christianity and Government

What is perhaps notable about Welby’s criticism is that he didn’t call for legislation to abolish the payday loans industry – instead he plans to beat them at their own game by running and supporting competing credit unions to provide consumers with more choice.  Compared with Williams’ aforementioned moral stand against government cuts, this is a marked difference in approach, and I think that this comparison can help students to consider the place of the Church in society.  This can be built on in many ways, like exploring the place of bishops in the House of Lords, and of faith schools in the local community.  Some classes may even grapple with the concept of political parties set up to represent a faith worldview, such as the Christian People’s Alliance^[8].

For stronger GCSE students, a good way to engage with this topic is likely to be through debate.  Given both stories for background, pupils can be asked to draw up a list of pros and cons for the Church involving themselves in matters beyond spirituality (e.g. don’t represent sections of society, but may have society’s best interests at heart).  How the debate or discussion functions is obviously up to you, but I quite like the approach of having half the class think up the pros, the other cons, and then swapping students around so that they teach each other, before nominating spokespersons to feed back to the class.  An ex-colleague of mine used to set up a boxing ring between the two debating sides, and for every point of argument the students developed they got to pretend to punch their opponent in the face.

For older and more able students I think there’s a lot of merit in a comparison with a different country.  Given the separation of Church and State in the USA, which runs alongside an expectation that senior politicians will be religious, students can use the comparison to get to the heart of whether they think the same is expected of our politicians, even in a different religious climate.  Depending on the personal beliefs of your students, you’re probably quite likely to get some staunch responses about the place of religion in politics, and perhaps even some references to the current turbulence in Egypt.

My old Head of Department used to say that Religious Studies was different because today’s news could be in tomorrow’s exam paper, and I always took this to mean that we should use current stories wherever possible to link our subject to current affairs.  Justin Welby may not have explicitly had charity or materialism in mind when he challenged the CEO of Wonga, but the very fact that his faith caused him to take a stand over finances means that we can use his statements to discuss how Christianity relates to concerns over money, whatever they may be.  Similarly, the way his predecessor addressed the government but Welby didn’t can give us a perfect background resource to challenge our students to say which approach they think is appropriate for today’s society – the information is ready-written and the topic already live.  I hope that I have given some ideas here that can act as a starting point for others.