Gary North
This site is aimed at two audiences: (1) Christians who know they have too much debt, and who are ready to commit to digging themselves out from under; (2) experienced Christians who have been down that road, got off it, and are ready to help others to achieve what they have achieved.
This is a Christian site. People of other faiths are invited to help find deliverance from debt and to help others to do the same, but the focus is on Christianity and its view of debt. The site is to help Christians who have fallen into a trap.
This site is non-denominational, because excessive debt is a non-denominational affliction. Consumer debt is an equal-opportunity destroyer.
The chief benefit of this site is deliverance from debt. This includes those who need deliverance and those who have been delivered, and who want to help others find what they have experienced.
The secondary benefit is access to detailed, verse-by-verse chapters on what the Bible says about finances. The Financial Study Bible offers these chapters, which are being published day by day. It will eventually offer more than 200 chapters. They are based on the author’s 25-volume series, begun in 1973 and not quite finished, An Economic Commentary on the Bible.
The founder of this site, Gary North, is the author of about 50 volumes and thousands of articles. He operates a financial investment site, www.GaryNorth.com. Other than his mortgage, he has not been in debt since 1975, when he finished paying the loan he took for his 1972 Toyota Corolla ($2,200), his first and last new car. For more information on him, click here.
The information on this site is entirely free. This includes access to the members-only section, which includes Q&A forums.
In a way, this site is modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous. It agrees with these principles of AA. Here are AA’s 12 steps:
http://www.aa.org/en_pdfs/smf-121_en.pdf
Debt is not as dangerous as alcoholism. Alcoholism can kill you. It probably will kill you. Excessive debt is not in the same league as this. It is a character defect that began through ignorance. It is a product of years of self-indulgence. It can be like an addiction in some people, but it is not an illness. It is more easily dealt with than alcoholism. You don’t need to attend meetings to break your bad habit, although weekly meetings run by a deacon would surely help.
There is an organization called Debtors Anonymous. It has a 12-step program analogous to AA’s program. See it here:
http://www.debtorsanonymous.org/literature/literature.htm
This site is different. It targets Christians, not the general public. It has a message of deliverance, which rests on a concept of sin and redemption, not error and redemption. It is not aimed at victims of a tragedy. A few people have fallen into debt because of a tragedy, such as a medical expense. This site can offer help, but such people are not the target audience.
Here are this site’s modifications of AA’s 12 steps.
1. I have admitted that I am deep in debt, and it has become unmanageable.2. I have come to believe that the God of the Bible can restore me to financial sobriety.
3. I have made a decision to turn my will and my spending habits over to the care of God.
4. I have made a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself, and I am ready to confirm this, beginning with a monthly budget.
5. I have admitted to God, to myself, and to another human being the exact nature of my sin: persistence in unbridled spending.
6. I am entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. I have humbly asked Him to remove my shortcomings.
8. I have made a list of all persons I have harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. I have made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. I have continued to take personal inventory and when I was wrong promptly admitted it.
11. I have sought through prayer and self-assessment to improve my conscious contact with God, praying for knowledge of His will for me and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, I am ready to carry this message of deliverance to other Christian debtors, and to practice these principles in all my affairs.
In other words, it’s not just about you.
You should be aware of scams that promise to repair your bad credit. The way to repair your bad credit is to pay off your debts. Anything else is a halfway measure. The U.S. Government has published an excellent report on credit-repair scams. Read it.
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre13.pdf
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Deliverance From Debt 