ICR:Planned Giving The Fruit of Covetousness and Greed

   Recently I came across an excerpt from a TV interview given by James
M. Benham, President of Benham Capital Management, in Palo Alto,
California.

   As we start the 1990s, we find this country with a record level of
personal debt. People have had more to spend and credit card providers
continue to aggressively seek their business. Americans are now up to
their necks in debt and it looks as though it may have caught up with
them.

   Payments on installment debt have increased from 14% of disposable
personal income in 1983 to over 18% in 1986. Since then, it has leveled
offmost likely due to the increase in home equity loans (due to the
1986 tax law change) and people reaching their debt limits.

   Personal bankruptcies have more than doubled since 1985. Over
500,000 people declared bankruptcy last year. Many of the people who
have sustained their lifestyles by borrowing against the equity in
their homes may be forced into bankruptcy this year as home prices
level off or drop in some areas.

   When I read things like this, I try to filter them through Scripture
to see which principles were violated to bring about such a tragedy.
Upon examining Scripture, one finds that it is the sins of covetousness
and greed that lead to debt and bankruptcy.

   It follows then, that God's instruction to His Church is to abstain
from fleshly lusts which bring about the "need" for more things and a
standard of living beyond that which He provides. Instead, we are to,
as Paul writes to the Romans in Chapter 13, Verse 8, "owe no man
anything but to love one another." By so doing, we will fulfill God's
law and avoid the bondage of debt and devastation of bankruptcy.

   Tom Manning, ICR Planned Giving Services, P.O. Box 2667, El Cajon,
California 92021; (619) 448-0900.
