Buck McKeon: Usurer

Before he became a congressman, Buck McKeon was a banker. As a banker, he lent money at interest. Lending money at interest is usury. Usury is a sin.

In the Inferno, Dante consigned usurers to the seventh circle of Hell, along with blasphemers and sodomites. Early and medieval Christians believed that loaning money at interest was evil, because the Bible told them so:

If thou lend money to any of My people, even to the poor with thee, thou shalt not be to him as a creditor; neither shall ye lay upon him interest.
— Exodus 22:24

And if thy brother be waxen poor, and his means fail with thee; then thou shalt uphold him: as a stranger and a settler shall he live with thee. Take thou no interest of him or increase; but fear thy God; that thy brother may live with thee. Thou shalt not give him thy money upon interest, nor give him thy victuals for increase.
— Leviticus 25:35-37

Thou shalt not lend upon interest to thy brother: interest of money, interest of victuals, interest of any thing that is lent upon interest. Unto a foreigner thou mayest lend upon interest; but unto thy brother thou shalt not lend upon interest; that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all that thou puttest thy hand unto, in the land whither thou goest in to possess it.
— Deuteronomy 23:20-21

But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great.
— Luke 6:35

Even pagans thought banking was evil:

"And what do you think of usury?"
"What do you think of murder?"
— Cato, De Re Rustica

Today, we no longer think of usury as evil. Few would equate banking with murder. Even good Christians, who once considered banking to be as sinful as homosexuality or taking the Lord's name in vain, now embrace usury as a central and necessary part of modern life. Most Christians want to be like Christ — except, of course, for the whole poverty thing.

Buck McKeon was once a usurer. Now he's a congressman who voted to give $700 billion to usurers (rather than, say, to help the poor).

Maybe that's not un-Christian. Maybe that's not a sin.

I suppose he'll find out when he's dead.