If you’ve been paying attention to recent events, you may think that I’m writing about young girls being imported for the purpose of being used as sex slaves.  Or, you may think that I’m writing about the current state of racism in America.  There probably are a number of directions I could go with this topic.  Notice, however, that I have given this entry the title:  A Modern Slavery.  I am not suggesting that what I am about to present is the only form of slavery that currently exists.  This form of slavery, however, is one that you may not be aware of.

The Word of God says, “ . . . The borrower is slave to the lender.” (Proverbs 22:7)  Yes, the modern slavery that I’m writing about today is debt.  Our society is in serious trouble and many of us do not even realize it.  Debt is a ball and chain that we are dragging around and it is getting increasingly heavier each and every day.  Our slavery is being compounded with interest as we as a society continue to pile on more and more principal to our overall debt.  Most Americans in today’s society are loaded with debt.  We have mortgages and second mortgages resulting from recent years of “prosperity” where we took the advice of the truly stupid who told us to borrow 120% of our home’s value because “values will always go up.”  Or, we followed the suggestion that said we should “use our home as our bank.”  Then there are student loans for careers that many times are simply not worth the loans it took to get them.  There are cars we can’t afford that wear out or style out before we are finished paying for them.  Finally, there’s the all-important credit card with which we simply cannot live without.  Now we can go in debt just buying Big Mac’s and buckets of chicken.

So we are enslaved.  But what about the fortunate one’s who manage to get out of debt.  Even if you’re debt free, you’re not quite off the hook yet.  Individual and family debt is bad enough, but that’s not all.  There’s corporate debt.  Businesses are running such high levels of debt that sometimes they are unable to make payroll and end up laying off employees because of “cash flow problems.”  And, the one I’m most concerned with; is our national debt.  The United States government is currently spending more money than it can even borrow.  And, there seems to be no end in sight for spending spree.  When will we wake up and realize that we are enslaving ourselves and our children and our children’s children?

“ . . . The borrower is slave to the lender.”  (Proverbs 22:7)

Pastor Alan Thomas <><