If someone refuses to pay their mortgage or car note or, yes, their cable bill, and don’t even make an attempt to work out payment arrangements with their creditor, they deserve to lose their home or car or cable service.
But there are some who are casualties of the most anemic economic recovery since the Great Depression who seek not to blow off their debts, but forbearance from their creditors. The same kind of forbearance, same kind of “grace,” the Lord has freely gifted us, though none of us deserve it.
Finally, just so you know, I listed my own job among those included in this essay.
Agreed.
But there are some who are casualties of the most anemic economic recovery since the Great Depression who seek not to blow off their debts, but forbearance from their creditors. The same kind of forbearance, same kind of “grace,” the Lord has freely gifted us, though none of us deserve it.
We live in a fallen world and have to deal with non-Christian bankers, etc. who may feel no compulsion to offer forbearance to debtors, Christian or otherwise. Even in cases where the mortgagee has defaulted on his/her loan, due to illness, job loss or anything beyond their control, a Christian banker may be highly sympathetic but not have the authority to re-negotiate the mortgage and cannot be called 'dishonorable' for something he cannot control in a business that is based on lending money with the expectation of it being paid back in a systematic manner under an agreed contract. If being in that situation makes a Christian believe they are doing dishonorable work, they certainly should seek a different field of employment.
However, unless a Christian banker is personally signing the foreclosure notice I can't characterize working in a bank (e.g. as a teller) as 'dishonorable'. Likewise, working as a mechanic for a body shop that is contracted to pick up automobiles that are being repossessed hardly equates to being in a 'dishonorable' profession. Then again, being a blackjack dealer in a gambling casino seems to fit the definition of 'dishonorable' work.
I simply don't want to characterize entire professions or jobs as 'dishonorable' when many people working in them never have the slightest connection to some act the business entity may employ that the Christian worker has no part of, as in the examples I have offered. That having been noted, examining ones employment and determining if ones work is honorable is a challenge that many of us could make that would likely yield surprising conclusions (and likely some career changes). On that basis your premise is worthy of consideration and I thank you for your response.