Biden’s student loan “forgiveness” isn’t real forgiveness. It doesn’t cancel an individual’s debt, it redistributes their debt and forces others to pay for it. Biden’s student loan “forgiveness” isn’t real forgiveness. It doesn’t cancel an individual’s debt, it redistributes their debt and forces others to pay for it. Student loan forgiveness is like a person who “forgives” an individual of their debt by harassing the debtor’s grandparents until they pay for it. Student loan forgiveness doesn’t forgive anyone, it penalizes everyone.
President Joe Biden will be announcing today that he will “cancel” up to $10,000 or $20,000 in student loan debt per debtor. This “forgiveness”, however, will only apply to individuals who earn less than $125,000 a year.
In a more just society, Biden’s plan would be widely unpopular. However in a recent NPR/Ipsos poll that oversampled people with student loan debt—55% of Americans support Biden’s student loan forgiveness.
Though some of these Americans are probably Christians, student loan forgiveness is antithetical to Christian ethics. Therefore Christians shouldn’t support it.
People who support student loan forgiveness frame it as a justice issue—and they’re right. Unlike many Christians, social justice activists understand that it’s impossible to separate ethics and justice from all aspects of life.
Social justice activists are not wrong about what they consider justice issues—They are wrong about what they consider evil or good, injustice or justice. As the Bible says, “Evil men do not understand justice.”(Proverbs 28:4)
We Christians, however, should understand justice. We should understand that debt is a matter of justice. We should know that like every justice issue, the Bible has addressed Christian ethics on (student) debt.
Therefore one of the reasons why we Christians shouldn’t support student loan forgiveness is because it promotes wickedness. The Bible says, “the wicked borrows but does not pay back.” (Psalm 37:21)
Joe Biden’s plan will force many Americans into sin. This will force many Americans into disobeying God’s explicit commandments about debt. (Romans 13: 7-8)
Another reason why Christians shouldn’t support student loan forgiveness is because it’s partiality. Biden’s plan would only apply to individuals who earn less than $125,000 a year.
But what makes a person who earns $124,000 a year more deserving of “forgiveness”? In fact, what makes a person who earns $20,000 a year more deserving of “forgiveness” than a person who makes $125,000 a year?
Many of us have become so accustomed to partiality, we’re not only untroubled by it, we don’t even know what it looks like.