Discussion Jumpstarter
Study leader reference - not a definitive answer
Question 9
Russell claims Anabaptists were known for hard work, improving ruined farms, crop rotation, livestock manure, and skilled trades—while also holding a suspicious view of usury/interest; how do you reconcile “work is good” and developing creation with a concern that major parts of modern economics (borrowing, interest, stock markets) may be “not so good”?
Another way to ask: Russell says Anabaptists worked hard and improved farms, but they also distrusted charging interest. How can you hold “work and improving the world are good” together with concerns that parts of today’s economy (loans, interest, investing) may be wrong?
Discussion Jumpstarter
Direct Answer
Russell reconciles these by affirming work and developing God’s good creation, while admitting modern systems built on borrowing and interest raise “huge questions,” and Christians must function within them carefully. The transcript suggests keeping key goods in view—creation’s goodness, gift development, and avoiding “counterproductive” practices—while navigating a flawed system.
- He notes Anabaptists held a “typical medieval Catholic view about money… we shouldn’t… lend it out… out of interest.”
- He says “work is good” was widely affirmed and Anabaptists were “known for” hard work.
- He gives concrete examples of developing creation: improving “run down” farms, “rotating crops,” using livestock manure “to enrich the land.”
- They were not only farmers but “millers… blacksmiths,” developing skills.
- Regarding today, he says interest/borrowing may not always be seen as wrong (in other episodes), yet he has “huge questions” about Western economics based on “borrowing and interest… or even the stock market.”
- He proposes a guiding principle: in a system “perhaps not so good,” do good “as well as we can” and “avoid as much as possible” what is “counterproductive.”