It's a sin so egregious that Christians weren't allowed to do it, BY LAW, for centuries! But now? Totally fine. Everybody participates. No big deal at all!

The next time you meet a Bible literalist who is certain that you have to follow the laws of the Bible to the letter, but who is also pretty excited about capitalism, ask them about usury, and watch them fall all over themselves to pretend like it's fine. Because MAN, the Bible is just adamant that people shouldn't do that. Like, death penalty adamant.

But what, technically, is usury? Is it just charging too much interest for a loan, or is it charging any interest at all? Who does the Bible allow to engage in usury, and under what circumstances? We're going to find out!

Then we're moving on to one of the most misunderstood, and possibly confusing of Jesus' parables: the parable of the talents. Is it about maximizing your God-given gifts? Is it about money? Who is God in the metaphor? What's really going on?

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