In a new post, M*A*S*H 4077 and M*E*S*S HB 333, The Wandering Heretic discusses an episode of M*A*S*H and efforts in Ohio to legislate payday lenders out of business. A few excerpts:

This Emmy winning episode reminds me in many ways of the Ohio pastors’ efforts to pass HB 333; a law which will in essence shut down the Payday Lending institution in the State.

If the Ohio pastors feel that high interest rates are oppressing the poor (to use their exact words) then they should not appeal to Caesar to pass laws; instead, they should get involved in the process themselves. By getting involved in the process I don’t mean the legal or legislative process; I mean the Payday Lending process. If the Payday Lenders are charging usurious interest rates in order to make oppressive profits on the backs of the poor (an assertion I reject, by the way); then the church should not seek to interfere with the lenders using the State. Instead, if a church is called to this mission of limiting such interest, then they should open their own lending office charging rates that they feel are just.

The major downside of this approach is that it will involve a lot of work on the part of the church. They will have to find funding sources for their operations, find people to staff the operations, get the legal advice necessary to create the appropriate documents and contracts, procure the office locations—even if they are church buildings—and make then secure. In short, they will have to incur all of the hassles and expenses as do the payday lenders themselves.

In that way, and only in that way, will the church avoid being the high flying bombardier, appealing to Caesar to pass laws like Hathaway dropped bombs, remaining clean and separate from the explosions they will cause. Instead, it will be the M*A*S*H surgeon on the ground, working for healing. But this will take work, hard and long term, sometimes frustrating, work. However, if the churches as a whole are not willing to get involved and get their hands dirty on that level, then they should get out of the way and let the Payday lenders do their jobs.

Payday Pundit just searched for the M*A*S*H theme song and found some interesting videos on you tube.