A new response to global debt 

Editor’s note: A shorter version of this column appeared in the February 2, 2026, print issue of Christian Courier. 

Do you know whether your investments are a blessing or a curse for the people among whom they are invested? Many of us prefer not to know. But the reality is that many of us are involved in unjust global debt through our investments. Yes, our investments!

Decades ago, I was asked to pray over the collection during a worship service. The collection was for the Christian Reformed Church’s Ministers’ Pension Fund that invested in some corporations, probably unknowingly, that in some way exploited apartheid. I told them that I found it difficult to pray for and explained that they had unwittingly performed a political act. Many were angry that I had brought politics to the pulpit. But I had to speak up. 

My missionary experience

For nearly two decades, I served at the Institute of Church and Society in Jos, Nigeria. During that time, the institute organized a national conference in November 1990, which produced a report titled: “The Church and External Debt.” This report included both Christian and Muslim voices. 

A Nigerian pastor had urged the Institute of Church and Society to challenge the government to take steps to relieve their people of a huge external debt burden. I was responsible to, and supervised by, Dr. Bishop Adegbola, who was very excited about this project.

The report included The Maseru Declaration (published earlier by the All Africa Conference of Churches) and the resolutions of our own conference. It ended with a meditation on “The Lord’s Supper and the External Debt.” One respected senior missionary leader resisted linking the debt to the Lord’s Supper. The sacrament was not to be politicized, he argued. 

Local churches, Christian colleges and universities as well as their Muslim counterparts were encouraged to interact with foreign partners to urge them to pressure their governments and economic organizations to reduce the debt schedules, especially the interest rates, if not to forgive them fully. They were advised to urge missionary-sending churches to inform their members about how their investments contributed to the problem. 

At the time, the Nigerian population clearly rejected increasing the national debt, since much of the funds were not utilized for the development of society, but mismanaged – stolen, if you like – by corrupt government and other elites. The government ignored public opinion and increased the debt. The international creditors insisted on repayment, even though Nigerian people felt the debt was not theirs since they did not benefit from it and therefore should not have to pay it – as if the creditors were not aware of that!

I personally followed that advice and confessed that, as a missionary, I was supported by churches with money partially gained from investors in the banks and corporations that demanded repayment. I was terribly embarrassed by the contradiction I was living in.

I contacted a dozen or so churches and institutions and made arrangements with them to give speeches on the subject, but everyone fell flat. The local organizer had forgotten, was sick or had traveled and several other excuses. I increasingly felt the devil on my back waving his two fingers of victory to the world. I had never consciously experienced this before. That experience assured me that this campaign must be from the Lord.

Churches are complicit

We often do not want to face the truth of our finances. We prefer to hide behind the excuse of ignorance. How would we know? How can we find out?

Well, there are Christian organizations in both Canada and the U.S. that expose the truth of finances and take ameliorative action. Ask yourself if you know whether your investment is a blessing or a curse to its host people. Does it build or destroy? Is it an expression of Christian love, service and justice (Mic. 6:8)?  

Elsewhere I have written the true story of how a transnational corporation bought a huge swath of land in the Philippines to grow pineapples. They compensated the farmers, but it was not enough and soon the farmers moved to a nearby city where they joined the throngs of unemployed and unskilled. A missionary organization moved in to train them for living and working in the city. That mission was supported by a Western church that, in turn, was supported by investors in that same transnational that bought out the farmers. Do you recognize the contradiction? For a fuller version of this story I refer you to my book, Caught in the Middle: Christians in Transnational Corporations. It is by no means a unique story. 

I am aware that it is hard to avoid all dubious investments. Almost all of us do so indirectly through our bank accounts, which in turn invest in corporations. Even ethical investment organizations include some dubious investments, depending on their criteria. Except for those who store their cash under their mattress, no one is likely to be clean – a personal confession on my part.

Nothing to forgive

I appreciated Rebekah Fuelbrandt’s article on the cancellation of unjust global debts published in Christian Courier. But I propose that rich countries that hold the debt of poorer countries go one step further. The people of indebted countries have done nothing to need forgiveness, and debt cancellation means that those who took the money can get away with it. 

I favour the establishment of an international body to steward the debts as they are repaid. This body would consist of people with a positive international reputation of expertise, justice and compassion, without including members of governments, banks or corporations (unless they serve as consultants without vote). 

This international body should have a limited membership to avoid becoming another expensive bureaucracy, and should meet no more than once annually. If they meet more often, it should be virtual. It probably should be appointed by and responsible to a UN department, the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund – or all three. As well as the World Council of Churches and its equivalent in other major religions.

Each debtor country should also form a small committee of people with a similar reputation. That committee would receive applications from local development groups and, if they approve, forward their approval to that international body to make a final decision. It’s possible that the international body also invests the funds into a permanent fund. 

Jubilee? Yes, but not forgiveness or cancellation. It’s time to think beyond the traditional boxes.