Each year approximately 12 million Americans take out a payday loan. Today, August 19, 2019, marks the date that borrowers should have been afforded some relief and protection from this predatory industry. Instead, borrowers remain largely unprotected from these financial products, which in many states have triple-digit interest rates attached. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), the federal agency responsible for protecting consumers from “unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices…”, had set today as the original compliance date for its small-dollar lending rule regarding “Payday, Vehicle Title, and Certain High-Installment Loans.” The long-awaited rule was finalized in 2017 under the leadership of […]

PJR Vol. 1 2017, Distinctive Christian Citizenship Series Timothy Sherratt Timothy Sherratt is Professor of Political Science at Gordon College and author of Power Made Perfect? Is there a Christian Politics for the Twenty-First Century? (Cascade Books, 2016). He is a Fellow with the Center for Public Justice. Stock-taking. stock·tak·ing. Noun. The action of reviewing and assessing one’s situation and options. The 2016 general election has given rise to considerable stock-taking. To some degree, this series, too, invites a stock-taking of citizenship– its scope, limits, responsibilities, and powers. Now in January 2017, a new president has been inaugurated, a new Congress sworn in, and a new […]

When I first learned about principled pluralism, I immediately became defensive. I assumed it was nothing more than moral relativism or religious inclusivism. How can people value truth claims while actively participating in a public square that’s increasingly diverse? However, I have found that, far from inclusivism, principled pluralism welcomes differences in the public square. While its vision essentially relates to the government’s role in protecting the rights of individuals and the social structures and religious communities they create, the ideals of principled pluralism can be embodied on a personal level as we sincerely dialogue with those who are different from […]

In our criminal justice system, cash bail is money paid as a deposit for the release of an individual who has been arrested. Cash bail was originally instituted to ensure that individuals return to court to face the charges against them. However, this system routinely disadvantages low-income defendants who are often unable to afford to post bail. Consequently, these individuals either remain in jail until their trial, plead guilty and forgo the right to defend themselves in trial, or resort to taking out expensive bail bonds. Recognizing that cash bail has a disproportionate impact on low-income defendants, many of whom are […]

This article is part of Shared Justice’s Second Chance Month series running throughout April and May. This series will explore barriers that returning citizens face upon release from prison, highlight the ways in which government and civil society institutions can respond, and invite our readers to participate in efforts to ensure that returning citizens have the ability to flourish upon reentering society. Much of the talk surrounding criminal justice reform is centered on the incarcerated population and returning citizens. But major social issues have major social ramifications, and the full effects of our prison crisis are far more extensive than many […]