by Wesley Harris
The Apostle Paul, in a letter to the Roman church, wrote, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another.” Biblical writers and more recent financial advisors have cautioned about the excessive accumulation of debt. Debt can lead to stress which in turn can foster health ailments, not to mention the damage to credit, financial stability, and personal relationships.
We can imagine the burden of debt weighed heavily on 37-year-old Reverend Early Penn Giddens as he tried to raise his family during the difficult days of Reconstruction when many north Louisianans were still suffering in the aftermath of the Civil War. Few pastors relied on their church’s support alone, subsisting on full-time jobs as farmers, teachers or merchants. Giddens’s position as pastor of the Union Grove Disciples of Christ Church near Haynesville paid very little and his farm provided the bulk of his modest income.
In 1875, Giddens wrote the following letter to his congregation:
“April 3, 1875, at Home–To the Disciples of Christ meeting at Union Grove, Claiborne Parish, Louisiana:
Dear Brethren and Sisters, many of you will no doubt be surprised when I say to you I must quit the ministry to which position you have seen proper to call me.
My reasons are many, but to be brief I mention only two. 1st, the protracted illness of my wife and 2nd financial embarrassment. In the first place, my wife has been for four months in a helpless condition which throws upon me in addition to my farm work all the housework and the care of my little children and sick wife.
All this makes it impossible for me to read my Bible to know what the Lord hath spoken that I may tell it to others.
In the second place, I am owing money that was to have been paid over 12 months past, but it was impossible to pay it. Now, in justice to those to whom I am indebted I must with, if possible, double energy lay hold upon my plough and hoe and try to redeem myself from such bondage. Good men have sold me goods on time. I cannot pay for them.
I could not preach to a congregation if one of those men sat before me as a hearer. Brethren, I must first pay my just debts and this, I cannot pay in preaching nor by preaching, but only by hard work.
Then if I can only pay them by work do you not all say, go to work? I am sure you do. Then do not expect me to lift my voice again as a public speaker while this financial embarrassment hangs over me.
Brethren and Sisters, pray for me and may Heaven’s protective smiles which can’t but bless crown your days with endless joys.
Yours in the hope of Immortality,
E. P. Giddens”
The good reverend did not ask his small congregation for more support—they met in a schoolhouse for lack of funds for their own church building—nor did he flee his creditors. His answer was to increase his efforts to make a living that allowed him to pay his debts. He knew this decision would reduce his ability to minister and preach effectively, so he stepped aside so another pastor could serve his church.
Giddens was finally able to pay off his debtors and move to the Atkins community in southern Bossier Parish, where he and his wife Nancy raised their family. Sadly, Giddens died in 1900 at age 62 three days after a cow kicked him in the chest. Nancy apparently overcame her lengthy illness with her husband’s help and lived to 1926, dying at age 84. In 1885, the Union Grove congregation was finally able to build a church and generously shared the facility with four other denominations.
Giddens’s resolve in dealing with his debts reveals the nature of his character. He could not in good conscience preach the Gospel before men he owed overdue debts. He knew what the Bible says about debts—“The wicked borrows but does not pay back,” Psalm 37:21 tells us. Paul, again speaking on the subject in Romans, says, “Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.”
