Now They Are Selling Bankruptcy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I'm a member of the UK's telephone preference service, which means I very rarely get cold sales calls over the phone. However, I've noticed a concerning\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2008\/10\/now-they-are-selling-bankruptcy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Now They Are Selling Bankruptcy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I'm a member of the UK's telephone preference service, which means I very rarely get cold sales calls over the phone. However, I've noticed a concerning\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2008\/10\/now-they-are-selling-bankruptcy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Adrian Warnock\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/adrianwarnockpage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-10-08T01:50:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/adrianwarnock.com\/uploaded_images\/hand-736208.JPG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Adrian Warnock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@adrianwarnock\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Adrian Warnock\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2008\/10\/now-they-are-selling-bankruptcy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2008\/10\/now-they-are-selling-bankruptcy\/\",\"name\":\"Now They Are Selling Bankruptcy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-10-08T01:50:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-10-08T01:50:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/4dc7481b9baa3553d9a7698715084eaa\"},\"description\":\"I'm a member of the UK's telephone preference service, which means I very rarely get cold sales calls over the phone. However, I've noticed a concerning\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2008\/10\/now-they-are-selling-bankruptcy\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2008\/10\/now-they-are-selling-bankruptcy\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2008\/10\/now-they-are-selling-bankruptcy\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Now They Are Selling Bankruptcy\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/\",\"name\":\"Adrian Warnock\",\"description\":\"Patheos Evangelical\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/4dc7481b9baa3553d9a7698715084eaa\",\"name\":\"Adrian Warnock\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5ff2076e287d1578e3b13fc015d78be?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5ff2076e287d1578e3b13fc015d78be?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Adrian Warnock\"},\"description\":\"The resurrection of Jesus changes everything. Just not all at once. Healing takes time. Compassion and patience sustain us over a lifetime of change. These are the themes I explore in my books and in the articles I have written for Patheos since 2003. My writing draws on my scientific training as a doctor and psychiatrist, my work in the UK's National Health Service and the pharmaceutical industry, alongside more than twenty-five years as a member of a growing church where I served on the leadership team offering pastoral care. My perspective has also been shaped by chronic illness since 2017, when I developed life-threatening pneumonia that caused lasting damage to my body, triggered several further conditions, and uncovered a diagnosis of blood cancer. This was successfully treated, although doctors expect it to return in the future. Out of these experiences I founded Blood Cancer Uncensored, an online patient-led support community. I am the author of the Transformed by Jesus: Spiritual Renewal series of books, which ask: \u2192 What does Jesus\u2019 resurrection mean for you? Raised With Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything https:\/\/mybook.to\/raisedwithchrist \u2192 Why is change so difficult? What causes the resistance? The Traitor Within: Understanding and Healing Our Deceitful Hearts https:\/\/mybook.to\/traitorwithin \u2192 \\u2028Why is change so slow? How does grace lead us over a lifetime? Amazing Grace: How Faith Grows in the Human Heart https:\/\/mybook.to\/amazinggrace \u2192 \\u2028\\u2028How do you become a Christian? How can you know if you really are one? Hope Reborn: How to Become a Christian and Live for Jesus https:\/\/mybook.to\/hope-reborn These books bring together medical, psychological, social, and faith-based insights, advocating for a biopsychosocial\u2013spiritual model of wellbeing. My qualifications and training reflect this integrated background: \u2192 British MB BS medical degree (equivalent to an MD in the USA) \u2192 Postgraduate qualifications in Psychiatry (MRCPsych) and Pharmaceutical Medicine (MFFM, DipPharmMed) \u2192 Theological training courses run by Newfrontiers\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/adrianwarnockpage\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adrianwarnock\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/author\/awarnock\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Now They Are Selling Bankruptcy","description":"I'm a member of the UK's telephone preference service, which means I very rarely get cold sales calls over the phone. However, I've noticed a concerning","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2008\/10\/now-they-are-selling-bankruptcy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Now They Are Selling Bankruptcy","og_description":"I'm a member of the UK's telephone preference service, which means I very rarely get cold sales calls over the phone. However, I've noticed a concerning","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2008\/10\/now-they-are-selling-bankruptcy\/","og_site_name":"Adrian Warnock","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/adrianwarnockpage\/","article_published_time":"2008-10-08T01:50:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/adrianwarnock.com\/uploaded_images\/hand-736208.JPG"}],"author":"Adrian Warnock","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@adrianwarnock","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Adrian Warnock","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2008\/10\/now-they-are-selling-bankruptcy\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2008\/10\/now-they-are-selling-bankruptcy\/","name":"Now They Are Selling Bankruptcy","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-10-08T01:50:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-10-08T01:50:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/4dc7481b9baa3553d9a7698715084eaa"},"description":"I'm a member of the UK's telephone preference service, which means I very rarely get cold sales calls over the phone. However, I've noticed a concerning","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2008\/10\/now-they-are-selling-bankruptcy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2008\/10\/now-they-are-selling-bankruptcy\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2008\/10\/now-they-are-selling-bankruptcy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Now They Are Selling Bankruptcy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/","name":"Adrian Warnock","description":"Patheos Evangelical","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/4dc7481b9baa3553d9a7698715084eaa","name":"Adrian Warnock","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5ff2076e287d1578e3b13fc015d78be?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e5ff2076e287d1578e3b13fc015d78be?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Adrian Warnock"},"description":"The resurrection of Jesus changes everything. Just not all at once. Healing takes time. Compassion and patience sustain us over a lifetime of change. These are the themes I explore in my books and in the articles I have written for Patheos since 2003. My writing draws on my scientific training as a doctor and psychiatrist, my work in the UK's National Health Service and the pharmaceutical industry, alongside more than twenty-five years as a member of a growing church where I served on the leadership team offering pastoral care. My perspective has also been shaped by chronic illness since 2017, when I developed life-threatening pneumonia that caused lasting damage to my body, triggered several further conditions, and uncovered a diagnosis of blood cancer. This was successfully treated, although doctors expect it to return in the future. Out of these experiences I founded Blood Cancer Uncensored, an online patient-led support community. I am the author of the Transformed by Jesus: Spiritual Renewal series of books, which ask: \u2192 What does Jesus\u2019 resurrection mean for you? Raised With Christ: How the Resurrection Changes Everything https:\/\/mybook.to\/raisedwithchrist \u2192 Why is change so difficult? What causes the resistance? The Traitor Within: Understanding and Healing Our Deceitful Hearts https:\/\/mybook.to\/traitorwithin \u2192 \u2028Why is change so slow? How does grace lead us over a lifetime? Amazing Grace: How Faith Grows in the Human Heart https:\/\/mybook.to\/amazinggrace \u2192 \u2028\u2028How do you become a Christian? How can you know if you really are one? Hope Reborn: How to Become a Christian and Live for Jesus https:\/\/mybook.to\/hope-reborn These books bring together medical, psychological, social, and faith-based insights, advocating for a biopsychosocial\u2013spiritual model of wellbeing. My qualifications and training reflect this integrated background: \u2192 British MB BS medical degree (equivalent to an MD in the USA) \u2192 Postgraduate qualifications in Psychiatry (MRCPsych) and Pharmaceutical Medicine (MFFM, DipPharmMed) \u2192 Theological training courses run by Newfrontiers","sameAs":["http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/adrianwarnockpage\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/adrianwarnock"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/author\/awarnock\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":3282,"date":"2008-10-08T01:50:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-08T01:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adrianwarnock.com\/2008\/10\/now-they-are-selling-bankruptcy\/"},"modified":"2008-10-08T01:50:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-08T01:50:00","slug":"now-they-are-selling-bankruptcy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/adrianwarnock\/2008\/10\/now-they-are-selling-bankruptcy\/","title":{"rendered":"Now They Are Selling Bankruptcy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019m a member of the UK\u2019s telephone preference service<\/a>, which means I very rarely get cold sales calls over the phone. However, I\u2019ve noticed a concerning tendency recently. A company phoned me, saying my number had been \u201cspecially selected for a new government sponsored program of IVAs.\u201d In fact, they weren\u2019t the first company to ring me and try and get me to take out what is essentially a last step before bankruptcy<\/a>. Unless these companies know something about the state of my finances that I don\u2019t know, then I\u2019m sure I have not been specially selected at all. It is, of course, the classic tactic of the salesman. Somehow, though, it seems to me to be somewhat sickening that the consumer boom is now leading finally in its dying breaths to companies breathlessly trying to persuade people of the benefits of seeking a legal remedy for their mushrooming debts.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong\u2014I\u2019m far from being against IVAs and bankruptcy where it is needed. In fact, the concept of being forgiven debts that you simply cannot pay is a very biblical one. In today\u2019s climate we could do well to preach about how we are all spiritually in debt to God, and yet in a glorious echo of the Old Testament Jubilee, God has wiped our debts away, thanks to the payment of his son, Jesus. Some Christians feel, wrongly, that financial bankruptcy is not appropriate for them as children of the King. I agree that all possible attempts at a responsible approach to repaying debts should be tried first. But there are undoubtedly times when a bankruptcy is inevitable. Indeed, it is very possible for you to be declared bankrupt without your consent, and to initiate such proceedings in those circumstances is nothing less than being honest. To continue to effectively lie to creditors by pretending you can pay them when you blatantly cannot is not a Christian virtue. Certainly many banks have played a significant role in enticing unwary people into debt they should never have taken on in the first place. The wickedness of the banks in these situations, with their dodgy credit card deals and mortgages, which in the UK used to stretch to 125 per cent of the value of a home, is surely causing all of us a headache at the moment.<\/p>\n

As such, when a bank is clearly preying on a customer and is charging them extortionate rates of interest, which then causes them to slip further and further behind, it is a godly thing to initiate proceedings to break such financial slavery.<\/p>\n

But no one in their right minds takes such a step without considering every other possibility first. So to sell such arrangements over the phone in a hard-sell call that speaks of a \u201cgovernment sponsored program\u201d is just wicked, and I hate to think of the effect such a call has on someone who is struggling with their finances.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"