Throughout the country people are being cautioned to take steps to avoid identity theft. A recent gathering of United Methodist ministers and laypeople included a conversation about identity theft, and one Methodist minister told the group about the three years it took for him to clear his name and settle accounts after one of his credit cards had been stolen.

At that same meeting we talked about the growing need throughout society as well as within the church, to check the credentials of applicants and candidates for various positions. We even talked about the appropriateness of criminal background checks for people being considered for certain positions. However, much of the conversation related to financial issues, credit matters and indebtedness.

It appears from some entries in his Journal, that John Wesley was concerned about indebtedness. He would not permit persons who went bankrupt to be members of a Methodist society. From his very early student days, his mother, Susanna, drummed into his head the importance of staying out of debt. Thirty years later, he still insists upon good money management from his people. Remember the question he asked of his lay preachers: "Are you in debt so as to embarrass you in your work?" A similar question is asked of prospective United Methodist preachers today.

In the Journal, Monday, July 2, 1764, we read: "I gave a fair hearing to two of our brethren who had proved [to be] bankrupts. Such we immediately exclude from our society unless it plainly appears not to be their own fault. Both these were in a prosperous way till they fell into that wretched trade of bill-broking, wherein no man continues long without being wholly ruined. By this means, not being sufficiently accurate in their accounts, they ran back without being sensible of it. Yet is was quite clear that ______ is an honest man; I would hope the same for the other."

Conrad Archer explains that "bill-broking" involved buying and selling bills (probably at a discount) for cash. It may be something like using one credit card to pay off another. Too much debt, we still know, is not a good thing; but again, the wise Mr. Wesley was well ahead of us.