Payday Lending: Several bills have been proposed in the state legislature to address payday lending businesses, which offer short-term, high interest loans to customers. The businesses are banned in the state, but operate via a loophole that connects them with out-of-state banks. Host Frank Stasio speaks with Willie Green, president of the North Carolina Check Cashers Association; Yolanda McGill, attorney at the Center for Responsible Lending; and Laura Leslie, reporter at WUNC .Proponents say payday lenders are the only way some people can deal with short-term debt; opponents claim they prey on the poor, using exorbitant interest rates and fees. (40:00)
Jonathan Edwards: Eighteenth-century Calvinist minister Jonathan Edwards has been best remembered for “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” The sermon, a fiery depiction of divine justice, is still standard reading in some high school classrooms. Host Frank Stasio talks with Philip Gura, professor of American Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill, about the famous minister. In his new book, “Jonathan Edwards: America’s Evangelical” (Hill and Wang/2005), Philip Gura argues that Edwards has been popularly misunderstood. (17:30) (CP)