Debtors receive scant mercy in America today. Congress made sweeping changes to bankruptcy laws this past March, setting strict rules that block individuals from wiping out their debt.

Chapter 7 long has been a refuge for people who are so deep in debt they have no prayer of repaying what they owe. Under Chapter 7 standards, debtors turn over to the courts all but their essential assets (their shelter, for example, is off limits) in exchange for a clean start. But the new legislation dramatically narrows the gate to Chapter 7 protection, and pushes many debtors into Chapter 13 bankruptcy instead. In Chapter 13, debtors pay off their debt under a stringent schedule, and typically their wages are garnished well into the future.

No one wants to see irresponsible spenders rewarded, of course. If my neighbor buys plasma screen TVs and spends winters on a Caribbean isle, I don?t have much sympathy for his or her credit card woes. No question, financial discipline is in order for those individuals whose consumer appetites outpace their personal assets.

Most people who seek bankruptcy protection, however, are not living at the Ritz. A Harvard study released earlier this year found that nearly half of all Americans who file for bankruptcy do so because they are burdened by excessive medical expenses. Costly illnesses doom even those families with health insurance, according to the study, underscoring that private insurance plans often provide worst-case catastrophic coverage but inadequate security for less severe medical problems. It is ironic - and cruel - that Congress refuses to act to bring medical costs under control but hammers away at those who are the victims of skyrocketing medical bills.

Another large slice of Americans seek bankruptcy after an unexpected job loss or a divorce. Once I began to think of all the people close to me who sought Chapter 7 protection in the past few years, all of them fit into one of the above categories.

So why the deafening silence from politicians, the media, and religious bodies when the bankruptcy laws were being altered in Congress? The lack of forgiveness to debtors is surely as big a moral crisis as we have had to face in public life this year.

Credit card companies are now in line to recover billions of dollars in debtor assets. The new laws do nothing, however, to punish credit card companies that offer cards to people they know to be bad risks. Obviously, the big investments that bank credit companies have put into political campaigns over the past decade have paid off.

*Originally appeared in Sojourners magazine (July 2005)