Debating Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University

Since I teach stewardship and a course called Money and Mission of the Church, I often get asked my perspective on Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University program. For the uninitiated, Dave Ramsey is a best selling author, financial guru, and public speaker. His syndicated radio show on financial matters attracts more than 8.5 million listeners each week. Ramsey is also a born-again Christian and markets his curriculum, Financial Peace University, to churches.

FPU is a nine-week course that integrates entertaining videos, class discussions, and small-group activities. The course builds financial literacy, but its primary goal is to help the participants become debt free. As Megan McArdle puts it, Ramsey “has become rich spreading his debt-free gospel.” You might think of him as a debt-free televangelist (more background here).

So, what do I think about FPU? Well, I haven’t taken FPU myself, so I did the next best thing this semester: I required my students to study FPU and debate its merit. Last week in class, we held an Oxford-style debate on this proposition: