Americans awash in holiday bills could be forgiven for thinking they have a spending problem. But increasingly, those drowning in debt are seeing their plight as a moral one - a spiritual failing demanding personal reform on a higher level.

That's why more and more are turning to spiritual advisers - specifically, faith-based financial counselors who teach spiritual principles for money management - to help them change their ways.

The demand for such services is skyrocketing. In 2004, more than 41,000 families went to church for a 13-week money management seminar called Financial Peace University, up from about 28,000 in 2003. Crown Financial Ministries - which runs its own 12-week church-based seminar urging participants to apply religious convictions to financial decisions - worked with 900,000 Americans in 2003 and 1.1 million in 2004; it projects a 25 percent increase in the US in 2005.

Worldwide, about 8 million have participated in Crown Financial seminars.

January marks peak season for faith-based financial counselors, who typically face a surge of repentant spenders at the start of the new year. Crown Financial, for example, expects 350,000 participants in its January seminars in the US - one quarter of the year's projected business. Other financial ministries say a 20 percent boost in demand at the start of the year is normal.

In such seminars - along with books and one-on-one counseling - consumers with credit woes learn to think of debt as a barrier keeping them from a right relationship with God and neighbor.

Many of today's popular financial ministries are Christian. "Within the church, people are looking to know God's plan for their money," says Beth Tallent, spokeswoman for Financial Peace University, a program linked to syndicated Christian radio personality Dave Ramsey. "At no point did He say debt is sin, but He didn't have anything good to say about it."

But spiritual traditions across the board tend to agree that living a moral life means keeping debt to a minimum.

Most also concur that borrowing to meet a basic need is no cause for repentance. In fact, some traditions make a point of lifting the stigma from debtors. But most also suggest that unnecessary debt can compromise moral values and may be a sign of priorities already out of whack.

In Judaism, for instance, the Talmud says a man is judged by the way he manages his "kiso, koso & ka'aso" - that is, his wallet, his cup (alcohol), and his anger. And since the Torah requires Jews to make provisions for the less fortunate, hefty interest payments on credit cards could interfere with that moral duty, according to Rabbi Perry Raphael Rank, president of the Rabbinical Assembly for rabbis of Conservative Judaism.

"This is a modern phenomenon - going into debt not because of need but because of desire," says Mr. Rank. "Whether [a man] has managed his resources to help others is the basis for judgment. That would come way before spending on yourself."

Islam, which prohibits charging of interest on loans, sees an even more primary moral problem with debt. Credit cards are permissible for Muslims only if the user pays off the entire balance before finance charges begin, according to Sheikh Yassir Fazaga, an imam and leader of workshops on Islamic finances at the Orange County Islamic Foundation in Mission Viejo, Calif. To go further, in his view, is a failure of self-discipline that's apt to manifest itself again as weakness when moral backbone is required.

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