In addition to losing value over time, bad debts incur interest and fees — often at exorbitant interest rates. In 2002 alone, Cook said, the average consumer paid $1,700 in interest and fees on consumer debt. "You have nothing to show for that" other than the fact that you didn't have to wait to satisfy your desire for the item, he said. He sees people "highly focused on what you would call 'worldly wealth' and just having to have it all."

Utah State University professor Jean Lown agrees.

When word hit the national media that Utahns file for bankruptcy at a higher rate than residents of any other state, she co-authored a study on the problem with colleague Barbara Rowe. It includes "lots of numbers on who has filed but not why," though she has talked with thousands of students in her 20 years of teaching financial management at USU, so she can make some educated guesses.

The most interesting finding in her study, she said, was the "very very high rate of failed Chapter 13 filings" in which debtors agree to a proposed repayment plan. Only about 24 percent of Utahns who file Chapter 13 actually repaid their debts within a five-year period; most of the others sought discharge of debt through Chapter 7, she said.

While there has never been an nationwide study on what percentage of Chapter 13 filings are successfully resolved, regional studies in other areas show a 30 percent to 35 percent completion rate.

The dismal completion rate is combined with the fact that "a very high percentage of people who file (initially) choose Chapter 13" since the bulk of bankruptcy filings in other areas are Chapter 7. "Whether they choose to do that or are encouraged to do so is questionable." Lown said she simply doesn't know if moral obligation or religious affiliation have anything to do with the choice, because such questions were not a part of the study.

But she said it may well be that people who file Chapter 13 and take care of debts that won't be forgiven — such as mortgage payments, taxes, child support or alimony payments — end up filing Chapter 7 later on. They may be asking themselves, "Why should I keep making these payments? People know I've filed and most have written me off. It's not going to haunt me if I get rid of it."

Some question whether debt and bankruptcy are even considered a moral dilemma in 2004.

Yet Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism all offer specific teachings about the stewardship adherents have regarding money and fair dealing. In Utah and throughout the world, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are constantly cautioned by top church leaders to avoid debt. That the state, with its majority LDS population, has the highest personal bankruptcy rate in the nation is not lost on church leadership or observers.