Spokesperson Andy Walton also said Christians have a moral duty to oppose payday lenders, and provide alternatives to people struggling financially, such as debt advice, credit unions and paying the Living Wage.
The comments come as the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced new restrictions on payday lenders like Wonga earlier.
From January 2nd, people who borrow money from payday lenders will never have to pay back more than double what they borrowed.
More specifically, the daily interest which builds up on a payday loan will be capped at 0.8%, and never be allowed to reach a total of 100%.
So if you borrowed £100 over thirty days, you would only have to pay back a maximum of £24 on top of the loan.
Also, if a borrower fails to pay back their loan on time, the maximum default fee a payday lender can charge is £15. This is on top of the interest building up on the loan which the person must repay.
Andrew Walton, from the Centre of Theology and Community, told Premier's News Hour: "That old word for the Old Testament: usury. We think that applies to what the payday lenders are up to - charging excessive interest.
"We think in the Christian tradition that's something we should stand against. So we're very happy that the Financial Conduct Authority's at least made a start on that today.
"We agree that some people won't now be able to get payday loans who would previously have been able to.
"But the answer to someone who's deep in debt and deep in trouble is not to give them more debt - the answer's to give them debt advice and to give them help.
"We do need to be aware that some people do need credit. But it needs to be good credit, it doesn't need to be the sort of credit that payday lenders are offering, which is at the ridiculously - what I would call sinful - interest rates."
The FCA originally proposed the new measures in July, before putting them through a consultation process.
The Chief Executive of the FCA, Martin Wheatley said: "We've understood that the public wants this industry to be cleaner. People are fed up with rates of 5000 and 6000 percent, and some of the abuses in this industry.
"We were given this power only at the end of last year. We've had to do a lot of detailed analysis. We've crunched through about 20 million different individual loans to come up at the right level.
"They've got out of control, genuinely I think they know that. If they're going to be a respectable industry that matures and has a place in regulated society, they've got to comply with a few standards.
"It's a small proportion of the people who won't get loans who would go to loan sharks.
"You do see people change their business model, call themselves something different, subtly migrate to a different area and we just have to constantly review it."