The Case in a Nutshell
Allow me to state, then, in the fewest possible words and the simplest possible terms why gambling, from the biblically literate Christian's point of view, is "weighed in the balances and found wanting" (Daniel 5:27).
First is Stewardship Responsibility
Let me phrase it in two different realms of logic, touching first upon the matter of stewardship responsibility:
Everything we have, in reality, belongs to the Lord — and how often we recite that truth with appropriate humility. Whether we buy with it, burn it, bury it or bet with it, our money is not our own.
Does the Christian who frequents casinos, racetracks and back-room poker games take a moment, before each wager to seek divine guidance as to which number, card, horse or dog he and the Lord should bet on? That is not likely. But if he did, his prayer would go
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something like this: "Heavenly Father, you and I brought along only $50 of our money, so please do something about how the cards or the dice turn up or which horse runs fastest. And don't forget, Lord, you get one-tenth if we win."
Our heathen predecessors, obsessed with ideas of the gods, demons and other unseen forces that controlled their environment, and ignorant of the God who at last has revealed Himself, reasoned along those lines. I have a feeling the Lord's response to the gambler's prayer would be "Where do you get that 'we' stuff? It's all mine anyway, to give or to take, to be generous or spare, to use or to destroy. Whatever gave you the superstitious notion I am yours to exploit — like some pagan good luck charm — or that I've reason to make you prosper at the gambling table?"
One Need Met Makes a Difference
When the $50 is gone, will the errant believer give any thought to the hungry mouths that money might have fed, the destitute it might have clothed or what it would have meant to some faithful missionary trying to raise travel expenses back to his field of labor? "Come on!" he pleads in self-defense. "I give to the church already. I don't have any way of knowing who the needy people are, and I couldn't help all of them if I did!" The fact is, we wouldn't have to search very far or very long to find at least one person in need. In this world of tragic physical and spiritual malnutrition, one need met is enough to make a crucial difference.
Yes, gambling distorts our concept and clouds our view of Christian stewardship.
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Gambling Violates the First Commandment
In our second realm of logic, gambling is a subtle but culpable violation of the first commandment: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." What, after all, are Lady Luck and Dame Fortune but substitute figures for God?
That statement, I am well aware, will generate reaction covering a full spectrum of human emotions — all the way from hostility and ridicule at one end to possible enthusiastic accord at the other. Never mind — we can be comfortable with either. We should be neither surprised, disturbed nor offended when believing people disagree. There are well-meaning if undiscerning Christians who consider gambling a harmless recreational diversion and see no moral or spiritual reason to deny themselves or others that pleasure — "as long as we can afford it." From the perspective of the Body of Christ, that point of view is tragically shortsighted.
Every Dollar Has a Significant Potential
For reasons best known to Himself, God remains sovereignly aloof from any dependence upon our coin of the realm. As far as our heavenly Father's personal needs are concerned, it is as if money and other forms of material wealth did not exist. In His wisdom, however, He has made money a primary medium for and proof of human trust and obedience. Because of the ambivalence and fleeting values it creates, money can become the basis for the most crucial tests of our faith. All too often, we fail the test by declaring the money to be our god.
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From the practical point of view, human suffering cannot be assuaged and the world cannot be evangelized without money to provide the materials, to support the work and the workers. Wherever we look, the needs are overwhelming. Yet many believers are involved financially only as a token of their intellectual assent to the authority and integrity of Christ. Every dollar that does become available, therefore, has a significant potential in the worldwide ministry of the gospel. Never in the history of the Church has Christ's work on earth been adequately financed.
Gambling Clouds the Issue of "God"
I am grateful for some believers who do share my concerns, but I have encountered also either cordial amusement or undisguised hostility — at times both — from my suggestion that gambling diverts the Christian's attention from our Creator/Redeemer/Sustainer and makes some other "god" the imagined source of our sustenance. That line of reasoning seems to me so logical that the question in need of an answer is not "Is it true?" but the more cynical "Does it really matter?"
It matters very much. Truth is truth, whether or not it has the support of human reasoning or majority opinion, and whether or not it is understood by its detractors. "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14).
The doctrine we deal with here is elusive precisely because it lies in a uniquely shrouded area of spiritual perception. It has a challenging and painful personal
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application. It stresses the eternal but unwelcome truth that those of us who belong to Christ are people who lay rightful claim to nothing because we were purchased off the slave market of sin. We are not our own. The deed and title to our lives rests in the hands of the One who purchased us with His own vicarious death (see 1 Corinthians 6:19).
The Love of Money: Still the Root of Evil
As a means of exchanging wealth, gambling reverses the biblical value system. It is a strategy for financial gain in defiance of Paul's solemn warning to Timothy: "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows" (1 Timothy 6:10).
"Love" of money implies worship of money and trust in money. The love of money stands as a fierce competitor to the love of God. The believer who clings to his right to "a little recreational gambling" may consider the apostle's words unpalatable or, more ominous yet, irrelevant — but he will also find them tragically prophetic. Paul's epistles to Timothy are part of the reliable and authoritative Word of God. The Lord Jesus told us that we cannot, after all, love God and mammon (Matthew 6:24) — the Aramaic word for "riches" or "personal wealth."
The Irony, Inconsistency and Irrationality
The love of money will inevitably place the gambling Christian with strange and spiritually draining bedfellows.
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The "sleaze factor" is ever present in gaming circles and, in chapter after chapter of this book, we have introduced you to real people and real occurrences, colorfully and convincingly illustrating the irony, inconsistency and irrationality of gambling. It would be difficult to imagine a faithful witness to the saving power of Jesus Christ attempting to share his or her faith over a craps table, roulette wheel or poker pot — or at a bingo party, for that matter.
It is urgent that we Christians learn to be content with what we have and leave the matter of our personal prosperity in the good hands of God.
Gambling, not just incidentally, compromises the divine pronouncement that those who will not work may not eat (see 2 Thessalonians 3:10) — a stern but realistic biblical principle upon which our all-but-forgotten Judeo-Christian work ethic is based.
Imagine Jesus Betting on the Dallas Cowboys
For the courageous few willing to stretch their minds on this point, it would be interesting to imagine Jesus trying His luck at blackjack, betting on the Dallas Cowboys with His bookie, screaming for a lucky seven at the craps table — or even methodically placing His little round chips on the numbers at the church bingo party.
The Christian's Responsibility for Others
Finally, but certainly not least in terms of significance, the Christian who defends his indulgence in wagering must also consider his responsibility in the
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spread of the endemic disease called "compulsive gambling." Let me show you why through the case of Kathy K. (not her real name).
We mention Kathy's case here because she represents a broadening segment of churchgoing Americans on the cutting edge of a lingering controversy. They have helped change what once was perceived as a harmless family activity into an issue Catholic leaders now acknowledge they must "seriously rethink." The issue? Church-sponsored bingo games.
In fact, in Houma, Louisiana, Bishop Warren L. Boudreaux already has ordered parishes in his diocese to phase out their weekly bingo nights and other fundraisers that involve gambling. Using gambling to raise church funds is "unworthy of our God," he told parish priests in a letter forbidding certain games of chance after the end of the year. By mid-1991, even bingo and raffles will be banned entirely in his diocese.
"I am convinced that we will never teach our people the stewardship of money as long as any of these means are used for the purposes of church support," the bishop wrote in his letter announcing the ban. His parishioners are not likely to celebrate the new policy, but in the Catholic hierarchy they have little choice but to comply.1
Now back to Kathy K., whose experience seems to confirm the bishop's statement.
"A Little Personal Problem"
When Kathy K. called me for help in a counseling session "with a little personal problem," she was hesitant and apologetic because "It's kind of embarrassing
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to admit I've gotten myself into such a stupid situation." She was two months behind in her mortgage payments when she came to me for counsel, and the savings-and-loan people were beginning to apply pressure. She knew her husband would take care of the problem if she told him about it, but she couldn't do that because she didn't want him to know how irrationally she had acted. The fact is, he gave her cash to pay the mortgage each month, but she had lost the money gambling.
At a gaming table perhaps? She lived in Las Vegas or Atlantic City — right? Or was she over her head at the games in the back room of her country club? Or maybe it was her bookie, her bridge club or an illegal gambling den where patrons are admitted only after recognition through one of those little peep-holes in the door?
None of the above. Kathy K. lost it all in church. In church? Yes, she was a church bingo addict, a compulsive gambler. She had been losing consistently for six months or more, and the more she lost the more recklessly she bet. She had managed to take care of the mortgage payments for part of that time by juggling other accounts and borrowing money from her mother. But now she was completely over her head, and all because of those "harmless" and altogether legal church bingo parties.
A Purely Recreational Activity — at First
Kathy K.'s fate might have seemed unlikely when the Catholic Church first inaugurated its bingo games. "It was begun years ago as a purely recreational activity in a few of our larger parishes," says Bishop Norbert Dorsey of the South Florida Diocese. "It seemed innocent
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enough in the beginning, and the cost of participation was no more than a night at the movies or many other forms of entertainment. The prospect of winning made it exciting for our people, and the losses as well as the rewards are modest."
I asked him how important parish bingo parties are to his Church as fund-raising strategies.
"Bingo never has been a significant source of income, but it certainly has helped in the upkeep of the fabric of the Church," Bishop Dorsey responded. "There's always the burden of the Catholic school system, and there are other costs that often go a bit beyond income from contributions.
"Our people — particularly some of the older ones — always responded well to bingo, probably because the excitement of taking a chance on something is part of our nature. Bingo is a simple game that is easily learned, and it proved a good 'family night' activity that helped bring our people together in social situations." Though Catholic clergymen do not stress the fact, bingo also involves a substantial number of non-Catholics in the financial support of that Church.
"Excess" Rears Its Ugly Head
Bishop Dorsey acknowledges, however, that bingo now has gone beyond a simple family affair in too many cases. The ugly word, "excess," has reared its unlovely head. In larger metropolitan areas, Catholics and non-Catholics alike go from parish to parish several nights of the week, motivated primarily by gambling fever and the greed that is its unvarying symptom. "People have misused the activity, and for some, yes, bingo has become
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just another form of gambling," Bishop Dorsey says.2
That creates problems of consistency for their Church because many of its clergy are alarmed by the emerging of more serious forms of gambling as a "national pastime" in America and have taken a stand against it. Catholic leaders generally align themselves for ethical as well as religious reasons with anticasino, antilottery and other movements to restrict gambling.
This dichotomy has confused the average parishioner. He has experienced difficulty in accepting the strange reasoning that makes a church bingo parlor perfectly licit, socially correct and religiously acceptable while, at the same time, a casino or bolita running is illegal, unethical or sinful. It is far from clear by what criteria one form of gambling — enjoying the sanctuary of a church — can be declared legal while another — separate from any church building — is a violation of the law.
Meanwhile, with increasing frequency, pastoral counselors witness the devastation of compulsive gambling on people like Kathy K. The trend now is toward dealing with that troublesome inconsistency.
Can "the Church" Provide an Alternative?
"The Church now is calling upon all its people to rethink the role and the purpose of bingo as a recreational and fund-raising activity," Bishop Dorsey says. One difficulty Louisiana's Bishop Boudreaux may face is that no one is sure the church can provide an alternative in the area of recreation and excitement. "Stopping our bingo games is going to mean depriving some of our older people — and even younger families — of a harmless recreational activity," Bishop Dorsey explains. "We must
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find something that will take the place of that in their lives."3
Respectfully and in all sincerity, I have some suggestions. They spring from the promise of Romans 8:32: "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" "All things" surely include the ability to program those tedious hours. We can fill them with excitement and challenges unique to those whose lives yield to the claims and depend upon the promises of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, is it the mission of the church to entertain people? or to guide and encourage them in their walks with Christ?
We can increase biblical literacy, broaden our knowledge of God and the needs of His world, resolve our debilitating problems of human relationships, encourage individual steps of faith, nurture personal spiritual growth and involve believers in evangelism, missions and the building of the Kingdom of God. If those suggestions seem invalid to some bingo devotees, then perhaps they would find themselves lonely and bored in heaven itself, should they arrive there one day.
I Rest My Case
On that note, I am happy to rest my case. For the Christian, the discipline of choices never ceases. Paul's prayer for His young Macedonian converts — and the Holy Spirit's prayer for us — is that we might possess "a love that is full of knowledge and every wise insight . . . to be able always to recognize the highest and the best, and to live sincere and blameless lives until the day of Christ" (Philippians 1:9-10, Phillips). That admonition reminds us that the choice for a Christian seldom is merely between right and wrong. The subtle challenge in decision
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making for the believer lies in choosing between what seems all right on the one hand and what is better on the other.
No doubt you aspire to the delights and the fruit of that spiritual plateau Paul described — recognizing "the highest and the best." If you think you can do it with one foot in the Promised Land and the other knee bowed in supplication to the Goddess of Chance, I would offer one final word of admittedly unsolicited advice:
Don't bet on it, dear brother or sister — just don't bet on it!
Points to Ponder
1. Do you feel a Christian's stewardship responsibility extends to the "extra" money he might use to make a wager? In view of the spiritual and material needs of the world, is there really any such thing as money we can "spare"? What Bible verse would you quote to prove everything we have belongs, in reality, to God?
2. What does the author mean when he refers to "spiritual malnutrition"? Is that a condition that afflicts only the unchurched in our world? Is it possible for people who hold proper Bible-believing credentials and speak the evangelical language convincingly to be spiritually undernourished as well? On a scale that progresses upwards from 1 to 10, how would you classify your own spiritual diet?
3. What is your response to the suggestion that gambling clouds the issue of God — who He is, what He wants from us,
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what He does for us and what He has in mind for us? Would you support or reject the suggestion that gambling diverts attention from our Creator/Redeemer/Sustainer and makes some other "god" the source of our sustenance?
4. In 1 Timothy 6:10, the "root of all evil" is identified as "the love of money." In what way have you personally found that statement to be prophetic? Obviously, the Christian must live like everyone else as a participant in our monetary system. But is it possible for a believer — even a rich believer — to have a different attitude toward money than unbelievers?
5. The author refers to "the irony, inconsistency and irrationality" of gambling. Do you know of a gambling activity where those descriptive words would not apply? Do you feel you could be an effective witness to Christ's redeeming work in your life if you were part of the crowd around a craps table or a roulette wheel?
Notes
1. Miami Herald, September 25, 1986, sect. 1, p.5.
2. Bishop Norbert Dorsey, Diocese of South Florida, in personal interview with author, September 13, 1986. Quoted with permission.
3. Ibid.