Faith Leaders Have a Lack of Faith By Laurence M. Vance!
(2024-02-22 at 00:20:04 )

Faith Leaders Have a Lack of Faith By Laurence M. Vance!

The Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers were not the only winners and losers on Super Bowl Sunday. According to online gaming industry news site Legal Sports Report, Americans were expected to bet $1.3 billion on the Super Bowl.

Thanks to a Supreme Court ruling in 2018 that struck down a federal law prohibiting sports gambling in most states, betting on sports is now legal in thirty-eight states. The states where sports betting remains illegal are Alabama, Alaska, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Minnesota, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Utah. Some "faith leaders" want to keep it that way.

Greg Davis is a Baptist pastor and president of the Alabama Citizens Action Program. He opposes "any changes to the states constitution, which bans lotteries and most forms of gambling," although "he knows that people bet informally on sports in Alabama." He considers sports gambling to be both "harmful and addictive" and "a threat to the integrity of sports."

Laura Everett is executive director of the Massachusetts Council of Churches. She said that "faith leaders who raise questions about the downsides of legalized gambling can feel like they are facing overwhelming odds." She is concerned that "sports leagues have become too cozy with the gambling industry." She believes that "faith groups that do not agree on all kinds of other issues can find common ground in raising concerns about the ubiquity of sports gambling."

John Litzler is director of public policy of the Christian Life Commission for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. He maintains that "those with gambling addictions often show up at the door of churches or other faith groups when their lives fall apart." When he talks to churches or legislators about gambling, he "stresses the potential for harm, especially in the use of betting apps."

Now, as a theologically conservative religious person who also happens to be a libertarian, I would be among the first to say that gambling is an immoral, sinful, wasteful vice with terrible odds that can be addictive and financially ruinous.

But as theologically conservative religious person who also happens to be a libertarian, I would also be among the first to say that religious people should not support laws prohibiting or restricting gambling, that it is not a legitimate purpose of government at any level to prohibit or restrict gambling, and that there is no warrant in the Bible for religious people to use the force of government to prohibit or restrict people from gambling.

Faith leaders have a lack of faith.

They have a lack of faith in the ability of the Bible, the Gospel, and their religion to convince people of the moral, spiritual, and financial dangers of gambling.

It is unfortunate that many religious people look to the government to enforce their moral code and do what they are not able to accomplish by prayer and persuasion.

Former congressman Ron Paul has well said: "Those with moral objections to gambling have the right to try to persuade their fellow citizens to not gamble. What they do not have the right to do is use government force to stop people from engaging in activities, like gambling, that do not involve force or fraud."

Reprinted here with the permission of Mr. Laurence M. Vance and the Future of Freedom Foundation!! Please visit "Mr. Vances blog" at Lewrockwell.com and please visit his website "Vance Publications"!!