I wish I'd have posted this sooner. Maybe it's not too late. Tomorrow Issue 6 proposes to bring casino gambling to Ohio. I hope you vote no. Who cares whether there are loopholes that will allow the casino to be tax free or not. I'd vote no if the casino promised me a hundred bucks a day for life. It's a destructive industry.
And that's not just coming from a typical Baptist preacher who thinks gambling is sin (which I am and do, by the way). It's also coming from someone who has lived in the neon glow of one of the larger gaming industries in the United States, and seen first-hand the devastation that gambling brings to communities. Most of all it's coming, I hope, from a pastor who wants to see people enter into the kingdom of Christ and who knows that "those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction" (1 Timothy 6.9).
The gospel of God's Son can and does triumph in degraded cultures. It's designed to, in fact. But the Bible also makes it clear that cultural sins like gambling lead people away from Jesus and destroy their lives, plain and simple. If we can keep it out, we should. So vote tomorrow ... and vote wisely.
And that's not just coming from a typical Baptist preacher who thinks gambling is sin (which I am and do, by the way). It's also coming from someone who has lived in the neon glow of one of the larger gaming industries in the United States, and seen first-hand the devastation that gambling brings to communities. Most of all it's coming, I hope, from a pastor who wants to see people enter into the kingdom of Christ and who knows that "those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction" (1 Timothy 6.9).
The gospel of God's Son can and does triumph in degraded cultures. It's designed to, in fact. But the Bible also makes it clear that cultural sins like gambling lead people away from Jesus and destroy their lives, plain and simple. If we can keep it out, we should. So vote tomorrow ... and vote wisely.
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