Gambling and the Local Church
She walked to the door of the church building in her mini-skirt and knocked on the glass. Shortly, the church secretary answered the door. The woman in the min-skirt asked, "Is this Sam's Town?" (Sam's Town is a popular casino and gambling hall located in Las Vegas, Nevada. More recently Sam's Town has opened a casino in Tunica, MS, approximately 35 miles south of Memphis, TN.). The woman had been told that Sam's Town Employment Training Center was located in our building. When our secretary told her that she was in the wrong place, the woman seemed astonished.
As it turns out, the training center the woman was looking for was just across the street from our back parking lot. In fact, we were soon inundated with employees from Sam's Town parking their vehicles on our lot while they were being trained or tested. The elders agreed that our parking lot had not been built for the purpose of enabling casino employees to have a place to park while they learned the craft of bilking people out of their money. We expressed our displeasure to Sam's Town and requested that their employees not park on our lot. When the problem persisted even after our request, I personally visited the training center to inform the manager that we would have no choice but to begin towing vehicles if the problem continued. I told him that this was not a personal matter but that we had a serious difference about gambling and its effect on the community. His reply to me spoke volumes! The manager looked at me and said, "I understand. Gambling and the church just don't mix." How true that is! If only I could get some of my brethren to recognize this truth.
Not long ago Tunica county approved a measure to introduce casino gambling and has since surpassed Atlantic City in having the second largest number of casinos per square foot in the United States of America. At the time of this writing nearly a dozen casinos are operating only 30 minutes away from our church building. Many other casinos are presently being built or planned. Furthermore, even though there are no actual casinos in DeSoto County, we have been overrun with training centers for these casinos. I can think of at least six of these training centers within two or three miles of the church building. Thus, the influence and presence of gambling is very much evident in our county.
But what effect has gambling had on the local church in our county? I assure you that the problems are far more significant and far-reaching than just the presence of unwanted vehicles on our parking lot. The tragic truth of the matter is that casino gambling has already begun to siphon the spirituality out of the hearts of some of the brethren in this area. Apostasy has already occurred! Souls have already been lost that were once saved! Marriages have already begun to disintegrate that were once strong! But, someone may say, "How can gambling be responsible for these blemishes?" Please read on.
GAMBLING PRECIPITATES CARNALITY AND COVETOUSNESS
It is the will of God that His church be "a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:27). God desires that His children be set apart from the conduct of the world. The church is to be holy! Our focus is to be spiritual and not fleshly. The apostle Paul indicted the Corinthians for their carnal conduct (1 Corinthians 3:1-4). The Greek word for "carnal" is the word "sarkikos." Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words say the word signifies that which is "sensual, controlled by animal appetites." The carnally minded are those who focus upon the things of the flesh to the exclusion of minding the things of the Spirit, or they attempt to mix fleshly things with the spiritual (2 Corinthians 6:14-18).
Gambling encourages us to become obsessed in our appetite for money and material wealth. While it is true that money, in and of itself, is not carnal, there are some who have a carnal desire for money. Paul said, "godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and rainment let us therewith be content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 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. But thou, o man of God, flee these things" (1 Timothy 6:7-11a). Gambling does not encourage contentment. Even the winners are not satisfied with their winnings. More often than not, they gamble their winnings away in an attempt to win more.
Paul says that those who will ("desire to be" NKJV) rich fall into temptation and a snare. A couple of years ago I studied with a young lady and baptized her into Christ. Up until recently she had been very faithful. But then she was laid off from her job. Her personnel director at work gave her name to one of the local casinos and suggested that they should contact her. Suddenly, this Christian sister began missing services on a regular basis. When I contacted her and expressed my concern, I sensed that something deeper was wrong. She informed me that she was considering a job offer from one of the local casinos. For over an hour and a half I attempted to persuade her against accepting the job. I explained to her that we were to "have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them" (Ephesians 5:11). I reminded her that we are not to be partakers in other men's sins (1 Timothy 5:22). I talked with her about influence and atmosphere. She listened but kept saying, "But this is more money than I've ever made before. After all, I've got to pay the bills." I told her that the elders would rather help her pay her bills instead of her going to work for a casino. It was to no avail. She couldn't see the truth of what I was saying because of the dollar signs in her eyes. Her desire to be rich ensnared her. Because of her love of money, which she coveted after, she erred from the faith (1 Timothy 6:10). She will now no longer answer the door or my phone calls.
Jesus spoke of some who hear the word, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection (Luke 8:15). It is sad, but true, that more than one child of God in this congregation and country has become choked with cares and riches via gambling, and as a result, has strayed from the faith. The influence of gambling promotes laying up treasures upon the earth rather than laying them up in heaven (Matthew 6:19-20). In this same context, Jesus warned that we cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24). The word "mammon" was a common Aramaic word for riches. Satan seeks to convince us that we can serve both God and riches. One of the means by which Satan tries to obsess us with the acquisition of riches is casino gambling. Satan wants us to buy into the philosophy which says, "You only go around once in life; go for the gusto. Get all you can while you can!" Satan wants us to forget Paul's admonition, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:1-2). It is not accidental that setting our affection on things above is coupled with putting covetousness to death in our lives (Colossians 3:5). It is not accidental that Peter joins our being strangers and pilgrims upon the earth with abstaining from fleshly lusts upon the earth (1 Peter 2:11). It is disconcerting to discover just how many people of God in this area are being enticed by the glitter and glamour of gambling. Every few weeks I will hear of some brother or sister who has visited the local casino and tried their hand at the slot machine or blackjack table. Oh, that I could convince all my brethren that gambling "is not of the Father, but of the world" (1 John 2:16). It is not spiritual, but carnal. To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace (Romans 8:6). Gambling takes much more than it gives, but even that which it gives "passeth away and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever" (1 John 2:17). The casinos and the cash within them will someday melt with fervent heat and be burned up (2 Peter 3:10). "Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?" (2 Peter 3:11). Unfortunately, the casinos have convinced some of my brethren to sell their souls for the economic security of a job or the pipe-dream of acquiring massive amounts of that which won't last anyway!
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
The church must recognize that a battle for the mind is underway! Satan wants our minds to focus on the carnal. Christ wants our minds to focus on things above. Gambling is just one of many tools utilized by Satan to accomplish his purposes. Thus, the church must aggressively educate the members concerning the spiritual and financial risks associated with the glitter of gambling. Gambling is like a whited sepulcher; it looks good from the outside but is really full of corruption. Sermons need to be preached and classes need to be taught for the express purpose of identifying the sinfulness and danger of gambling. Extensive preaching should be done to demonstrate the fleeting nature of riches and the eternal nature of the soul.
The elders here at Southaven church of Christ are extremely interested in guarding the flock from the enticements of casino gambling. They are sending a personal letter to each family in the congregation warning of gambling and its dangers. In addition, they are enclosing within each envelope a copy of the tract, "Gambling: National Pastime to Prosperity or Sure Bet to Poverty and Perdition," by Garland Elkins and Robert R. Taylor, Jr. They have also asked me to preach on the subject. Thus, each family will have been educated and warned, both from the elders by personal letter and tract, and by the preacher from the pulpit.
CONCLUSION
Gambling impacts the local church by calling brethren away from the spiritual to the carnal. It precipitates covetousness and setting our affection on things on the earth instead of in heaven. Since the casinos have only been open here in North Mississippi since 1992, we have only seen the tip of the iceberg concerning the problems gambling will cause both in the church and in the community. I predict that it will not be long before an eldership in this county has to set down and confront a member whose wife and children are suffering and needy due to a gambling addiction. It may have already happened.
The battle is on! Let us fight the evil influence of gambling by teaching extensively concerning stewardship and the temporal nature of earthly possessions. Let us emphasize and ask, "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" (Matthew 16:26).
By: B. J. Clarke