{"id":7222,"date":"2016-05-02T15:36:04","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T19:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/?p=7222"},"modified":"2017-02-27T13:22:20","modified_gmt":"2017-02-27T17:22:20","slug":"dialogue-on-church-sponsored-gambling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2016\/05\/dialogue-on-church-sponsored-gambling.html","title":{"rendered":"Dialogue on Church-Sponsored Gambling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>
\u201cOur Lady of Perpetual Bingo\u201d?<\/strong><\/div>\n
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\"Bingo2\"<\/div>\n
Classic Bingo game; photograph by Edwin Torres, 1-10-12<\/span> [Wikimedia Commons <\/a>\/\u00a0 Creative Commons<\/a> Attribution 2.0 Generic<\/a> license]<\/div>\n
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(11-5-09)<\/span><\/div>\n
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*****<\/span><\/p>\n

This comes from an exchange with a woman on the Coming Home Network board who is a Protestant strongly considering returning to the Catholic Church, but who struggles with a few issues, such as this one. It was very thought-provoking and stimulating to me, and I seem to have convinced her, at least in part. Her words will be in<\/span> blue<\/span>.<\/p>\n

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My fellow moderator on the board, David W. Emery, presented the Church\u2019s basic teaching:<\/span><\/p>\n

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church:<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n2290<\/b> The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess:<\/i> the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others\u2019 safety on the road, at sea, or in the air.<\/span>\n

2291<\/b> The use of drugs<\/i> inflicts very grave damage on human health and life. Their use, except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offense. Clandestine production of and trafficking in drugs are scandalous practices. They constitute direct co-operation in evil, since they encourage people to practices gravely contrary to the moral law.<\/span><\/p>\n

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2413<\/b> Games of chance<\/i> (card games, etc.) or wagers<\/i> are not in themselves contrary to justice. They become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others. The passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement. Unfair wagers and cheating at games constitute grave matter, unless the damage inflicted is so slight that the one who suffers it cannot reasonably consider it significant.<\/span><\/p><\/td>\n

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With these things in mind, one can point out that it has been medically proved that small amounts of alcohol, especially wine, can be beneficial to human health and certain drugs can be used to advantage in medically alleviating severe pain or other serious reactions of the human body. As scripture states: \u201cBecause God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. For he fashioned all things that they might have being; and the creatures of the world are wholesome, And there is not a destructive drug among them nor any domain of the nether world on earth, For justice is undying.\u201d (Wisdom 1:13\u201315 NAB) In other words, there is use and there is abuse.<\/span><\/p>\n

It falls, therefore, to the virtue of temperance, as the Catechism states above, to provide the proper insight and strength of character to resist excess and impropriety. Many times we see a lack of this virtue in church-sponsored gatherings.<\/span><\/p>\n

For those who are not familiar with the classical enumeration of the Cardinal Virtues (as they are called), they are as follows (again from the Catechism):<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\n1805<\/b> Four virtues play a pivotal role and accordingly are called \u201ccardinal\u201d; all the others are grouped around them. They are: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. \u201cIf anyone loves righteousness, [Wisdom\u2019s] labors are virtues; for she teaches temperance and prudence, justice, and courage.\u201d These virtues are praised under other names in many passages of Scripture.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

The following paragraphs of the<\/span> Catechism (1806\u20131807)<\/a><\/b> explain the meaning of these terms.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How does the church justify selling beer and offering drinks at their church picnics, or gatherings, or gambling night , like Monte Carlo night, KNOWING there will be people there, who have a major issue with this sort of thing: addiction. Then will place them in sin. <\/span><\/p>\n

The problem here is that excess and corruption are always<\/i> problems. We can\u2019t just eliminate things if there is the slightest chance that they may be abused and used excessively. People make their own choices of whether to do that and to sin. The source can\u2019t be blamed, because oftentimes it is morally neutral itself.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had a similar discussion recently on my blog about crucifixes (having cited Calvinist Charles Spurgeon\u2019s opposition to them). A certain legalistic (usually Calvinist) strain of thought holds that a crucifix is always an idol, or else that it is so likely to occur that we ought to get rid of all of them, so as to avoid anyone turning them into idols.<\/span><\/p>\n

That was the Protestant solution when it began: wherever anything had the slightest chance of being corrupted, we should get rid of it. Throw the baby out with the bathwater, in other words . . . And so I wrote in that thread, replying to my Protestant friend:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n