Child of Avarice?

I'll flip you for it," may not have been the first sentence Adam uttered to Eve, but the instinct to bet on something, to gamble on the outcome when it could go either way, has been imbedded deep in the human psyche for a long, long time.

   I'll lay heavy odds on that!

   It may be profitable to ask ourselves, however, to what extent that human psyche can excuse personal indulgences that contain the seeds of our own destruction.

   When and where did it all begin? Probably immediately after the Fall, but no one can prove that. Archaeologists have dug up six-sided, dicelike ankle bones of ancient sheep, however, apparently used for gaming at least five millennia ago. With these unusual bones, primitive people probably gambled away long evenings when inclement weather confined them to the family cave. Quite seriously, this historical bit of trivia probably explains the curious synonym, "bones," used today for dice.

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   Ancient Brahman hymns indicate that great herds of cattle, in what is now India, were won or lost 1,500 years before Christ on the outcome of chariot races. And from all indications, the casting of lots — from which we get our word "lottery" — was part of the tribal life in Asia long before those scattered segments of Mongolian humanity were brought together and given the common designation of "Chinese."

   Luck, by the way, has not always been seen as the ruling force when matters were decided by the casting or drawing of lots. Solomon insisted the hand of God was involved. "The lot is cast into the lap; the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord," he wrote in Proverbs 16:33.

"Lotteries" in the Old Testament Narrative

   Scripture provides numerous examples of decisions taken by the casting of lots. In times of national crisis, lot casting was a common occurrence for Israel. Jewish leaders cast lots in Numbers 33:54 to decide which territory each tribe would occupy after the conquest of Canaan. In Joshua 14:2 and 15:1, Moses' successor resorted to the casting of lots in the process of land distribution.

   In the account of Achan's swift trial and prompt execution in Joshua 7:14-18, the leaders determined by lot which tribe, then which family, then which household, then which unhappy individual was guilty in the case of the purloined and hidden "accursed thing." The expressions, "which the Lord taketh" and "which the Lord shall take," refer to the casting of lots which quickly identified Achan as the guilty party, and the offending Israelite was

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stoned and burned along with all his ill-gotten treasures.¹

   After King Saul died, and the full responsibility for leading Israel fell upon David, the "man after God's own heart" (see Acts 13:22) asked the Lord for specific directions in those crucial moments of decision. In 2 Samuel 2:1, "David enquired of the Lord" through the casting of lots and determined thereby that he was to go to Hebron and assume command of the nation.²

   Consider, also, the important part lot casting played in the life — and near undoing — of Jonah. On his journey to Tarshish by sailboat to avoid an unpalatable assignment in Nineveh, the rebel prophet is found sleeping peacefully in the hold of the vessel. Up on deck, the crewmembers cast lots to determine on whom to pin the blame for a storm that threatened to send all of them to their doom. Sure enough, "the lot fell upon Jonah," (Jonah 1:7). The rebellious ambassador was thrown overboard, the storm subsided, and the rest of the story involving the great fish is a matter of biblical record.

A New Testament Example

   The New Testament also contains evidence that in ancient times the purpose of ascertaining the will of God, and not the pursuit of mere chance, was the controlling factor when God's people resorted to the casting of lots to resolve some knotty issue.

   Soon after Jesus' ascension into heaven, the 11 disciples who remained after Judas's defection and death gathered in an upper room to select the betrayer's replacement. As they saw it, their choice was between

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two faithful followers of Jesus: Barsabas and Matthias. The Eleven dutifully prayed, then "gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles" (Acts 1:26). It's difficult to infer the propriety of lot casting to determine a replacement for Judas. Consider the fact that Matthias is never heard from again in the balance of the New Testament. Many scholars feel that the Apostle Paul was the true replacement, chosen by Jesus Himself along the road to Damascus (Acts 9).

   These examples of lot casting from Scripture are not, of course, to be construed as gambling; rather, the casting of lots was a means of seeking God's direction concerning a decision that had to be made. In other words, it was part of a decision-making process.

   Gambling as we know it today, addresses more elusive issues of the human spirit. One dictionary defines gambling as "wagering money or other consideration of value on an uncertain event, which is dependent either wholly on chance, or partly on chance and partly on skill." The common denominators are (1) chance and (2) the wagering of something of value. It is the element of chance and the risking of assets that provide suspense and excitement for modern participants in gambling.

How Man Perceives His Environment

   Anthropologists note that primitive man's apparent preoccupation with chance probably springs from the way he once perceived his environment — and for some, the perception may not have changed. Artifacts that preserve for us a glimpse of those ancient mindsets hint that the earliest occupants of our planet saw the world as a mysterious arena controlled by gods, demons, monsters, ancestral spirits and other supernatural beings.

   Having no knowledge of God, they lived by superstitions, and those superstitions told them that the favor or

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disfavor of the awesome forces deciding their fate was made known through the unfolding circumstances of life, often through the outcome of chance situations. The revelation might come in a hunt to provide food for survival, in a fight-to-the-death battle with an enemy tribe or in the reckless toss of a sheep's ankle bone for possession of a desirable cave girl or the skin of a mountain goat. Whatever the circumstances, it was assumed that chance was something or somebody out there in the unseen world who either liked or disliked you and who controlled your destiny according to his/her/its whim.

   Games of chance doubtless are more formal and better defined these days, but the ancient belief that a lucky gambler is favored by the gods — or by somebody — still persists. In the world of gamblers, superstition still is alive and well.

Gambling Defies the Work Ethic

   The upper classes of ancient times tended to associate gambling with profligacy and licentiousness, probably because gambling was thought of then, as in some circles today, as a source of easy money that bypasses the disciplines of professional skill and honest labor. That is in obvious conflict with what we call the "work ethic," still deeply imbedded in most modern cultures. Easy money is commonly regarded as tainted money. During the Middle Ages, rabbis in European Jewish communities forbade all games of chance; Confucius made gambling prominent on a somber list of human weaknesses; Muhammed included gambling among the pleasures forbidden in the Koran.

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   History books tell us, however, that gambling was exploited as an important source of government revenue during the Middle Ages. The city of Florence tried a lottery in 1530; Queen Elizabeth I introduced her English subjects to this novel way of funding government in 1569.

   In 1612, the year after the King James Version of the Bible was published, James I also authorized a national lottery to raise money for an impoverished Jamestown Colony in the New World, though there is some doubt that the colonists ever saw their share of the loot. The colony and its brave settlers vanished before the funds had time to reach them.

Lotteries Built Churches and Schools

   In our earliest national history, colonial legislatures authorized frequent lotteries to raise public revenue before the end of the seventeenth century. Streets were paved, ports were constructed and, yes, churches were erected throughout the American colonies — all paid for or subsidized by lottery profits.

   Yale College in 1750 and Harvard College in 1772 raised money for campus construction through public lotteries. In 1776, the Continental Congress vainly attempted to raise funds for the Revolutionary Army by holding lotteries.

   George Washington spoke out against wagering — declaring eloquently "Gambling is the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity, and the father of mischief."³ He also left in his diary a detailed account of his winnings and losses at the card table.

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The Uncertain and Unconvincing Voice of the Church

   In spite of a strong Calvinistic influence during our nation's early years, the voice of the Church on the subject of gambling was uncertain and unconvincing. Cotton Mather, the colonial Congregationalist minister, was one of the few clergymen who left a legacy of sermons condemning gambling. For the record, he also supported the Salem witchcraft trials.

   Later, Francis Scott Key introduced a resolution in the 1817 General Convention of the American Episcopal Church, deploring the practice of gambling among believers. The composer of our National Anthem characterized the vice as "inconsistent with Christian sobriety, dangerous to the morals of the members of the church, and peculiarly unbecoming to the character of communicants." His resolution, however, was defeated. Deciding such a declaration was not in order "in view of the realities of life," the Episcopal House of Deputies voted it down.

   As the Deputies doubtless observed, the Bible is silent where wagering is concerned. The Word of God contains nothing related specifically to gambling. It does, however, denounce greed, slothfulness and worldliness. "The practice of gambling," an anonymous divine wrote more than a century ago, "does not square with the Biblical view of God and the Christian's responsibility to exercise good stewardship." Dr. Preson Phillips of Tennessee Temple University commented more recently, "If God didn't get our attention with His laws about stealing and coveting, He probably felt any reference to gambling would be ignored as well."⁴

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   Churchgoers, however, are curiously unresponsive to that kind of spiritual reasoning. Pollsters tell us when they survey 10 Roman Catholics, eight of them classify themselves as gamblers. That makes Catholics unchallenged leaders in an ecclesiastical hierarchy of gaming enthusiasts. Not far behind, however are the Jews. Gambling participation among synagogue members is pegged at 77 percent. Presbyterians and Episcopalians are neck-and-neck at 74 percent, with a comfortable lead over the 63 percent of Methodists who admit to gambling tendencies.

   Only 43 percent of Baptists surveyed say they gamble, while 33 percent of the members of nondenominational groups, including the traditionally conservative Bible Churches, admit they do a little betting now and then. That figure sounds low when compared to the denominations, but it means that one out of every three conservative Christians may have no scruples against gambling!

The Nation Turns Away from Gambling — for a While

Throughout the nineteenth century, the trend in America was away from gambling. State after state enacted legislation declaring the vice illegal. Louisiana took the nation's final fling until recently with a lottery in 1894, but the venture ended in financial fiasco and rumors of rampant corruption.

   When department store mogul and YMCA executive John Wanamaker was Postmaster General under President Benjamin Harrison in 1890, he barred from the U.S. mails "all letters, postcards, circulars, lists of drawings,

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tickets and other materials referring to lotteries." For the next half century, that official attitude prevailed.

   After World War II, however, the pendulum began to swing the other way, and the public perception of gambling moved again in the direction of the permissive. Churches and charitable organizations turned more seriously to bingo and raffles to raise building and operating funds. Since then, more than 40 states have legalized gambling in one form or another.

   As this book goes to press, 22 states, plus the District of Columbia, operate legal lottery programs and others are seriously considering legislation, referendum or initiative proposals enabling them to get in on that financial windfall. [Webmaster's note: As of 2009, 42 states have lotteries] It is intriguing, however, that the lottery is found to be licit only when it is operated for the benefit of the state. For any other entrepreneur, gambling still is unlawful. Happy for a new source of revenue — and loathe to propose new taxes — legislators across a broadened spectrum are grappling with the question: If people are going to do it anyway, in spite of illegality and the recognized illogic, why not make it legal at least for us and give the state its share of the profits to help solve those budget problems?

Ambivalence in Christians' Perception of Gambling

   The chief reason for any citizen's participation in gambling probably is nothing more noble or complicated than greed. There is always the exciting possibility of winning — in fact, of winning handsomely — and most Americans could use an extra dollar now and then. But winning tells only half the story. Losing also is a distinct

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possibility, and few Americans can handle consistent losses. Yet winners inevitably are outnumbered by losers. In most gambling enterprises, the odds are tilted against the participant and very much in favor of the house or the sponsoring agency. Bucking those odds is not calculated to produce long-term winners.

   Unlike other business enterprises, the gambling industry is a nonproducer. It offers neither tangible product nor useful service to its clients and customers. What it does offer is primarily entertainment and recreation in terms of action, excitement, suspense, the possibility of winning and the probability of losing. It brings about a transfer of wealth based not on professional skill, merit, enterprise or other qualities consistent with our work ethic but instead on mere chance and, all too often, on subterfuge.

   The public obsession with gambling today raises serious moral and ethical questions for Christians, whatever process of rationalization they may be tempted to follow. Why then, do Christians experience such a strange ambivalence where wagering is concerned? We say, for instance, "After all, we already have betting on horse races, and some people even have bingo in church, don't they?"

   Historically, gambling has been included on almost everyone's list of vices, along with prostitution, drug abuse and pornography. So we need to ask: Is a vice different from other forms of crime? A curious aspect of human reasoning is uncovered as we seek next the sobering answer to that question.

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Points to Ponder

1. Why do you suppose Solomon and the other writers of Scripture record that the will of God could be determined by the casting of lots? Would you attempt to determine God's will for your life by drawing straws, flipping a coin or some similar means of securing divine guidance?

2. How does the casting of lots as a means of making decisions or choices differ from what we think of today as gambling?

3. According to ancient superstitions, good or bad luck was determined by how ruling gods, demons or other supernatural powers felt about a person. Do you see any resemblance between that mindset and a gambler trying to make his point by throwing the dice while pleading aloud for his numbers to turn up?

4. Do the biblical proscriptions against greed, slothfulness and thievery have any application to the placing of wagers by Christians? Why do you suppose God did not come right out and condemn gambling in some Bible passage?

5. Historically, gambling has been included in most lists of human indulgences to be shunned by responsible citizens. Why do you feel gambling traditionally is classified along with prostitution, pornography and drug abuse as a vice?

Notes

1. "The Lord takes by the casting of lots." The Oxford Annotated Bible, Revised Standard Version (New York: Oxford University Press, 1962), pp. 270-271, annotation. "The casting of lots was founded on the belief that God would so direct the result as to indicate His will .... It was employed to discover the wrongdoer in the case of Achan." See James Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1937), p. 567. Other commentators express similar interpretations of the Achan account.

2. "Most scholars consider that the phrase 'enquire of God' refers to the Urim and Thummim, which seems to have been of the nature of drawing lots. This occurs ... in David's uncertainty after the death of Saul." See James Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1937), p. 567. "Probably David inquired of the Lord by means of the ephod and Urim and Thummim." See The Oxford Annotated Bible, Revised Standard Version (New York: Oxford University Press, 1962), p. 375, annotation. Other commentators express similar interpretations of 2 Samuel 2:1.

3. George Washington, Letter, 1783, in FPA's Book of Quotations (New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1952), p. 372.

4. Dr. Preson Phillips, phone conversation with author. Used by permission.

Chapter Six  ||  Table of Contents