Religious underpinnings of online gaming bill (long).

[5thStreetHog]

[ QUOTE ]
Very interesting post. As a conservative Christian and registered Republican voter, I am extremely disappointed at how this bill was passed. Unfortunately, the party aligned itself with the religious right that has taken a scripturally flawed position in regards to gambling.

[/ QUOTE ]I love the arguement that the problem with certain rebublicans is that they have "taken a scripturally flawed position in regards to gambling".Your missing the idea,which is,your book is irrelevant to some.And we should be free from attacks on our freedoms regardless of what your book says.

[MarathonMath]

Sorry if I was unclear earlier in my post. Obviously scripture is irrelevant to many. I believe I stated that I was disappointed that this legislation had passed. I don't believe it is ok for any group to take away personal freedoms in the name of "morality". Scripture is important to me, however, and I don't find anything in it that says that gambling is "immoral". My point is that the views of Frist and the religious right do not represent all with a religious background.

[The Mayo]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Division of assets by random chance.

[/ QUOTE ]Not quite. They believed that the Lord was speaking through the casting of lots, not that they were dividing assets by random chance.

[/ QUOTE ]
"Lord, if You love me, unleash your terrible might to fill my gutshot."

[5thStreetHog]

[ QUOTE ]
Sorry if I was unclear earlier in my post. Obviously scripture is irrelevant to many. I believe I stated that I was disappointed that this legislation had passed. I don't believe it is ok for any group to take away personal freedoms in the name of "morality". Scripture is important to me, however, and I don't find anything in it that says that gambling is "immoral". My point is that the views of Frist and the religious right do not represent all with a religious background.

[/ QUOTE ]fair enough...i didnt mean to sound offensive to you or christians eithor

[Jeff76]

[ QUOTE ]
"Lord, if You love me, unleash your terrible might to fill my gutshot."

[/ QUOTE ]LOL! Now you know why I'm a winning player . . . [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

-TOTALLY JOKING HERE-

[Paul77]

Hi,

I post mostly in the stud forum, but this caught my interest.

I'm a transitional deacon within the Roman Catholic Church, and will be ordained a priest in the spring. Catholics and "mainline" Christian churches often have disagreements with fundamentalism and evangelical Christianity.

Among the more perplexing issues to me is gambling. Catholics are not "prudes" in the sense that things are okay in moderation such as alcohol and gambling. (Sex is not as this is for marriage, but that is not the point of this post). Alcohol and gambling certinaly can be occasions for sin; if someone abuses these things, then you've got a problem. Or, if someone uses joint savings with the spouse for gambling against their wishes, then you've got a problem. But there is nothing sinful about gambling - just stop by any midwestern Catholic Church festival in the summer and fall and you'll find bingo, pull tabs, a beer garden, and other games of chance.

I happen to enjoy poker which is why I post here. I'm a low-roller, and always will be (clergy don't make that much and it would look bad to be at a high stakes table!). But I enjoy socializing at the local card room with people (even ran into a parishioner at a church I assisted at this summer not too long ago playing 2/4 hold 'em next to me) and poker is my way of unwinding.

Just wanted to chime in as I don't see any ban on gambling in the Bible (the successor of Judas, Matthias, was chosen by lots; though I'm sure there was prayer involved too). I'm also irked by some evangelicals who try to take the Bible literally, word-for-word, and aren't open to scholarship and learning about Scripture with an open mind. But again, another thread.

I actually used to be active in politics; now I have to keep it to the voting both but consider myself to be a conservative guy. But I wanted to chime in on the issue.

Regards,
Deacon Paul

[boomshakalaka]

op, what do you have against hate crime legislation? Maybe Im missing some underlying issue here with the implications of these laws. And while I agree that the welfare system is horribly flawed, I do believe in some sort of gov't assistence for people who have fallen on hard times. Really messed up unfortunate stuff can happen to put a hard working person out in the streets, are they just supposed to chalk it up as a bad beat as the world passes them by?

Besides thoes few discrepencies I largely agree with what youve said. People are stuck on being affiliated with a certain party. It comes to a point where they dont even care what the party is doing. They just blindly vote. Its very sad, out political system is pretty crappy, hopefully atleast one other party arises to compete.

[Jeff Oneye]

Greetings folks,

I just wanted to express my heartfelt thanks for the positive feedback and quality conversation. Most of my posts seem to fall by the wayside and I never get rewarded with much follow-up. Anyways, I've just read the bulk of your posts and look forward to becoming engaged in this thoughtful discussion.

Jeffrey (btw, I don't use spell check or a grammar editor so forgive me for typos and trival things like dangling modifiers and comma splices)

[Jeff Oneye]

[ QUOTE ]
<applause>

I feel the exact same way and I am disgusted by the fact that everything you said is true. I think this is a view held by many many Americans, so why can't this view break the political stranglehold that both parties have with their activist agendas. What is it going to take?

[/ QUOTE ]


Given our "winner take all" system of electing policy-makers, I imagine it very unlikely that a serious third party contender will emerge, at least on the national level. If we had proportional representation like many European countries I think we'd be better off in some ways. For one thing, smaller parties would at least have some representation in government. People might feel less powerless if they at least had some real political representation by alternative parties more closely representing their vantage points.

The "winner take all" system of plurality effectively undermines this by ensuring politicians will generally take non-controversial and predictable courses of action. Also, the majority requirement serves to perpetuate the two major parties as voting for minor party candidates is a 'wasted vote.'

I sometimes wonder how a goverment of coalitions would work in America. Would political participation increase? Would old partisan allegiances to the two major parties wither away? Would attempting to dismantle the status quo be effectively portrayed as an attempt to undermine our constitution and the American way? I'd be willing to roll the dice and try an experiment with proportional representation. I speculate the majority wouldn't. The strength of the "party within the voter" cannot be underestimated. Our two main parties simplify the world for the average voter. They reduce the amount of time and energy needed for recognizing our heroes and the villains who seek to sabotage us.

Jeffrey

[Jeff Oneye]

<font color="green"> </font> Gambling is not a sin. I don't know where that comes from, but it has no Biblical justification whatsoever. The Bible makes a few references to gambling, none negative." <font color="green"> </font>


Of course, you're right. The Bible doesn't condemn gambling as a sin. There is no verse that explicitly says anything negative about gambling as far as I'm aware. However, I think believers could reasonably infer that some gambling behavior is wrong or sinful. For example, the Bible says:

Matt 6:24 "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."

Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say. (1 Cor 10:14-15)


I'm certainly no Bible scholar. My understanding of the Bible comes from "studying to show thyself approved" as a "workman needeth not be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth." In other words, I was raised in strong Christian family that made studying the Bible a daily priority. I'm sure our method of study wasn't ideal from a scholarly perspective, but we did learn a few things about the Bible. I think the way gambling gets labeled a sin is that many participants develop an obsessive interest and convert gambling into an "idol" or "lust of the flesh."

Jeffrey