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Church accept gambling funds?
Question:
"Would Mill Creek Community Church accept funds that were procured by gambling; say, for instance, if someone purchased a single lottery ticket and won a huge pot?"Answer:
I thought about this when everything happened with the pharmacist who diluted chemotherapy prescriptions. He used money he gained that way to help his church in their building program! That church is now working to pay back the amount of money that came from that man...about one million dollars. Wow.
The lottery/gambling question is a little different, of course. I will only give a personal response as ultimately this kind of question would go before the Board of Elders...and perhaps before the entire church...for a decision.
In the case of the ill-gotten gains I mentioned earlier, the church has the opportunity to give the money back to those it came from (it will go to the victims of the crime). In the case of a lottery system, giving the money back is not an option. When someone receives funds in some inappropriate way we often discuss "righting the wrong" by giving the monies to a charity or some non-profit. In this case, the church is such a non-profit. I guess what I am saying is that I might feel odd rejecting the money as I would not know what else to recommend the person do with it!
Having said all of that, I do not encourage gambling. I have spoken before the State legislature opposing it, I have spoken to and known families destroyed by the industry. I feel that it draws out the worst in people. It appeals to unchristian motives not to "get rich quick" (Prov. 23:4; 28:22). In my mind it indignifies man by offering him an elusive and grotesquely desperate hope in something he that should not be a source of hope.
That gambling has become a part of American culture now raises these odd questions. I would also not suggest to school systems and other organizations that they refuse money received from the gambling industry. I realize that this situation may serve to perpetuate the gambling industry...and I do see that as a problem. Perhaps if any good can come out of this strange obsession, maybe we should seize it.
Again, those are my thoughts, not an official Mill Creek response.
