There are all kinds of good reasons to oppose the lottery. It is a terrible form of gambling that tends to appeal most to people who can’t afford it. I’ve heard it described as a tax on stupidity – you’ve better odds of being struck by lightning than winning the thing.
Then suddenly the Mega Millions (is that the right one?) jackpot reaches an estimated 1.6 billion (yep, that’s with a b) for the next drawing and suddenly even a Baptist preacher like me who has never played the lottery in my life finds myself tempted to buy a ticket. Sure, I know the one-time payout on the 1.6 billion might only be around a billion and then there’d be taxes. Who knows? I might not walk away with more than 600 million or so when all is said and done.
No, I do not plan to buy a ticket. But my ruminations started me wondering. “Back in my day” Baptist churches were among the strongest opponents of gambling there were and while as many of our members gambled as drank, it was not acceptable.
My view on gambling is that it is not inherently sinful since there is no scripture that addresses the topic. However, there are some biblical principles that make it unwise and undesirable. The lottery tends to exploit the poor and cause untold damage in families who spend money they don’t have chasing an elusive dream. Scripture would seem to militate against profiting at the expense of others – isn’t that kind of the sine qua non of gambling? Someone else loses so you can win? I don’t condemn someone as a child of the devil because they buy a lottery ticket, but I think it is our best choice not to do so.
I believe that if I won the lottery I would likely lose my job – don’t know for sure, but I believe I would. The 1.6 billion might soften that blow financially but losing the job God called me to because I chose to gamble is not something I want to risk. I would certainly have some folks who think less of me.
So, I have some questions.
1. What is your moral stance on gambling? On playing the lottery? Would you buy a ticket?
2. What would happen in your church if a pastor or deacon won the lottery? Would that be an offense that would inspire disciplinary action, or would it be overlooked in the hopes of a payday in the offering plate?
3. Would your church receive offerings from a lottery winner or any other form of gambling winnings?
4. What would you think of a Baptist preacher who won the lottery?
How unspiritual to promote the lottery on Voices…oh…it’s what all of our church members were talking about yesterday behind our backs.
If you will remember, you and I were both revealed as unspiritual in your recent post, so…
Dave Ramsay says lotteries are a regressive tax on the poor and government exploitation of the stupid. We were living in Kentucky when the state lottery began. An elderly lady in western Kentucky won several million dollars. A reporter asked her what she planned to do with the money. She answered, “I’m going to give a tithe to my church.” I did hear how her pAstor responded.
I saw the word militate in this post and I looked it up. It’s not a word, but I thought it might be a cool derivative of your last name, I.e. Dave Milller was so angry about the lottery, he militated against it during his sermon.
The lottery? I’m torn. I won’t buy a ticket, but I used to have a deacon who was a tithes and generous to a fault and bought a lottery ticket each week. I’ll preach and teach about how wasteful it is, but if someone wanted to give lottery winnings to the church, I’d accept them. God can use whatever He wants to accomplish His purpose.
I stand corrected, militate is a word. It means to stand against. This is what happens when you respond to blogs before you’re fully awake.
And here I was gonna invite you to lunch tomorrow
I shall never question your word smithing abilities again, nor will I respond to blog posts before six in the morning.
Here is the sad truth.
Many churches would suddenly change their views on the lottery if their pastor won and they were in line for millions in tithes.
Dave-
Do you think any church would feel different if it were a church member who won? My reasoning for the question: Where’s the pastor whose church receives a large contribution via a one time gift, inheritance, or in multiple large gifts, that requires disclosure on the money’s origin? True that the optics of a gift from the lottery are more closely connected to the timing of the winning…but that seems to be the only connection. If a person won the lotto, diversified the payout in investment accounts and then made year end gifts to minimize the optic, no church would say a word. And I’m betting 🙂 that no church will reject the $.
So is the issue the fact that the church is in line for a windfall or that a pastor won the lotto? It seems to be that we are entertaining an ethical dilemma–where’s the value that removes the “never” from playing to lotto to suddenly being OK with it, or at least rationalizing it for some in the body of Christ? The way we answer that speaks a great deal about our theology.
I am old and cynical perhaps. I am afraid a lot of convictions might change if vast amounts of $$ were at stake.
I think biblically if a person’s motivation is to be wealthy, it is sinful. 1 Timothy 6:9 “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” (ESV) So, whether or not the lottery is sinful would be depending on what the underlying motivation is. Based on this I have never bought a lotto ticket.
In my church and pretty much every church I have pastored if I was to win the lottery it would probably result in my dismissal.
In answer to your third question, yes I think most churches would be willing to receive an offering from lotto winnings. The rationale behind this apparent contradiction is that the Devil was able to use that money long enough.
Money is a necessary evil in the world we live in, so I would have a tough time judging a preacher who won the lottery.
You don’t think the 10 million or so they might be in line for from offerings would change any minds?
No sir, I don’t think that it would change any minds. Like I said, there is a contradiction in thinking on this issue, most churches are absolutely against gambling and at the same time they would absolutely accept an offering from lotto winnings. After almost 25 years of pastoring I have ceased to expect Christians to be consistent about anything.
Actually, though I am not sure I agree with the sentiment, I respect a church that would stick to its convictions.
(1) No. I won’t buy a ticket. It is a regressive tax against the poor and hurts those who need the most help. (2) I believe every church would need to examine the Timothy qualifications to see if buying a ticket has caused disqualification. (3) Please make your check out to Tzedakah Ministries as we could use the money if you don’t take it. (4) I am not a preacher/pastor but see #1.
1. Though there is not specific Bible verse that says, “Thou shalt not gamble,” I nevertheless believe it is generally a moral lapse – because of the reasons people gamble. Some may approach gambling a form of entertainment, a harmless way to have fun. In that case it might not be much more of a form of wasting money than the different habits some of the rest of us have of wasting money. But do we really believe folks rush to buy “Mega Millions Jackpot” to have a little fun, or in hopes of getting rich? God will have to sort out the hearts, but for most folks I’d put my money on the latter. In this case surely we can see violation of biblical principles such as those found in Proverbs 12:11, 28:19 (ESV); Proverbs 23:5; Ecclesiastes 5:10; Matthew 6:21; 1 Timothy 6:5-9; Hebrews 13:5.
2. Not sure, since I’ve been surprised before, but I think it would at least be looked upon askance.
3. In our church we don’t investigate the background of offerings, so we wouldn’t know unless someone told us. I would recommend against it if someone particularly said they are donating the proceeds of gambling. About a year or so ago I found out some of our staunchest opponents of gambling and such nevertheless do not oppose taking money away from the devil and using it! (I think they said pretty much what John wrote above about the devil having it long enough.)
4. I suppose I would think less of him for playing – unless he wanted to donate largely to my grandchildren’s college funds, of course. 😉
I dont but lottery tickets [not since the first and only time in 1975 where i won $15 and took my girlfriend out for pizza], nor do I participate in office pools for football or whatever.
But I am sure many Christians do participate in those pools. I am sure that many Christians bet moderately at racetracks [though i have never been toone so I dont really know]
But whether or not it is a sin for someone else, since as you say there is no direct Scripture declaring it is, I dont know.
It certainy is sinful when a person gets addicted to gambling and spends big bucks instead of paying bills.
If we had a big winner wanting to give multi millions to our church, and we had a business meeting to discuss it, I would probably agree with whatever the elders reccomended unless an argument against that was made and was quite persuasive.
Christ gave us our salvation as a free gift. So why would money in any amount make our lives more valuable? I’m afraid what a vast fortune might do to me. Would it make me think I’m better than my neighbor, or no longer need Christ? No Thank You. I won’t be buying a ticket.
You raise a good point. A great temptation woukd arise for anyone with that amount of money.
Ruches shipwreck lives and it takes great character to not be drawn in.
I agree Dave in that I don’t think we can say that buying a lottery ticket is necessarily sinful. It could be. And I would hope that any church where the pastor or a member won, would receive the offering that came their way. I can’t think of a good reason not to.
I’m also reminded that most of us buy those stubs from our friends/members where they are selling “chances” for a new grill or something. You know, where they are raising money for a school or such and they sell 300 “chances” to win the item. We buy the ticket for a dollar or 5 dollars and hope we get the grill or whatever.
Last, I did throw in $2 in an office pool at the office where my ministry is allowed to have space. I think there were about 30 of us and if we had won, we would split the winnings. But, here we are on Monday and I still have bills to pay and no lottery winnings to help me with that. 🙂
Oh and last, last. I was in a quick stop the other day and saw the sign next to the check out that the pot was at 999 million. The girl said at that point it was actually 1.2 billion (only 3 digits available on the sign designed for millions). She said someone had just bought $300 worth of tickets on their credit card!! Wonder how they felt that night when they didn’t win. Probably have already done it again. Sadly.
There are far more egregious personal sins. It can’t be overlooked that this falls under the 10th commandment. It’s mitigated by the fact that the pursuit of wealth in and of itself isn’t necessarily sinful. However, I believe this kind of pursuit of wealth to be sinful in that it relies on the promotion of poor stewardship of God’s blessings among others. That is, the winner wins on the basis of other people losing who took necessary resources from their dependents in order to participate. We must recognize that it’s good to obtain wealth by creating it and bad to obtain it by taking it. So it’s not so much that I would object to a pastor winning the lottery. I would object to a pastor playing the lottery in the first place.
As such, I refuse to participate in these things. I haven’t been involved in discussions regarding this, but I believe my fellow deacons would join me in not accepting tithes on it. Indeed, despite our generosity in missions and ministry, our church already operates well in the green and our pastors lack for nothing.
I would say I’m against it for a number of reasons, even though there isn’t a specific prohibition against it in the bible.
1. It is money you didn’t earn, or deserve.
2. I have seen untold numbers of lottery winners whose lives were made miserable by their winnings, and very few (I can’t think of any) who have parlayed their winnings into a successful lifestyle. People who are good with money don’t play the lottery.
3. I would no doubt lose friends and family over a sudden vast wealth.
4. If I were to suddenly come into possession of a billion dollars there isn’t a chance in the world that I would give 100 million to my tiny little 50 member church. It would probably destroy it.
Is there a chance that any of us would wisely handle a sudden influx of wealth and that it would make our lives, and the lives of the people around us better? Yes, there is a chance. But frankly I doubt it.
Literally, the ONLY reason I’m buying a ticket is as insurance for our office pool.
By the way, I don’t think most of us buy raffle tickets because of the prize but to support whatever cause is behind it. Sure we want to win, but I don’t think most of us buy the tickets because we want to win.
I think the overall effect of the lottery on the majority of people connected to it is enough reason to not support it.
That said, I don’t necessarily think an office March madness pool, or raffle to support a school club is inherently sinful.
That said, I also don’t know that I would want my child selling raffle tickets. For non-profits, my experience over my lifetime is that the best fundraisers are those that ask people for money and tell them why they need it…not those that sell something.
About 13years ago, I was invited to a friend’s house for a poker night. We each put in $10 and played poker for about 2 hours with chips representing mere cents. I think I left with about $5. One person left with about $25, another broke even, and another lost it all. It was a good fun night, cheaper than going to a movie once popcorn gets eaten, and I don’t believe I sinned in doing that.
Still, it’s something no one should take lightly. The world would certainly be better off if lotterys and casinos were not a part of it…
The ripple effect of suddenly becoming that wealthy is terrifying to me. I’m content with what God has given me and feel blessed to be pretty comfortable in my waning years.
Would my dependence on God fade? Probably, and that in itself is terrifying. I know my relationships with everyone would change and not for the better. I would want to give it all away but would worry about the negative effects on giving someone a lot of money that might not be mature enough to handle it. Would I be the cause of someone’s destruction? I think it would be unavoidable. I would want to share with the people I work with but that would probably decimate my employer’s workforce. More destruction. I’m sure no one would be happy with whatever amount of money I though was prudent to give them and most would resent me for either giving too much or not enough.
My family would need bodyguards because of the risk of kidnapping. Who could we really trust to not do us harm?
Every one would have their hand out and I would want to meet their need but what about God’s plan for them? What about the trials that are working for good in their lives? How many lives would be effected by me interfering in the working of God’s plan for them?
I think I’ll just be content that God is God and be thankful I don’t have the power to be a little one.
Psalm 84:12 (ESV): O Lord of hosts,
blessed is the one who trusts in you!
Thanks Dave. No doubt, the lottery can and does bring out the worst in many and absolutely destroy some; but let me come to the defense of those who might spend less than 5 bucks on the thing and actually put their winnings to good use. It is only a terrible form of gambling if you make it so. If not, it’s just a low risk high return investment.
Think of the good someone could do: Samaritans Purse could probably spend the entire pot on one big storm. The IMB could use a boost. Voice of the Martyrs would use it wisely. Seminaries, campus ministries, pregnancy help centers… it might even make some Sunday night church-goers tip the server a little better and enhance / repair their testimony.
Signed,
TDA
The lottery is not a low risk investment, just the opposite. The risk could scarcely be higher.
I’ve wasted 5 dollars on more things (and many more time) that have expanded my waistline. At least a win would allow me to have a surgery to reduce it again.
Can’t hang around to chat longer, I’m on the way to the Ford service center. My car is having problems. It keeps turning into McDonalds everytime I drive by one, even though the halal burgers taste way different.
I don’t believe gambling or buying a lottery ticket is sinful.
I don’t mind lotteries. They are voluntary forms of taxation, like user fees at State parks etc.
I believe that a tax on income (productive activity), especially graduated, has created greater sins in our society than any lottery.
In our state there were all kinds of predictions about how the lottery would hurt the poor. Hasn’t happened. Our state’s poverty rate hasn’t budged since the poor started playing the lottery.
If our pastor win the lottery, our church would probably congratulate him. But knowing him, he would probably give it away.
The biggest problem with a pastor winning the lottery is not a perceived moral failing. It is that if the pastor won the lottery, if he quit his job, people would think he cared more about money than preaching. If he stayed in his job and kept the money, people probably couldn’t relate to him anymore. And the pressure on him to pay every bill and help everyone out would be enormous.
Our church would accept donations of lottery winnings.
I probably won’t play because I am cheap and can do the math.
If I were to win, I would pay off my home and buy a new car, and a great bicycle. I would help our church build the new building. But I would keep working full time. Would take more short vacations. I would not give the money away. I would invest it to help new and existing businesses grow and produce new goods and services for people.
Dave,
This post and the comments remind me of Tevye’s song from “Fiddler on the Roof”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBHZFYpQ6nc
Woody
Woody wins.
Anyone who references Tevye goes to the head of the class.
“O Lord, in Your wisdom, You have created many, many poor people. I realize, of course, it’s no shame to be poor — but it’s no great honor, either. So what would have been the harm if You’d chosen to give me a smaaaaall fortune?”
Concerning your #3, one of my favorite stories is as follows:
A friend of mine was being interviewed by a church pastoral search committee. It was in Texas and they asked specifically if he would be comfortable receiving a tithe off a lottery winner. He thought about his answer for a second and then responded, “Of course I would. At my current church, we receive offerings from lottery losers every week. Why wouldn’t I receive an offering from a lottery winner.” The committee sat stunned for a moment and the chairman responded, “Well, when you put it that way, I guess you’re right. I’ve never thought of it that way before.”
Coincidentally, his wife was sitting next to him when he responded and she was mortified of his answer, fearing that had sealed the deal and they wouldn’t be invited to that church. He was, in fact, asked to be their pastor and he spent 5-6 years there while finishing his Ph.D. at SWBTS.
I laugh every time I think about this story because I know that search committee was probably exactly like the search committees that were formed from my small home church in SW Oklahoma, and i’m confident had they ever heard an answer like that, they would have been picking their jaws up from the floor!
I had changed my mind and was on my way to get a ticket when I heard they’d given the billions to someone in South Carolina.
Drat.
Doesn’t William Thornton live close enough to SC to drive across state lines and get a ticket.
Whether or not to accept tithes from lottery winnings could probably be answered with Luke 16:8-9. Of course, the next few verses then offer valuable principles against gambling. Jesus’ perspective seems to be that money should never become a god to us, but we can and should use money to accomplish eternal ends. That he calls it “unrighteous wealth” indicates a general perspective that money is already tainted with worldliness and unrighteousness. It is a necessary evil.
Like so many other issues, this is a matter of individual conscience before God. At least as far as Baptists go, local churches determine the threshold of their practice of Biblical discipline when it comes to members who have sinned in a way that becomes public. And who would ask if a member suddenly dropped a million or so in the offering plate? That’s supposed to be confidential and unless a member publicly stated they’d won the lottery and the tithe off of it showed up, how would a church handle the situation? There”d be a lot of awkwardness in that situation.
I don’t play the lottery, go to casinos or buy raffle tickets. That’s a personal choice. But like alcohol, which I don’t drink, I don’t believe that gambling is, in and of itself, sinful. I believe that making it the god of your life is sinful, and that the point at which it becomes an addiction is what makes it sinful, in the same way that the excess of alcohol is sinful. As far as accepting lottery money goes, I think the apostle Paul did a good job of explaining how to handle meat sacrificed to idols that illustrates a good principle in a matter such as this.