IS GAMBLING WRONG IN PRINCIPLE?

White Ribbon, Volume 25, Issue 10, 1 January 1954, Page 5

IS GAMBLING WRONG IN PRINCIPLE?

The Rev. Donald A. Kirkby, 8.A., 8.D., states the following four reasons why he considers Christians should not only abstain from but also oppose what has been well called “the destructive vice of our age.” 1. Gambling it an offence against God, because: (a) Its basic motive is covetousness. The persistent appeal to covetousness in “gambling" is fundamentally opposed to the unselfishness taught by Jesus Christ and the New Testament as a whole. (b) It violates the Christian principle of Stewardship. If we believe that God has created us for His glory, and that we find our true happiness in serving Him, then we are accountable to Him for the use of our time, our money, and our physical and mental capacities. By no stretch of the imagination could it ever be thought possible to gamble to the glory of God. 2. Gambling is an offence against a man’s own soul: Nothing tends to make men and women more selfish and cruel than “the sport without a smile.” By making its appeal to the base passions of greed, it represses the corresponding virtue of cheerful giving. 3. Gambling is an offence against one’s neighbour: It is an attempt to gain something from him for which no return is made. Further, if you gamble, you are exposing your brother to temptations, which no sane man will deny to be considerable. 4. Gambling is an offence against Society: “Gambling is a cause of social ruin, poverty, broken homes and child neglect; it undermines the sense of honesty in young people, interferes with industrial effort, and often induces petty theft.” Far from being a harmless recreation, GAMBLING IS WRONG IN PRINCIPLE.