I am often disgusted by the moral cowardice of the modern Western Church. Most of the so-called leaders are nothing more than apologists for the State, thinking that legality and morality are one and the same. In the latest outrage, I have just read about how the Southern Baptist Convention’s ethics entity and “other gambling foes” are targeting a new bill proposed by Senators Harry Reid and Jon Kyl which would legalize online poker.
Now, full disclosure, I am not a Baptist of any kind, I am a member of the Anglican Church and so I don’t know the inner workings of the Baptist denominations. Hell, I can barely understand my own denomination’s inner workings.
As for the issue at hand, I am outraged by it, not because I support gambling (which I am indifferent about), but because this is clear cut case of moral cowardice. I say moral cowardice because all across the country, various state governments have their own, state-run lottery, which is a gambling organization, while many of these same states have laws against gambling on the books.
This illustrates one of the reasons why the Christian Church as a whole has largely failed as an organization. It has abandoned taking principled stands against injustice in favor of political pragmatism. It is easy to oppose a law that has yet to be passed. It is harder to oppose a law already on the books and to criticize a government for its own moral failings.
If an individual behaved as the state governments do when it comes to gambling, he or she would be in prison for racketeering and extortion.
My ultimate point here is that these groups should be consistent in their criticism of the laws passed by the government, instead of trying to rally their flock by taking faux stands against supposed immorality.