Which Side Are the Churches On?

● Under the heading “Do Lottery, Liquor Belong in Church?” the Paris, Texas, News carried the case of a woman who said nervously: “My husband is a very attractive man, but he has been addicted to gambling. . . . I have tried everything in my power to make him give up this evil habit, but it seems to have him enslaved as much as if he were a dope addict. . . . Just when I thought I was making some progress, my husband comes home with a handful of tickets being sold by my church, and waves them in my face. My church is having a lottery, and is giving away $500 in cash prizes. The first prize amounts to $200, and the smallest is $10. The tickets sold for 10 cents apiece, but this price was listed in the corner as ‘Donation—10 cents’. I suppose that was just a means of evading the laws against gambling. . . . My husband tells me that I have a lot of nerve to preach to him about the evils of gambling when my own church is running a lottery. He asks me to explain the difference between his patronizing a bookie, where he bets $2 on a race horse, and buying a handful of chances on a church lottery at a dime a ticket. . . . Is sin only that type of behavior on which the church obtains no financial returns? . . . My husband is now ridiculing my religion and calling us hypocrites.”