Religions Preach To Wager is to Gamble with your Soul

Here's a sure bet: The crowd that gathers today for a slots casino license hearing in Allentown's Crowne Plaza will include adherents to some or all of the world's major religions, many of whom will speak loud and long on the merits of gambling. In doing so, they will be trumping the wisdom and traditions of their faiths.

Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism view gambling as a needless temptation, if not the work of the devil. So why haven't local religious communities mounted stronger, more organized resistance to casino proposals? Because Scriptures and traditions aside, the major faiths leave the decision to gamble to individuals, who are expected to weigh the desire for quick riches against the risk of losing everything. For Christians, God prescribes hard work and faithful perseverance, not dumb luck in games of chance, as the path to success in life. In Islam, the sin is greater than the profit for gamblers, according to the Quran. Some Jewish teachers liken gambling to theft.

May 23, 2006
Posted By Larry Rutherford
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com    Previous Page | Internet Gambling | Top Online Casinos | Submit News!

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