Christ Does Not Build His Church on the Backs of the Poor

Recently I did a blog post titled Lotto Winner Gives Ticket to Parish.  One of our readers posted a link to an article that John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church wrote on his www.desiringgod.org website about this idea of contributing lottery winnings to the church.  I wanted to add Piper's comments to the conversation because he has sounded off on this topic in a very compelling way.  One of the most pointed comments he makes is that "Christ does not build His church on the backs of the poor".  I have pasted the entire contents of the article, written on January 1, 2003 below. 

The West Virginia pastors who accepted Jack Whittaker's tithe on his $170 million Powerball booty should be ashamed of themselves. One of them said, "That's a blessing to have that kind of backing." I don't think so.

Christ does not build his church on the backs of the poor. The engine that delivers his righteousness in the world is not driven by the desire to get rich. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not advanced by undermining civic virtue. Let the pastors take their silver and throw it back into the temple of greed.

In 2001 Americans wagered $57 billion dollars on lotteries, $18 billion on horses and dogs, $592 billion in casinos, and $150 billion on other gambling. This is a blot on American life. Break it down to individuals. Massachusetts sells more than $500 worth of lottery tickets each year for every man, woman, and child. Think how many do not gamble, and you will begin to imagine what thousands are throwing away to have a 1-to-135,145,920 chance for the jackpot.

The American exploitation of the poor with lotteries muddies the conscience of many legislators. Statistics abound that "the government-sponsored lottery continues its shameless exploitation of the poor" (James Dobson, April, 1999 Newsletter). This exploitation is explicit in some of the advertising bought by the $400 million spent annually by states to promote lotteries. For example, in Chicago one sign read: "This could be your ticket out." That is shameless. Other promotions mock the virtues of hard work and serious study as a way to make a living. Plan A: Study hard, save money, get old. Plan B: Play the lottery.

Only a few, it seems, are willing to say how far and how manifold are the corrupting effects of the lottery. How many have pondered this insight from Richard Neuhaus, "In a democracy, the need for popular consent to tax is a powerful check on government growth and irresponsibility. A government that raises money by encouraging and exploiting the weaknesses of its citizens escapes that democratic mechanism of accountability. As important, state-sponsored gambling undercuts the civic virtue upon which democratic governance depends" (First Things, Sept., 1991, p. 12).

Is it a "blessing" for the church of Jesus Christ to have the backing of a social sickness that "destroys marriages, undermines the work ethic, increases crime, motivates suicide, destroys the financial security of families . . . and dupes people into believing [it] will benefit the children" (Dobson)?

Don't play Powerball for me. And don't play it for Bethlehem. I go on record now that I will not knowingly take any money won from gambling. And I will do my best to lead the elders of our church from accepting any money offered to this church from the proceeds of gambling.

We are followers of Jesus. He had no place to lay his head and did not accept the demonic temptation to jump off the temple for the jackpot of instant recognition. The Calvary road is not paved with Powerball tickets, but with blood. The Church was bought once by One who refused the short cut of instant triumph. It will never be bought by those who dream of riches.

The lottery is another opportunity to pierce your soul with many pangs, and lead your children into ruin. The Bible says, "Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. . . . Some by longing for it . . . and pierced themselves with many a pang (1 Timothy 6:9-10). In other words, the desire to be rich is suicidal. And endorsing it is cruel.

It is wrong to wager with a trust fund. And all we have, as humans, is a trust fund. Everything we have is a trust from God, to be used for his glory. "[God] himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything" (Acts 17:25). Faithful trustees may not gamble with a trust fund. They work and trade: value for value, just and fair. This is the pattern again and again in Scripture. And when you are handling the funds of another, how much more irresponsible it is to wager!

Don't play the Lottery for Bethlehem Baptist Church. We will not, I pray, salve your conscience by taking one dime of your plunder, or supporting even the thought of your spiritual suicide. Let the widow give her penny and the laborer his wage. And keep your life free from the love of money.

Pastor John

What do you think?  Would your church accept a contribution of gambling or lottery winnings?  Does your church have a policy about this? 

Posted by Christopher Willard director of Leadership Network's Generous Churches Leadership Community.

Comments

[Chris Meirose]

I love John Piper. I've sat in his church and had lunch with him. I love his ministry. But I don't agree that this is as clear of a subject as he attempts to make it. There are those who gamble who are not poor, and who do not do it out of compulsion/addiction. There are other scenarios too - like when I waited tables through college and seminary and people would leave lottery tickets (scratch ones) as tips. And I've been given them as gifts and won them in drawings. I've never personally purchased a scratch ticket, and will continue not doing so, as I agree with the good Dr. Piper that gambling is a blight on our society. But that doesn't make it completely black and white as he portrays it.

Recently, some hard working people of my small town won $60 million via Powerball. They had enough money, they weren't addicts, and they are doing good things with the money (they took the one time payment option, so it is quite a bit less than the original $60 million). Perhaps I am too pragmatic for my own good, but I think I too would take the money for my church.

[Ben]

I want to know if he makes sure that all the money give during offering is made in noble ways? What about those who give from stock dividends or from retirees that live and give off IRA's? Why does he talk about the parable of the servants that are left with their masters money and the servant that doesn't risk the money is the way punished? And last I thought it was all God's money anyways?

[Jacob Vanhorn]

What some are missing in Pipers statement is that he is not primarily against some individual who gives him offerings that come from lottery winnings, but that he is against the lottery industry as a whole and how it takes advantage of the poor through its marketing, and to Neuhaus's point that it pushes a 'tax' on the poor to raise funds for its projects that it can't get support for through a tax. That seems to be Piper's primary argument, and 'well meaning, non-addicts' and pastors who accept the winnings from this system help to promote the system and give legitimacy to it is his secondary argument.

Look at it in the order the argument flows and then address the question. There might also be other socially acceptable activities that one might compare to the lottery, but we have to ask if they are fundamentally the same thing or whether it is a stretch. (ie: alcohol consumption which is marketed to the poor)