Circle of Hope

In a radio commentary, I heard our economy described as millions of people sitting by their computers “placing bets” as they decide to buy or sell stocks and “investment products.” Robert Reich, the economist, is concerned about just how ignorant we are about all this. He says, for instance, “Hedge funds have been operating huge financial casinos without having to disclose what they’re betting on, or why.” The big players who lead our country, usually behind the scenes, certainly not elected by us, are basically big gamblers. I’ve heard people say that the U.S. economy is no longer based on actually doing anything (we’ve outsourced that to the Chinese). It is just about making virtual bets. The proliferation of illegal gambling, and the rush by the states to operate every form of casino and lottery may be the most obvious, but least-considered, example of what kind of economy we are creating and, more interesting to me (and Jesus, I think), what kind of people the economy is creating.

David Reich in Boston College Magazine teaches: “From the turn of the 20th century until the middle 1960s, all U.S. states prohibited gambling, with the famous exception of Nevada. Today, of course, gambling is everywhere—in all states save Utah and Hawaii. Forty-two states run their own lotteries, which in 2006 sold $52 billion worth of tickets; most states host Indian-run casinos or bingo halls; and 13 states allow, and tax, commercial casinos, with Massachusetts poised to become the 14th.”

Christians used to be dead set against gambling. We went with George Washington, who was fond of quoting the French proverb: “Gambling is the child of avarice (greed), the brother of iniquity and the father of mischief.” But somehow the monster escaped its cage, began defining how we do business, and normalized greed as “sport” organized for profit by a “gaming industry.” Our prophetic voice about all this seems very confused. On the one hand most Christians seem to have given up the idea that things can be wrong and have adopted the society’s “ethic of tolerance” that argues that people should be left alone unless their activities harm others. On the other hand we have also believed the sales pitch that argues that gambling meets acceptable criteria under our more faithful “ethic of sacrifice,” which holds that people may have to give up rights for the common good. We seem to think the end justifies the means, since the proceeds of state-run gambling are often designated for education or senior citizens, or something else the state knows we want but won’t tax us to fund. Maybe we just don’t want to say anything because we’ll end up needing to talk to the Catholics about bingo.

But I at least want to shine this little light on gambling in our little blog. Because I think people, in general, are in danger of being reduced to taking fake risks when real risks are necessary. We are being trained to play a virtual game with our lives when we need to find joy in really living. From giant hedge funds making money out of placing the right bets on which way the index numbers will go, to the guy in the neighborhood who buys a lottery ticket every day, from making the Native Americans the nation’s casino owners to putting two casinos on our waterfront, we’re surrounded. We not only need to wake up and swim against the tide before it sweeps us away; we need to find our prophetic voice and at least say, “No!” (as in casiNO! perhaps).

Ending our personal poker games and feeling guilty about a rare trip to Atlantic City is not what I am talking about when I say, “prophetic.” We have something real to bring into an era in which people are being reduced to false hope and virtual risk. When we get something for nothing we tend to become the nothing traded for it. I think we should keep calling people to be real, to offer something of value to the world, to gain something to give, and not be looped into feeding the greed monster in yet another way.