United Church Social Policy Positions

The expansion of gambling is the public policy issue on which the membership of the United Church has been most persistently outspoken during the 1990s. Most conferences, many presbyteries and hundreds of congregations have been involved. In most cases church people have succeeded in reframing the gambling question from moralistic condemnations of individuals to a question of public social responsibility.

In recent years, however, there has been little public discussion of the operating belief system that has led people to conclude that gambling expansion is unethical and a challenge to people of faith. In a recent gathering of church leaders involved in resisting gambling expansion, people articulated the faith reasons for their involvement. The list included:

• Our culture defines success in material terms, yet few will achieve it. A society that holds out only "failure" for the vast majority of its members is one that has failed to build "the people" and left individuals to compete against one another to be among the very few who succeed. Government is exploiting the social dilemma built into our culture.
• The Christian sense of solidarity with neighbours or community is destroyed by creating a society in which an exploiter-exploited relationship is set up.
• We are opposed to the exploitation of the vulnerable in the community (problem gamblers and those affected by their behaviour) by vested interests.
• At an inter-personal level, electronic gambling undermines community and produces anti-social behaviour.
• God's creation is good. The resources it offers are to be equitably divided amongst God's people—justice is the measure of our society.
• Christian stewardship requires accountability to God for all that one possesses and for how it is used.
• Current government plans narrow our responsibility for the good of our "neighbours" from all taxpayers and donors to only those who gamble. This violates our Christian commitment to common responsibility for the common good.
• We remain convinced that protecting the social safety net is our way of doing what the early followers of Jesus did in distributing basic goods for widows and orphans. In our day it is a duty of citizenship and therefore one that should be shared by all taxpayers, not just gamblers. It is therefore not a charity, but a duty of the government on behalf of all citizens.
• Respect for real life and a sense of responsibility are undermined when government urges people to rely on the false hope of security in gambling. It encourages an escape from reality and distracts us from seeing the hope of God's ultimate reality piercing our world.
• We do not want to lend moral legitimacy to flouting of the law in our society.

Every group involved in Christian witness on this public policy issue will have additional points to make. The preceding list simply demonstrates the kind of challenges to their faith that people are experiencing as gambling expansion proceeds.