c. 2000 Religion News Service
Survey: Presbyterian Ministers, Members Differ on Morality of Gambling
(RNS) Presbyterian ministers and members have sharp disagreements on the morality of gambling, a Presbyterian Church (USA) survey shows.
And whether they consider it moral or not, many Presbyterians take part in legal gambling, the Presbyterian Panel survey found.
Of ministers responding to the survey, 52 percent agreed and 36 percent disagreed that “all gambling is immoral,” the Presbyterian News Service reported. Findings among church members were just the opposite: 35 percent agreed and 51 percent disagreed that gambling is immoral.
Sixty-four percent of members, 65 percent of elders, 44 percent of pastors and 49 percent of specialized clergy reported taking part in some kind of legal gambling in the year before the survey was taken.
The most popular forms of gambling were raffles, state lotteries, friendly wagers, casino gambling and office pools.
The survey included 696 responses from members, 704 responses from church leaders and 1,028 responses from ministers.
Eighty percent of pastors agreed that “legalized gambling undermines the principles of responsible Christian stewardship.” Half of members and elders and two-thirds of specialized clergy also agreed with that statement.
Smaller percentages of those surveyed agreed with the statement that “the spirit of legalized gambling is in direct opposition to the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”
Those supporting gambling often cited it for entertainment value and use for government revenue while opponents voiced concerns about possible addiction and resulting family problems.
The Presbyterian Panel measures attitudes and opinions within the Presbyterian Church (USA). The results from the survey on gambling, taken in February, had a maximum margin of error of plus or minus 5 percentage points.
Cuomo Urges `Million Mom’ Leaders to Get Out Anti-Gun Vote
(RNS) Renewing their call for action, gun safety legislation advocates joined Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday (Sept. 5) to announce the start of “March to the Polls,” a grass-roots effort to elect candidates for office who support their cause.
“On May 14, we called on Congress to enact sensible gun laws for the sake of our children and our nation,” said Claudette Perry, a local organizer for the Million Mom March, the Mother’s Day rally in Washington, D.C., that demanded stricter gun control legislation. Local march organizers arranged the news conference. “Now we renew our call. And if these lawmakers do not listen, we will elect new ones.”
Organizers of the event, attended by gun violence victims and others such as District of Columbia Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and Michael Barnes, president of Handgun Control Inc., said Congress should, among other things, impose a one-per-month limit on gun purchases and require licensing and registration for handgun owners.
“On Mother’s Day, hundreds of thousands of mothers cried out that they would no longer tolerate gun violence, and demanded lawmakers to pass laws to stop the epidemic,” said Cuomo. “And no one knows the grim reality of gun-related child mortality better than America’s mothers. As my wife and I stood with America’s moms on the Mall that day, we all hoped Congress would end its gridlock on this issue. Sadly, little has changed and the gridlock remains.”
The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Clinton administration have been working to toughen gun control laws, noted Cuomo, pointing out an agreement reached between his agency, the Treasury Department and the gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson to create a “code of conduct” to promote safe gun use and stop children and criminals from obtaining guns.
Other initiatives created by the Clinton administration include a $30 million Community Gun Safety and Violence Reduction Initiative, and a Housing Department-administered gun buy-back program that has retrieved more than 17,000 guns.
`Crisis Junkies’ Hinder Disaster Aid Abroad, Says Relief Director
(RNS) Small disaster relief agencies are more often harmful than helpful to international aid efforts, said a World Health Organization representative, who called such agencies “crisis junkies.”
“You see hundreds of small agencies turning up at the scenes of disasters,” said Claude de Ville de Goyet, director of the organization’s emergency preparedness and disaster relief coordination program in the Americas, according to the London Sunday Telegraph. “Some of them pop up because there is money or because there is media coverage, which is emotionally appealing.”
Those agencies overestimate their ability to help disaster-stricken areas, said de Ville de Goyet, often donating “unrequested, inappropriate and burdensome” clothing, medicines and packaged food while neglecting to support local relief efforts.
He also criticized governments that have provided relief support that did little to foster long-term growth in a disaster zone, and said money used to send helicopters to Mozambique in the wake of massive flooding in March could have had greater benefit if used to help flood victims reassemble their lives.
Western medical teams used up a large portion of the disaster funds, but arrived too late to provide the critical medical care necessary in the first 24 hours after a disaster, and left too soon to tend the population’s long-term needs, de Ville de Goyet said.
He applauded the long-term relief efforts of several major humanitarian groups, but said they had not done enough to wipe out the mistaken notion that disaster victims could not thrive without aid from the West.
“Some of them did contribute very much,” he acknowledged. “But people tend to consider that, just because it is a European or an American from a developed country, they can do better than a national would do in a disaster, and I’m sorry, but that is wrong.”
Relief agencies rejected de Ville de Goyet’s remarks. The executive secretary of the Disasters Emergency Committee insisted that relief efforts were carried out jointly with local groups to make sure that “appropriate and effective” aid was given.
A spokesperson with the British Department for International Development said Britain’s aid efforts were never motivated by thoughts of political gain.
“I would hope that it is certainly not the case that we respond with an eye to politics, not practical need,” he said.
China Detains Catholics, Charges Christians With Cult Activity
(RNS) Continuing its crackdown on Roman Catholicism and other religious groups, the Chinese government has kept a newly appointed auxiliary bishop in detention for more than a week, the Vatican’s news agency reported Monday (Sept. 4).
Monsignor Jiang Ming Yuan of Hebei province has not been seen since his detainment Aug. 26, an event confirmed by witnesses, the news agency reported, according to the Associated Press.
In the same province four years ago, Chinese authorities took away a bishop and an auxiliary bishop who have not been seen since.
Last week, Chinese police detained 24 Catholics, including several nuns and a priest, in southeastern China’s Fujian province, according to the U.S.-based Cardinal Kung Foundation, which supports the Chinese Catholic Church. The priest spat up blood after being beaten by police, the foundation reported.
Meanwhile, Chinese authorities have charged 85 members of an outlawed Christian evangelical group with “using a cult to sabotage the law of the nation and the enforcement of rules,” the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported Monday (Sept. 4).
The 85 are members of the China Fangcheng Church, a 500,000-member church included on a list of about 14 Christian groups labeled “evil cults” by China’s Communist government.
They were among some 130 church members (including three Americans released later) detained by police Aug. 23 in central China’s Henan province. Province officials insist they have not arrested any Christians.
Quote of the Day: Author Rabbi Niles Elliot Goldstein
(RNS) “God may be a crutch when we need comfort, but God can also be a thorn in our sides when we need (whether we know it or not) to be shaken and pushed.”
Rabbi Niles Elliot Goldstein, writing in the conclusion of his new book “God at the Edge: Searching for the Divine in Uncomfortable and Unexpected Places” (Bell Tower).
DEA END RNS
