Bennett, the editor of “The Book of Virtues” and “The Children’s Book of Virtues,” is said to have spent perhaps $8 million on casino gambling.
According to one casino source, on July 2, 2002, Bennett lost $340,000 at Caesars in Atlantic City. And on April 5 and 6, he lost more than $500,000 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Asked about his high-roller status, Bennett reportedly said, “I adhere to the law. I don’t play the ‘milk money.’ I don’t put my family at risk, and I don’t owe anyone anything.”
When Bennett, a Catholic, noted that he enjoyed church Bingo while he was growing up, I thought about the Genesis account of Adam’s shenanigans. God reportedly confronted Adam with Adam’s sin of eating forbidden fruit, and Eve’s hero-husband said, “It was the woman you gave me who brought me the fruit.”
I can almost hear Bennett saying, “But God, the church that represented you taught me to enjoy gambling.”
(Perhaps Catholics should review the place of Bingo in fund-raising, just as Protestants and others should question selling raffle tickets. Gambling is defined generally as any activity in which wealth changes hands, mainly on the basis of chance and with risk to the gambler. Creative effort, useful skills and responsible investment are not factors in gambling.)
If an average rich guy gambles away $8 million, that’s bad enough, but when a self-appointed leader of a crusade for moral excellence engages in sins of covetousness by participating in games of chance, he’s begging for ridicule. Didn’t the Apostle Paul indicate that leaders will be judged by a higher standard?
What if a teacher happens to catch a couple of fifth-graders pitching pennies (maybe using milk money) in a school hallway and says, “Such activity is not good. I want you to sit at your desks and read a few stories from a nice book called ‘The Children’s Book of Virtues.’”
One of the youngsters is liable to say, “Hey, isn’t that the book by the guy who gambled away millions? You gotta be kidding.”
Wanting to get something for nothing — and that is the motivation for gambling — is not virtuous. Some say gambling is wrong because it involves irresponsible money management, desiring gain at the expense and suffering of others, poor work ethic, and addictive behavior.
Dollars lost to games of chance — lotteries included — are important, but the real harm in gambling may be that when we gamble, we say to others, especially impressionable youngsters, that life is about chance, not about divine purpose.
When the Babylonians sacked Jerusalem in 587/6 B.C., they took Jewish prisoners to Babylon. The Bible indicates that some of those captives, influenced by Babylonian culture, began trusting in luck rather than in God. Many Babylonians worshipped Gad and Meni, pagan gods of fate. Reportedly, Gad represented greater fortune and Meni symbolized lesser fortune.
To those Jewish captives who were thanking their lucky stars rather than the Creator of stars, the Prophet Isaiah said, “But you who forsake the Lord, who forget my holy mountain (temple), who set a table for Fortune and fill cups of mixed wine for Destiny; I will destine you to the sword … because you chose what I did not delight in (Isa. 65:11).”
William Bennett has been called “one of America’s leading moralists.” When you possess that kind of public image, it’s not wise to participate in an activity that’s long been considered a destructive vice. Bennett gambled and lost some of his credibility.
His books are still good, though. Someone said that treasure is often transported in earthen vessels.
Steve Crain lives in Southern Pines and works in the textile industry. He can be contacted at crain207@earthlink.net.
