Tennessee Baptists have embarked on a major campaign encouraging fellow citizens to vote against a state lottery on Nov. 5 and keep Tennessee gambling-free.
The Tennessee Baptist Convention (TBC) distributed 3.2 million bulletin inserts and 75,000 copies of a 32-page magazine to 67 association offices during the first week of the month.
Baptist Associations, in turn, will be responsible for getting materials to every church, said TBC Executive Director James M. Porch.
The TBC is taking a lead in strategic planning and providing information for use by churches and individuals because “with gambling nobody wins,” Porch said. “We have the opportunity, through our Baptist churches, to make a strong statement against gambling.
“If we lose this opportunity to defeat the lottery, the future influence of Christians in Tennessee to affect any moral issue will be comprised,” Porch said.
While acknowledging that current polls show 58 percent of Tennesseans support a lottery, Porch expressed optimism that the tide can be turned by election day.
“The biggest difficulty we’re facing is apathy,” he said. “We must move this issue from the head to the heart.” Defeating the lottery requires 50 percent plus one vote of all votes cast.
Efforts to organize support for keeping Tennessee gambling-free began in November 2001 when association and TBC leaders met to discuss the issue. Then, in January Porch sent a letter to associational directors of missions asking four questions:
Has the association developed an organized group to fight the lottery?
Who is leading the associational group?
How can the Tennessee Baptist Convention Lottery Committee assist you in developing your response to the lottery?
What efforts have been made to raise money to combat the lottery?
Strong support was garnered from associations and Porch said approximately 59 of Tennessee’s 67 associations now have plans in place to oppose the lottery.
Porch also invited Dan Ireland, executive director of the Alabama Citizens Action Program, and other Alabama Baptist leaders involved in the successful 1999 effort to defeat a lottery to share their expertise. “They won. I wanted us to hear from winners,” Porch said. “They have been extremely helpful.”
Then, in the spring of 2002 when the challenge of producing needed resources seemed overwhelming, Porch said an offer of help came from LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.
“LifeWay came to us at a time of great need,” Porch said. “I’m indebted to Jimmy (LifeWay President James T. Draper Jr.) for their great contribution.”
Draper said LifeWay was anxious to support efforts to defeat a lottery because “the lottery is the most regressive form of taxation there is. It especially affects the poorest people of the state.”
Also, because LifeWay has been based in Nashville since 1981, “we feel we have an obligation to stand for what is best for the community. We need to say a lottery is wrong and we are against it.”
Porch said the partnership with LifeWay has enabled the distribution of the magazine and four different bulletin inserts which he hopes will go in the bulletins of every Tennessee Baptist church during the month of October.
Each insert includes information about the vote and addresses a key topic related to the lottery.
“We believe the bulletin inserts will capture attention of the resident membership” and educate them about dangers of the lottery, Porch said.
Also, Porch said he hopes the magazine, Keep Tennessee Gambling-Free, produced by the Baptist and Reflector state newsjournal, “will become the primary teaching piece” in the churches.
The magazine can be a resource “during discussion times and educational setting to deal with the issue of the lottery,” Porch noted.
Baptist and Reflectoreditor Lonnie Wilkey said one copy of the magazine was mailed to every Tennessee Baptist church. Additional copies may be obtained from associational offices.
“We wanted to do our part to keep Tennessee, gambling-free,” Wilkey said.
“We feel this magazine will be a good resource and we encourage churches and individuals to make use of it.”
Wilkey said the magazine includes human interest stories about people whose lives have been impacted by gambling as well as information on what the Bible says about gambling, how a lottery could impact churches and 10 reasons to oppose the lottery in Tennessee.
“We hope the human interest element will help people think even more,” Wiley said. “We tried to put faces to the facts.”
Porch said the magazines and bulletin inserts were delivered in two and one-half days to the association offices by Tennessee disaster volunteers driving vehicles normally used to travel to the site of a flood, storm or other disaster.
Porch and Draper urged Tennessee pastors to address the lottery issue from the pulpit.
They also urged support for the Gambling-Free Tennessee Alliance chaired by Joe M. Rodgers, former ambassador to France. Paul Durham, pastor of Radnor Baptist Church in Nashville, is treasurer.
The alliance has conducted nationwide research on the impact of gambling and offers factual data and promotional helps. Extensive information is available on the alliance Internet site at www.gfta.org.
Information also is available through the Tennessee Baptist Convention’s Web site, www.tnbaptist.org.
(BP)
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