By Kristen Lindsey
We are in a battle for the soul of Alabama,” said Joe Godfrey, executive director of Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP), at a Birmingham regional anti-gambling rally Feb. 16.
The battle between those who want gambling and those who do not is being played out over commercials, in the news media and most importantly, in the state Legislature, Godfrey explained.
“The bills (Senate Bills 380 and 381 and House Bill 507) will make the gambling institutions immune to … future (constitutional) amendments. (SB 380 is the bill making the most progress currently — see story, this page.)
“The main thing we need are for people to contact their legislators and tell them we don’t want them to pass any gambling laws,” he said.
The anti-gambling rally was just one of five held around the state Feb. 15–17 as a precursor to a statewide rally held Feb. 23 on the steps of the Statehouse in Montgomery. The rallies — sponsored by ALCAP and Citizens for a Better Alabama — were held to inform people about the costs of gambling, the issues surrounding the gambling bills pending in the Legislature and “the truth” behind the pro-gambling arguments.
The ultimate goal was to encourage people to take action, Godfrey said, noting the Dothan rally attracted several hundred people while the other four rallies’ attendance was much lower. The Montgomery rally was also attended by scores of pro-gambling people wanting to hear what Godfrey and others on the program had to say.
One featured speaker at the rallies was Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
Noting that most people are not aware of the biblical arguments against gambling, Land pointed to Romans 13 and explained that government is a divinely ordained institution with the purpose of promoting good not terror.
“When the government … ends up promoting gambling for its own purposes, then the state, the government, has reduced its role to that of a bookie, promoting that which it knows is socially destructive behavior in order to get its cut of the action,” he said.
“That is a mockery to the reason God gave us government in the first place. God gave us government to promote that which is good not that which is destructive,” Land continued.
“Gambling is a bloodsucking industry,” he said. “Southern Baptists have been, are and will continue to be opposed to gambling.”
Land urged pastors to do everything possible to protect their flock from people who want to do it harm.
Allan Murphy, pastor of North Shelby Baptist Church, Birmingham, attended one of the rallies and said he was leaving it more emboldened to speak out against gambling than he was before.
“It motivated me to speak out more forthrightly,” he said. “It looks like it’s a citizen’s responsibility to take a stand.”
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