Alabama’s major newspapers recently reported that some anti-gambling efforts in the state have been bankrolled by Indian casino owners.
It was part of a nationwide effort by Indian casino owners to protect their profits from other would-be gambling sites.
The strategy was to recruit anti-gambling Christians to fight expansion of what conservatives believe is a vice, a moral evil and a sin. The strategy produced some strange bedfellows — gambling owners and gambling opponents — but it worked in many places, including Alabama.
The conduit for the gambling money was Ralph Reed, the former national chairman of Christian Coalition and now head of a political lobbying firm called Century Strategies. According to a Washington, D.C., publication called Roll Call, about $3.8 million in Indian casino money was filtered to Reed’s consulting firm.
In turn, Reed used his Christian Coalition connection to rally opposition to gambling bills in state legislatures and in public referendums. Gambling money from the various tribes helped fund those efforts. That included efforts by the Alabama Christian Coalition chapter.
Allegations that gambling money helped finance Alabama’s leading opponents of legalized gambling are not news. John Giles, president of the state’s Christian Coalition, has consistently denied receiving any gambling money. He also has consistently refused access to the organization’s books to determine the source of the organization’s income. The result has been a shadow of suspicion over the organization.
Alabama Baptists will remember that ethics charges were brought against Dan Ireland, president of Alabama Citizens Action Program (ALCAP). He was charged with taking money from Mississippi gamblers to underwrite opposition to gambling expansion in the state.
An investigation by this state Baptist paper proved the allegations false and the charges were dismissed. Like Giles, Ireland has resisted efforts to open the organization’s books for public examination. The recent admission by Reed that he did take Indian gambling money and that he did channel it to anti-gambling efforts, including those of Christian Coalition chapters, adds new life to those bent on undercutting the moral opposition to gambling by Christian groups. As one atheist group wrote about the incident, “It’s interesting to learn that he (Reed) may have been inciting moral opposition to a casino while being paid to do so by a rival casino that simply didn’t want the competition. So much for moral high ground, eh?”
This writer is not associated with Christian Coalition, so I am unable to speak about the inner working of that organization. I am a member of the board of directors of ALCAP, and I know ALCAP has not and does not accept money from gambling sources. It has received no money from Ralph Reed or his lobby group.
ALCAP’s annual budget is less than $500,000 and its income below that. Alabama Baptists provide about 80 percent of the total budget. Other churches, denominations and a few individuals provide the rest.
ALCAP’s strength is its network of Christians. This network includes Baptists, United Methodists, Presbyterians, Nazarenes, Free Will Baptists, Assembly of God and others. That provides a potential reach equaled by few, if any, other groups in the state. It is that reach into home communities that makes ALCAP a potent force on moral and ethical issues before the state legislature.
Ireland is respected in the Alabama Legislature. He was elected state Senate chaplain. Part of that respect comes from his careful efforts to avoid any conflict of interests.
Each week of the legislative session, ALCAP leads a prayer breakfast attended by 40–50 state legislators. Groups line up to sponsor that breakfast. Lobbyists for breweries and other questionable groups have offered. Ireland has steadfastly refused, saying that he could not allow that because it could raise questions about who was helping to pay for ALCAP programs.
If ALCAP is that careful about who sponsors its prayer breakfasts, one can be assured that the source of every dollar underwriting its ongoing programs is carefully scrutinized. Neither ALCAP nor Ireland has accepted any gambling money.
During the last legislative session a bill was submitted to require that groups such as Christian Coalition and ALCAP open their books for public inspection. Ireland declared that he was willing to open ALCAP’s books provided all other lobbying groups did the same. If the public has the right to know the sources of funds for groups opposing gambling, do they not have the right to know the source of funds for groups advocating legalized gambling in Alabama? The same holds true for any issue.
Current Alabama law makes it practically impossible to trace who is financing what issue or who is supporting what candidate for that matter. Many who have set out to follow the money trail behind public figures and public issues have given up in frustration.
It would be a great service to the public good of Alabama to revise state laws so that the financial interest in politics would be transparent to all state citizens. That applies to candidates as well as ballot issues.
But, until that happens, Alabama Baptists can be assured that ALCAP does not take gambling money.
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