Christians & the Lottery
@creativemusician (29)
May 11, 2007 6:27pm CST
I'm a Christian who's feeling the strain @ the moment. I'm in debt through no fault of my own. I've been quite ill & the British benefits system failed me miserably. I've found a syndicate system on the internet & have entered. My situation is that although I've finally got benefits (though not much), I still have to choose between food & replacing the clothes that don't fit or have holes in them! I'm not playing so I get loadsa money, I just want enough to sort myself out.
However, I'm worried about how people @ my Church will react if they find out where the money's come from! A few years ago, someone questioned if we should accept money from someone if they won the money on the lottery & donated some of it to us. I don't remember a huge amount about the outcome, but people made it clear how they felt about playing the Lottery.
I looked @ the 10 commandments & if anything it would stop me from breaking them. At the moment I'm jealous of people who have enough to live on. I don't begrudge them what they have, but I can't keep struggling on like this!
I've seen this thing work, so I'm not worried about that, I'd just have to be patient. But it greatly improves the odds. The way it works is more like a business.
Plus, in Bible times even Christian used to draw lots to decide things & then there was the parable about the rich fool who buried all his money to keep it "safe" instead of using it to "earn" himself more money!
I feel like I'm being slowly crushed from every direction! Sort myself out, or earn the disapproval & judgement of other Christian who mean a lot to me!
3 people like this
4 responses
@dlkuku (1935)
• United States
12 May 07
I think in one aspect, God doesn't want us to spend our money foolishly, He wants us to be wise stewards of our money, and use it well. We don't always do that, I know I am not very good at using my money wisely. I think the church frowns on the lottery and gambling per say because their are those who really get addicted to it, to the point where they end up in so much debt even to the point where they lose their homes. I know a woman whose husband was actually 'stealing' from her checking account to gamble which caused a lot of problems with checks bouncing and created huge problems for them.
I actually don't see anything wrong with buying an occassional lottery ticket, especially ones that support a good cause.
@mehale (2200)
• United States
12 May 07
I am really not sure that there is anything wrong with playing the lottery, or even gambling as long as it is done in small doses and done the right way. Excess of anything is bad. It sounds to my like you are trying very hard to find a way to improve your situation, and I certainly wouldn't think that your fellow Christians would begrudge you a better way of life. I certainly wouldn't.
2 people like this
@pumpkinjam (8775)
• United Kingdom
12 May 07
Not being religious myself, I can not pass any moral judgement on your circumstances. But, knowing what it is like to be financially hard-up, I know that you feel you just want to do everything possible in order to make ends meet. You're not being greedy to want enough money to live on so I don't see why any good person would have a problem with you trying. Surely, if you mean as much to your fellow Christians as they do to you, someone there will be able to help you out, not necessarily financially but maybe with advice or even passing on some clothes to you so you only need to worry about buying food.
I don't personally believe that the lottery is that good but if it is one of the ways you can use then do it. Saying that, you would probably be better off putting aside the £1 or whatever it is you will be putting on the lottery because if you can use it for a lottery ticket, you can save it. At least then you can have a guaranteed amount of money at the end of however long you choose to save.
If you want any information on how to cut back on spending and for other financial information check out my site http://freepracticalfinance.moonfruit.com
1 person likes this
@danishcanadian (28955)
• Canada
12 May 07
Christian, Jew, Muslim... doesn't matter to me. I'm happy, as long as the person has ocme by the money HONESTLY. It's better to except lottery winnings than to rob a bank.
Also, when I buy lotto tickets, I buy from places where a percentage of the proceeds go to places like the CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) so that others can be helped too. ALSO, if I win, I'm going to spread it around and help a lot of people.
