*Yawn*
Don't get me wrong, I'm not fond of gambling. I think it's foolish. And I think State-sponsored or State-run gambling is a form of political corruption, as well as a stupid and hurtful way to fund the government. What I don't get, though, is why the Church is so all fired up on this.
Compare the same liberal UM clergy on the issue of, say, conducting gay weddings. Where is the moral passion against the normalization of homosexuality? Why beat up on the economically profligate (gamblers) but run to defend the sexually profligate (homosexuals)? And who gets to pick among sins which ones we will baptize and say are now okay?
Nor am I singling out gays and saying they're particularly bad people. Pound for pound, they're no worse (and no better) than anybody else. The question is, why is one sin the thing we're all supposed to fight to our last breath, when this other sin is being recommended to us as the New Normal? And why are UM clergy willing to break the very rules they promised to uphold and still expect not to be punished for it? Is this any way to run a Church?
I believe in showing mercy to sinners. I also believe, as my charismatic friend put it to me, that "God blesses obedience." I look at my liberal colleagues, though, and I see them showing mercy to some sinners but not to others. I see them demanding obedience when they howl their calls to action, but then in the next breath howling just as loudly their demand that they be allowed to be disobedient to the very Church they are leading.
Who can make sense of such crazy people?
