Church leaders protest gambling expansion

In the waning days of the Indiana Legislature 2001, the gambling lobby is making every attempt to push for expansion.

With the state under pressure to balance a two-year budget and a reluctance to increase taxes, the contemplated action is to make the state dependent on gambling revenue and then partner the state into "dockside or flexible boarding" in order to increase revenue.

It is a strange incestuous relationship to approve rolling dice and slot machines to support our schools.

By the time this is read, a decision will probably be made unless there is an Adjourned Session.

Bishop Woodie W. White has taken leadership among the church denominations and urged his eighteen superintendents to request local church members to write and call on their legislator to oppose gambling expansion.

On March 29, in a historic first, the Bishop invited church leaders to call on Governor Frank O'Bannon,a United Methodist, to exert leadership to halt gambling expansion.

Present were Episcopal Bishop Catherine Waynick, ELCA Bishop James Stuck and representatives from the Baptist, Quaker, Catholic, Presbyterian, Church of Christ and Church of God, among others, including the Rev. Richard Hamilton of the Indiana Coalition Against Legalized Gambling.

"We all left the meeting feeling (the governor) was stronger in his opposition to gambling than we had anticipated," White said, adding that Gov. O'Bannon assured the group he would veto either of the gambling bills if passed by the Legislature. He went on to emphasize that Indiana UMs ought to get involved in the anti-gambling effort, "This must be seen as our campaign." John D. Wolf, Lynne DeMichele

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