Gambling is a big problem in our country and getting worse as our municipal, provincial and federal governments become more and more addicted to profit. I have permission to print this email exchange between two tired anti-gambling advocates who have been trying to stop the flood for many years now. UCC is The United Church of Canada, of which this sender is a member.

Good morning Bill:
I figured that the attached piece will make a good reading for the start of the day. Greed education? If it works like sex education it will render 12-year olds trying to be millionaires.

Your remark about the Toronto UCC pastor and the Camrose minister forming an East-West link intrigues me. I have always believed that, in order to get anywhere in curtailing all this gambling, we must get the clergy to wake up the pew sitters. So far all my efforts to encourage that sort of things have not borne fruits.

We face, in that respect, a number of difficulties. Evangelicals, in whatever Church they occupy pews, tend to think only of salvation. To put it crudely: they are on their way to heaven anyway, why bother with this world. A friend of mine put it this way: they’re so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good to anyone. I have shocked people by saying that, if the risen Lazarus had thought along those lines, he would have said to the Lord: “What a bummer! I had arrived! Why call me back?”

At the other end of the religious spectrum are those for whom church is only a social affair - social in the sense of friendly relations, not societal concern. In the middle are our R.C. friends, who’ll play Bingo and buy lottery tickets as long as it is for a good purpose. Almost like: the means justify the ends.

Might it be a good idea -and workable- to start stressing the need for small social concerns groups in every congregation? My own efforts have been mostly aimed at pastors, most of whom are far too busy with “spiritual” affairs to think outside their little box. What we have against us is that most pew sitters are so busy with satisfying the needs of their families -we all must keep up with our neighbours’ life-styles- that they have no time to volunteer for anything. And most women -the traditional volunteer pool- are now part of the workforce.

I am rambling on not only to get your ideas, but also to get my own into focus. Art and I have been talking about these things, too, and between the three of us we might get somewhere. Greetings, Johann

The second and third paragraphs ring sadly true.