Casino Decision in Singapore
Today, the Singapore government announced its plans to build an integrated resort, which will include a gaming (read: casino) aspect as part of its facilities.
Instead of merely reiterating the points that both sides of the camp have for and against the casino, it will be interesting to find out how Christians view the matter.
The traditional evangelical response will be: its bad because gambling is bad. While I have no qualms against advocating the harms of gambling, I think the Christian should have a much more reasoned approach in viewing the matter - making simplistic statements without a theological foundation (which many of us are sometimes guilty of doing) will probably leave the church a lot poorer (and not to mention, much less believable) when combating against social ills nor is it sufficient to say because God (or the Bible says so).
I am not exactly terribly persuaded of the benefits of an integrated resort, neither do I feel that our country is so inpoverished that we need an IR to keep the tourism dollars in, but having said so, the mandate of governance is sometimes a heavy one to bear, and decisions may not always be that of popular vote.
The Christian consensus should be even though something is legal does not make it ethical, and having a facility that is capable of tempting one to feed his greed is going to be very dangerous. The church should go further then simply condemning the decision to build the casino, and Christians who have social influences should make their stand whereever possible.
Casino or not, the presence of sin cannot be denied, but the good Christian should soldier on and to allow his good works to be a testimony of his words...time will tell whether the casino will be a good economic proposition.
Instead of merely reiterating the points that both sides of the camp have for and against the casino, it will be interesting to find out how Christians view the matter.
The traditional evangelical response will be: its bad because gambling is bad. While I have no qualms against advocating the harms of gambling, I think the Christian should have a much more reasoned approach in viewing the matter - making simplistic statements without a theological foundation (which many of us are sometimes guilty of doing) will probably leave the church a lot poorer (and not to mention, much less believable) when combating against social ills nor is it sufficient to say because God (or the Bible says so).
I am not exactly terribly persuaded of the benefits of an integrated resort, neither do I feel that our country is so inpoverished that we need an IR to keep the tourism dollars in, but having said so, the mandate of governance is sometimes a heavy one to bear, and decisions may not always be that of popular vote.
The Christian consensus should be even though something is legal does not make it ethical, and having a facility that is capable of tempting one to feed his greed is going to be very dangerous. The church should go further then simply condemning the decision to build the casino, and Christians who have social influences should make their stand whereever possible.
Casino or not, the presence of sin cannot be denied, but the good Christian should soldier on and to allow his good works to be a testimony of his words...time will tell whether the casino will be a good economic proposition.
posted by Benjamin Ho at
7:01 AM
2 Comments:
I'm glad you saw the urgent need for Asian Christians to be actively involved in the public ordering of society... in this arena, we can't quote verses and sing hymns as if others share the same 'faith statements'... We need to recover our 2000-year-old heritage to be able to speak sensibly to what is right, true and beautiful. :)
absolutely. the Christian must demonstrate the cultural and intellectual mandate - in addition to the spiritual mandate - that he is being created for.
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