N.C. religious leaders say lottery opposition is strong

Gary D. Robertson

Wednesday, June 26, 2002 | 9:49 a.m.

RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina churches shouldn't be taken lightly in their opposition to a lottery referendum or other numbers-game legislation, religious leaders say.

Citing what they call the lottery's ill effects upon the poor and society's work ethic, the leaders said Monday they will urge churchgoers to oppose state-sponsored gambling.

"We are speaking to them. We are mobilizing," said Jim Royston, executive director of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, the state's largest denomination with 1.2 million people.

Interest in a lottery has intensified at the General Assembly as budget-writers struggling to balance next year's budget look for recurring revenues for the years ahead. House Speaker Jim Black is looking at whether there are enough votes to pass a bill in the next couple of weeks that would call for a referendum.

Churchgoers would work to change minds by educating voters about the perils of a lottery, speakers said.

"I can assure you that Christian people will come to the polls in droves," said the Rev. Mark Creech of the Christian Action League of North Carolina, which represent churches from 17 conservative denominations. "Those margins could make a difference as to whether a candidate is elected."

Creech cited a 1999 vote against the lottery in Alabama and efforts to ban video poker in South Carolina as recent victories for religious groups against heavily financed opponents.

Gov. Mike Easley wants a state-run lottery to generate funds to reduce class sizes in the public schools and add seats for his "More at Four" preschool program. The Senate budget approved last week didn't include a lottery and denied expansion money for the programs.

Surveys have shown that a majority of North Carolina residents support an education lottery, a pro-lottery group's spokesman says, including a 2001 poll in which 60 percent of churchgoers said they had played a lottery in other states.

"The will of the people is ultimately what is heard," Gardner Payne with the North Carolina Lottery for Education Coalition said later Monday.

Speakers cited familiar anti-lottery themes: a disproportionate number of low-income people play the lottery; it's not a reliable source of revenue; and it can damage families through gambling addiction.

"We resist the false gospel of luck and materialism and ease that is proclaimed by a lottery," said the Rev. Hope Morgan Ward, superintendent of the United Methodist Church in the Raleigh area.

The Rev. John Vardaman said an acquaintance unaware of his ardent opposition gave the Wesleyan minister some lottery tickets he bought in South Carolina. After explaining his opposition, Vardaman scratched off the instant-win tickets as a rouse.

"There was a three-dollar winner. But the tickets cost 10 to 15 dollars," Vardaman, pastor of First Wesleyan Church in Gastonia, said. "That's part of the problem. You spend a lot. You get a little."

The religious leaders presented a partial list of nearly 30 ministers opposed to a lottery, including former and current Episcopal, Catholic and Methodist bishops, black church leaders and the Rev. Billy Graham.