In
a move made famous by Pontius Pilate, Tennessee Legislators "washed their hands"
of the lottery issue, violating their oath of office not to vote for
any resolution which they could not personally support, all under the guise
of "letting the people decide." What happened with the lottery vote is
terribly corrupting to the entire state. The lottery referendum provides an
opportunity for businesses and lobbyists who do business with the state to
be shaken down for contributions to the "lottery referendum fight".
Additionally, if Tennessee follows the example of other states, there will
be no limit on the amount of money given to these funds, so those seeking
favor with state government, as well as the gambling industry, the side-line
industries (check cashers, pawn shops, etc who feed off the poorest lottery
players) can contribute as much as they need. These contributions will buy
huge amounts of advertising compared to the amount the church people of
Tennessee will be forced by conscience to give. Churches sacrificially came
up with $1,400,000 in South Carolina and $1.3 mil in Alabama. In Tennessee, this
unfair fight was thrown into our laps by legislators who wouldn't uphold their oath of
office and vote their conscience on this bill. Most of the Northeast Tennessee
legislators are good people opposed to a state
lottery. You've seen many of their quotes in the papers against the
lottery. According to Article X, sections 1 and 2, all legislators take the
following oath prior to doing their business: I will not propose or assent
to any bill, vote, or RESOLUTION, which shall appear to me injurious to the
people. I believe the legislators who plan to vote against the lottery when
it comes to the floor after the referendum have violated that oath. They
are constitutionally bound not to support anything they can't vote for
personally. Constitutionally, they don't have to know of problems, they
have to think there might be problems. There is a serious problem with the
state getting into the gambling business.
The people have always had the right to vote on amending the constitution on any issue
their legislators were convinced would be good for the people.
Instead the process with amending the lottery prohibition has been corrupt
from the beginning. The constitutional procedure has been corrupted with
legislators violating their oath and voting for legislation for which they
don't support the outcome. The media have been corrupted from the very
beginning with their cry of "let the people vote" when the people could
always vote if their legislators could support the outcome. The media have
had a financial interest in a referendum-- everyone in the media make money
on the referendum battle, then the broadcast media get the biggest chunk of
lottery revenues prior to the first dime going to education. From 1989 to
1999, the lottery referendums all had attorney general opinions saying
removing the prohibition would open the doors to all forms of gambling, but
the media would scoff at opponents who repeated the Attorney General's
opinion, and repeat the false issue of letting the people vote. We will
never be able to expect any "Rocky Top Bingo" type investigation when the
media and the state are co-conspirators in suckering the citizens of
Tennessee to spend their money on state-sponsored gambling with odds of
14,000,000 to one against the citizens. The process is corrupt today, and
it will continue to be corrupt as a result of this yes vote by legislators
who personally can't support a lottery. The church, required by God to be
the light of the world, has to fight this issue and buy advertising to try
to show what's about to happen to our state with a state-sponsored numbers racket set up
to make suckers of people the state is supposed to protect.
Then, after we fight the best we can against all the financial forces
involved in this unfair battle, when the lottery passes the churches have to
pick up the pieces from the damage done to the citizenry-- the damage done
to homes, to families, to budgets-- with financial aid or ministry time
devoted to problems caused by the state. Yes, the church has to be in the
fight, and I hope the majority of churches will take their proper role in
insisting that the state take its proper role-- protector, not predator.
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