BILL BENNETT'S GAMBLE

Legal But Far From Virtuous

The first question that comes to mind about Bill Bennett's gambling habit
is the same one we ask our teen-agers when they act in ridiculous fashion:
"What were you thinking?"

In case you've somehow missed it, the story of Bennett's escapades has been
splashed all over the nation's media this week. It appears that over the
last decade, Bennett has lost about $8 million dollars in casinos. He
apparently has a thing for video poker and slot machines. In fact, he's
lost so much money that at least two casinos have given him "High Roller"
status, whatever that is. I guess it's a coveted designation for losers.

Bennett's activities are especially shocking considering the fact that he
is the foremost spokesman for morality in the country. He parlayed his
tenure as Education Secretary in President Ronald Reagan's cabinet to
best-selling author. "The Book of Virtues" is his creation and has sold
millions of copies to parents who are conscientious about teaching their
children traditional values. He's written several other books in the same vein.

He co-founded "Empower America," a grass-roots effort to re-instill
morality into America's culture. In the last couple of years he has
occupied a highly visible position as a leader of the Republican Right as
they espouse traditional values. Bennett has been by far the most vocal and
effective leader of the resurgence of traditional, moral standards in the
nation's political arena.

For him to be exposed as, apparently, a compulsive if not addictive gambler
is as shocking as evangelist Jimmy Swaggert's dalliance with prostitutes or
Ken Lay's debauchment of Enron. It strikes most Americans as a moral
collapse on a grand scale.

Both those who have worked alongside him and those who have opposed him
down through the years have weighed in on his situation.

Dr. James Dobson, leader of Focus on the Family, has worked for years
alongside of Bennett. He was obviously shaken by the news. Dobson said he
was "disappointed to learn our longtime friend, Dr Bill Bennett, is dealing
with what appears to be a gambling addiction."

On the other hand, Bennett's critics are having a field day. Long
suspicious of his message of traditional virtues as well as his
condescending method of supporting those virtues, many liberals throughout
the country were delighted with the news of Bennett's weakness.

Michael Kinsley, for instance, concludes his scathing denunciation of
Bennett's situation in this week's Washington Post by noting that, "He is
smug, disdainful, intolerant. He gambled on bluster -- and lost."

Bennett, however, defended himself in the current edition of the
"Washington Monthly." He said that his gambling wasn't wrong because "I
don't play the 'milk money.' I don't put my family at risk, and I don't owe
anyone anything." He went on to compare gambling to alcohol: "If you can't
handle it, don't do it," he said.

Others have also rallied to his cause, claiming that what Bennett did
wasn't illegal or immoral. And with his considerable financial resources,
he was well able to foot the bill.

Nationally syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher, like Bennett a devout
Catholic, had perhaps the most novel defense. In her May 7 column, she
pointed out that Catholics don't view gambling in the same fashion as
Protestants. For them, she says, gambling is perfectly fine, as long as no
one else is hurt. In effect she says to the critics of Bennett: "It's a
Catholic thing; you wouldn't understand."

Maybe. Although $8 million in losses seems to most Americans to transcend
denominational distinctions. And there's this part of it as well: how many
hours does someone have to sit in front of video poker machine, in a
darkened, windowless, airless room, by themselves, away from wife and
children, in order to lose that much money? Something is deeply troubling
about that image, especially for a leader of moral virtue.

Is it legal? Sure. Is it defensible? I don't think so. Is it wise? No way.
Is it virtuous? You don't even need to ask.

None of this, of course, affects the truth of what Bill Bennett has been
saying. For all of us -- like preachers, speakers and leaders -- who
attempt in our frail, limited ways to speak of morality and truth, there's
always the very real danger that we ourselves will not get it right. We
are, after all, only human. Just because the messenger falls short doesn't
mean the message is false.

The virtuous life is the best life. It's the most real, the most rewarding,
the most loving and, in the end, the most acceptable to our Maker. And it's
to Him that one day we all must give account.

In the meantime, there will continue to be accounts of leaders like Bill
Bennett, good men who fall short of their own convictions.

The Rev. Mike Turner is pastor of First Baptist Church on Gum Branch Road
in Jacksonville. His column, "Outlook of Faith," appears on Saturday in The
Daily News. Readers can contact the Rev. Turner in care of The Daily News,
P.O. Box 196, Jacksonville, NC 28541-0196.