BENNETT'S GAMBLING ADDICTION LAMENTED

Protestants Target Writer Of 'Virtues'

Gambling is no virtue but, religiously speaking, is it a vice?

Since William Bennett, author of "The Book of Virtues," was revealed as a
high-stakes casino player, several Protestant organizations have lamented
his gambling, which they consider sinful.

But groups from the Roman Catholic Church, Bennett's own denomination, have
remained largely silent, reflecting a long-standing split in Christianity
over gambling.

Bennett, who was education secretary under President Reagan and drug policy
director for the first President Bush, swore off casinos Monday following
stories by Newsweek and The Washington Monthly that detailed his gambling.

"This is not an example I wish to set," Bennett said.

Yet the U.S. Catholic bishops' conference, which has pronounced on
virtually every major social problem over the past few decades, has never
addressed this issue, though individual bishops and groups of bishops have
sometimes opposed legalized gambling in their cities and states.

By contrast, both liberal and conservative Protestant church officials have
issued repeated denunciations of legalized gambling.

They agree that it's a serious social problem and a sinful practice that
builds upon greed and deceit, destroys families, exploits the poor and
fosters crime.

Pained responses came this week from conservative Protestants, for whom
Bennett has been a favorite Catholic commentator.

The Presbyterian Lay Committee, a conservative organization that featured
Bennett at its national meeting, said Bennett's claim that gambling was not
a moral issue showed the same ethical indifference he has decried in others.

Gambling is "a cancer in our society," the Presbyterians stated.

The same view came from James Dobson, an evangelical who has hosted Bennett
on his influential "Focus on the Family" radio program and features
Bennett's books on his Web site.

Dobson said "we are disappointed" that Bennett has "what appears to be a
gambling addiction." Dobson stressed that his organization is "strongly
opposed to any form of gambling" due to its "power to ensnare and wound not
only its victims but also those closest to them."

Robert Parham of Nashville's Baptist Center for Ethics, a critic of
religious conservatives, said the fact that Bennett would "engage in one of
the nation's most destructive vices undermines his credibility." Secular
liberals made the same point.

Bennett told Newsweek and Washington Monthly that "I liked church bingo
when I was growing up" and that he had gambled ever since. Many Catholic
parishes in America have used bingo or casino nights to raise money.

"I don't play the 'milk money.' I don't put my family at risk," Bennett
said. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says wagers "are not in
themselves contrary to justice" but "become morally unacceptable" if they
deprive people of basic needs.

"The passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement," the catechism warns.

Last year, President Bush and the Congress received an appeal against
legalized gambling from more than 200 Protestants who agree on little else.

Signers included Dobson and other evangelicals along with the top
Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian executives.

Only one Catholic priest signed the statement.