Dear Editor,

Let me state from the outset that I highly respect Bishop Neil C. Ellis as a pastor and elder within the body of Christ. I don't agree with his politics, though. That being said, he has done a superb job at Mount Tabor Full Gospel Baptist Church in New Providence. I understand that he has the largest congregation in the capital. Hats off to him and his pastoral team at his church. The Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) has promised in its Charter for Governance that it will hold a referendum on illegal gambling and a national lottery within the first 100 days of its administration. Clearly time is of the essence for the new administration. It has nearly been a month now since the PLP came to power on May 7. So the governing party has about 70 days remaining to fulfill its promise to the Bahamian people.
By all accounts, it seems as if Prime Minister Perry G. Christie will follow through with his campaign promise. If the majority of the Bahamian electorate says yes to gambling on Referendum Day, then the country will have a national lottery within the next five years. Gone will be the days when Bahamian gamblers would be looking over their shoulders as they try their "luck" in the various web shops and Internet cafes in New Providence and Grand Bahama. Incidentally, I don't believe in such a thing as luck. God rules the entire universe.
It is likely that more than half the adult population in this country partakes in some form of gambling. According to American Christian commentator Rex M. Rogers, about 55 million Americans play lotteries per month, spending $88 million per day. I have no data on how many Bahamians gamble on a daily basis. Many of the Bahamian bosses of the number houses are multimillionaires, though. Therefore, their gambling businesses must be raking in millions of dollars.
Proponents of gambling argue that if it is decriminalized, the government would then collect millions annually from the number houses and from a national lottery. With budget deficits running into the hundreds of millions each year, clearly the Bahamian government is in dire need of additional revenues just to break even.
The gambling industry in this country is ripe for the picking. The Christie administration is well aware of this. That is why this current administration is eyeballing it. Herein lies the quandary that Ellis finds himself in. He recently told one of the leading dailies in Nassau that the Christian community should stand firmly in opposition to the PLP's planned referendum on illegal gambling and a national lottery. Now that he has openly opposed the prime minister's plans for gambling, the PLP administration and Ellis are on a collision course, it seems. But does Ellis really want to oppose Christie? Frankly, I don't think that he really wants to. But he has no other choice. If he doesn't oppose this PLP plan, FNM critics would then accuse him of being partisan and hypocritical. He had been very critical of the first two Ingraham administrations, especially during the days leading up to the 2002 general election.
The bishop warned that if gambling is legalized, blood would then be on our hands. The question, though, is whose hands he's talking about? The 75,000-plus voters, who supported the governing party on Election Day, or all Bahamians, including FNMs, non-voters, independents and supporters of the Bahamas Constitution Party (BCP) and the Democratic National Alliance (DNA)? I think it is unfair for Ellis to imply that all Bahamians would share some collective guilt for the tragic results of a national lottery. Over 51 percent of Bahamians who voted on May 7 rejected the PLP. They did not vote for this.
I think that this is a very interesting story to keep an eye on. It is interesting because Ellis and the Baptist community are, in my view, rabid supporters of the PLP. In fact, in the lead-up to the 2002 general election, Ellis openly endorsed Christie and his slate of candidates. Even after the then Christie team won the government that year, Ellis took several PLP government officials to one of his conferences in the U.S. I understand that one of Christie's Cabinet ministers and his family attend Mount Tabor.
I also find it interesting that Ellis didn't call on the Christian community before Election Day to oppose the PLP when its candidates were preaching to their thousands of loyal supporters at their Gold Rush rallies that a PLP government would hold a referendum on illegal gambling within 100 days of its administration. He chose instead to oppose them after they had won the government.
Ellis, in my opinion, knows full well that had he openly opposed the then official opposition in the press, as he is doing now, the PLP would have lost votes from the Christian community. But he couldn't risk that. You see, he didn't want to hurt Christie's chances of becoming prime minister again. With tens of thousands of Bahamians, Christians and non-Christians, depending on Cash 3 and Play 4 in order to put bread on their tables and to keep a roof over their heads, it is quite possible that Ellis is preaching to the choir on this issue.
Had it not been for the number houses, many of these people who gamble for a living would have probably been up the creek by now. This is not to say that I support gambling. I don't. Unfortunately for Ellis and I, there's is no eleventh commandment in the Bible which says thou shall not gamble. That being said, there are 40,000-odd unemployed Bahamians who are at their wits' end. Thousands of them have been out of work for months, and in some cases, years. I could knock gambling as much as I want. But the fact of the matter is I am gainfully employed and I have a roof over my head. Furthermore, my utility bills are being paid on a timely basis. Many of these chronic gamblers cannot say the same thing. Still, being jobless does not justify gambling.
According to Rogers, gambling violates at least five doctrines of Scripture: the sovereignty of God, stewardship, covetousness, brotherly love, and God's instruction not to be brought under the power of anything. Rogers' excellent essay, entitled Gambling in America, can be found on the Christian Research Institute's website. His arguments against gambling are more convincing than Ellis' and Bishop Reno Smith's of Grand Bahama, with all due respect to both clergymen.
Smith told one of the leading dailies that should those people (gamblers) lose their homes, their income etc., they should not be allowed to go to the Department of Social Services to be sustained by the taxpayers of this country. Smith talks as if gamblers wouldn't be paying taxes. His position is not only unfair, but it also makes absolutely no sense at all. Are you saying, sir, that Bahamians who pay taxes in this country should be disenfranchised by the state because they choose to gamble? If the government of The Bahamas implements a system in which Bahamians lose their hard-earned possessions, how could you say that the government should not give some kind of assistance to these unfortunate people? Mind you, it would be the government and the gambling bosses who would mostly be benefitting from the losses of these people.
I hope that the Christie administration does not legalize gambling. If it does, then PLP supporters should bear some of the blame. After all, they voted for the PLP on May 7. They knew full well during the campaign that Christie and his candidates were all over The Bahamas campaigning on this very issue.
I call on all FNM, DNA, BCP, independent and non-voting Christians to respectfully oppose the Christie administration's plan to legalize gambling. If the 51 percent of the electorate who voted against the PLP sticks together, this dangerous plan will come to naught. Remember, vote no on Referendum Day. The Christian community cannot allow the PLP to win this crucial referendum. Our Christian heritage is at stake.

- Kevin Evans

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