Religion Unplugged

🏈 Faith and football: Would Jesus bet on the Super Bowl? 🔌

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By Bobby Ross Jr. | Religion Unplugged

The numbers game: “An estimated 67.8 million Americans are expected to bet on Sunday’s Super Bowl, a 35% increase from last year, according to survey results published Tuesday by the American Gaming Association, a trade group.”

That’s the synopsis from the Wall Street Journal’s Richard Vanderford.

But don’t expect many pastors to place a wager on Kansas City or San Francisco to win the game, Lifeway Research’s Aaron Earls advises:

Despite its legalization across many states, U.S. Protestant pastors remain opposed to sports gambling, but they’re not doing much about it, according to a Lifeway Research study. Few pastors (13%) favor legalizing sports betting nationwide and most (55%) say the practice is morally wrong.

“Anything can happen in sports, and many Americans want the same allure of an unexpected win in sports to translate into an unexpected financial windfall,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “Most pastors see moral hazards in sports betting and believe American society would be better off without it.”

Long odds: Given the billions of dollars that legalized betting generates, faith leaders in the few holdout states that forbid it “know the odds are against stopping it,” according to Religion News Service’s Bob Smietana.

Smietana explains:

Some of the nation’s largest faith groups have long considered gambling immoral, or a “menace to society,” as the United Methodist Church social principles put it. But faith leaders like Davis are likely fighting an uphill battle, said longtime Boston College professor and Jesuit priest Richard McGowan.

McGowan, who has been nicknamed “the Odds Father” because of his research on gambling, said faith leaders were caught flatfooted by how fast legalized sports gambling became commonplace.

At ReligionLink.com, find statements on how various religious groups — from Muslims to Mormons — view gambling.

In a story last year, Christianity Today’s Emily Belz delved into how Christians can respond to the “trail of addiction” the quick expansion of gambling is leaving.

Read the full column.

This column appears in the online magazine Religion Unplugged.

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