I played for a couple of years as part of a syndicate.(Naughty me hehe!) Didn't see it as gambling but as purely a game of chance. Stopped when it was mentioned at a DA, fear of the elders etc.. Sad to say, if my numbers had come up I would have sneakily donated about £10k. Would probably have been scared about the inevitable questioning tho. Would they have taken it if they had known the where the money had come from? Now I buy the odd lucky dip - hey you've "got to be in it to win it". (Numbers today are rubbish.)
Whilst a JW did you play the National Lottery & would you have donated anything if you'd won?
by abbasgreta 7 Replies latest jw friends
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blondie
If I had won as a jw, I would have had to make it public where I live, so it I would have been tossed out. We play a little $1 here and there, cheap entertainment. We just made a few dollars enough to keep the dream going for a few more weeks.
It's always amazing to me that some jws or ex-jws when they were jws were more concerned about humans finding out when god supposedly sees everything per the bible.
The Israelites that said
"God has left the land and he is not seeing" but
(Proverbs 15:3) 3 The eyes of Jehovah are in every place, keeping watch upon the bad ones and the good ones.
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zed is dead
I bet if a JW won the grand prize and they tithed the winnings to Brooklyn, they would get a pass.
zed
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abbasgreta
I really don't (and didn't) see the Lottery as gambling - more like a "prize draw" - which the elders in our cong said was ok as long as you'd not 'staked'. ( LOL) About 80% of the English lottery fund goes to good causes for the community, and secretly I liked that. Felt like I was doing my "bit" - I always gave £5 on Red Nose Day too. Always chucked a quid in the busker's guitar case. Should have gone in the Cont. Box..... I know. Haha.
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Laika
I used to play in a work syndicate, I knew it was 'wrong' but I thought, how would I feel if everyone in the office won thousands/millions and I was left out?
I remember a talk at a Convention where the speaker (a DO I think) was talking about how some Witnesses will do 'immoral' things in secret, and he said 'Some witnesses even secretly buy lottery tickets' - Half the audience audibly gasped. Even then I found that hilarious.
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MrFreeze
I worked at a convenience store. My dad instilled in me the dangers about gambling. He used to own a store that had poker machines. One day he saw a man come in and spend his entire paycheck he just cashed next door in his machine. The guilt overcame him and he got rid of the machines.
While I have no problem with people spending a dollar here and there, it pains me to see people spend a lot of money on things like the three digit/four digit number drawings, especially when it was clear they really didn't have the money to be spending on it. I still don't play the lottery, even after leaving the JW's.
Although it does make me wonder why JW's are allowed to work at convenience stores when they sell cigarettes and lottery, but can't work at a casino.
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blondie
*** w82 7/15 p. 26 Benefiting From Your God-given Conscience ***
Employment Factors to Consider
When a Christian must make a decision about a certain employment, he should give thought first to what he would actually be doing. He might consider these two points:
Is the particular work condemned in the Bible?
The Bible condemns things such as stealing, idolatry and the misuse of blood, so a Christian could hardly engage in work where he directly promoted such things.
Would doing the work so closely link a person with a condemned practice that he would be a clear accomplice?
Even a janitor or a receptionist at a blood bank or a plant making only weapons of war is directly linked with work contrary to God’s Word.—Leviticus 17:13, 14; Isaiah 2:2-4.
Beyond what a person would actually be doing, some additional factors may have a bearing on the overall picture:
Is the work a human service that is not Biblically wrong?
A postman performs the service of delivering mail to homes and businesses. Would a Christian be condemned if among the places where he delivers mail are a few homes of thieves or a firm selling idols?—Matthew 5:45.
To what extent does one have authority over what is done?
A Christian owning a store would not stock and sell idols or blood sausage. He is not in the same situation as an employee at a supermarket that sells cigarettes or blood pudding among thousands of other items.
To what degree is the person involved?
An employee working as a cashier and only occasionally handling cigarettes might conclude that his situation is not the same as another employee who stocks these on the shelves almost all day.
What is the source of the pay or the location where it is done?
In a land where the government gives a church oversight of all social programs, a man might get his paycheck from a religious corporation. But actually his work of maintaining public parks is not on church property. Nor is it religious in nature or viewed as promoting false worship.
What is the overall effect of doing certain work?
Would doing the work stumble many, bringing on ‘reprehensibility’? (1 Timothy 3:2, 10) How would it affect the worker’s conscience?
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abbasgreta
Interesting about employment and conscience. In one cong an elder's wife (had come into the "truth" aged about 29) was a nurse. Whilst on a particular ward she received, logged, labelled and fridged all the blood conserves. She said she "had no choice". It was part of her job, full stop. Another female pioneer worked in a sweet shop and used to make up "birthday bouquets" out of sweets and also said she was in no position to "refuse". I remember being speechless. (!) Laika: Yeh, that was the talk. I think I was always a bit "different" or as they say in Germany, "anders". We were members of an english "Working Mens Club" because you could get a pint of beer for half the price of a pub. We liked a pint and I though it was good housekeeping, being pioneers. We used to buy bingo tickets for ourselves from the offie and "play along" with the real game because it was just such fun. My daughters loved it. Another pioneer sister told me she used to play real bingo once a year on holiday at the seaside so the annuality of it rendered it "not gambling". Aaahh, the old conscience was unpredictable sometimes.