Indiana Methodist ministers come out against gambling at conference on campus

Indiana clergy members took a stand against gambling Friday. Literally.\nInside the IU Auditorium, about 1,200 United Methodist ministers and lay leaders from southern Indiana rose from their seats in a standing vote to display their overwhelming approval of a resolution to lobby against the expansion of gambling in the state.\nThe resolution was part of the United Methodist Church’s Southern Indiana Annual Conference, which drew church delegates together on the IU campus to worship as well as to discuss and vote on pressing issues facing the denomination. Delegates represented some 600 congregations throughout southern Indiana including churches in Indianapolis, Evansville, Terre Haute and Bloomington. \nThe Rev. Tom Grey, a former Methodist minister and a spokesperson for the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling, was the keynote speaker on the gambling issue.\n“It’s divisive and a menace to society that hurts the people that have no one to stand up for them,” he said. “The bottom line is that the state is addicted to gambling. It’s like a friend about to lose his job and family from gambling – you step in and pull him up.”\nThe resolution called for congregations to ask the Indiana General Assembly to put a permanent freeze on gambling expansion, oppose leasing the Hoosier State Lottery to a private firm and allow Hoosiers the right to vote on gambling issues.\nThe Rev. Roy Carpenter, a United Methodist minister from Holland, Ind., said he supports the resolution because of the negative repercussions of gambling.\n“It’s just a little bit sad that our state is one of the leaders in gambling,” he said. “I know there are some families that it has really decimated them. One family in our area lost their home because the gentleman had gotten involved in gambling on horse races.”\nThe delegates also voted to unite the two conferences of the Indiana United Methodist Church. The Northern Indiana Conference voted last week in favor of the measure. Carpenter said the change will bring more efficiency, less bureaucracy and more ministry.