Croupier Churches

Scandalous to U. S. moralists has been the increase, during the past three years, of petty gambling--bingo games and the like--under church auspices (TIME. Dec. 27, et ante). Whether or not they consider gaming sinful in itself, high-minded churchmen hold that the church bemeans herself by acting as croupier. Yet out of more than 200 U. S. Episcopal and Roman Catholic bishops--the most articulate shepherds of their flocks--not more than half-a-dozen in each church have spoken out against bingo games. Joining this minority last week. New York's austere Episcopal Bishop William Thomas Manning threw the weight of his office not only against bingo but against legalized lotteries, currently being considered by a convention elected to rewrite the New York State Constitution.

Said Bishop Manning: "I am wholly opposed to the raising of funds for the Church or its work by means of gambling games or gambling devices, and I trust that no parish or mission in this diocese will permit or countenance such action." The Bishop declared he was equally opposed to legalizing "the gambling spirit," even for charity. The annual convention of his diocese applauded, voted unanimously to notify the State constitutional convention of their disapproval of gambling.

Meanwhile in Albany, Protestant ministers had attended a hearing on a proposal to strike from the State Constitution its article against gambling. Though they were voluble concerning the moral aspects of gambling, the ministers were unable to explain why gambling, any more than prostitution, should be specifically unconstitutional. Roman Catholics kept mum. Their tidy attitude on this question is that gambling is licit if: 1) the gamer owns and can afford to lose what he wagers; 2) he acts of his own free will; 3) there is no fraud; 4) there is equality among the parties to the game. By no means all bingo games or lotteries fulfill these conditions.

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