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What pastors and church leaders can do to prevent a lottery from coming to North Carolina

  1. Be personally informed and educated about gambling and the lottery and its impact on society. The Christian Action League suggests the following books:

      The Luck Business, by Robert Goodman, Published by The Free Press

      Selling Hope, by Charles Clotfelter and Philip Cook, Published by Harvard

      University Press

      Seducing America, by Rex Rogers, Published by Baker Books

      The Luck Business and Selling Hope may be purchased through Amazon.com. Seducing America may be purchased through the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. You can reach them by calling 615-244-2495.

  2. Decide to get involved. Christians are called to be salt and light. Christians are to have a preserving effect on their culture, protecting it from evil and corruption. Christians are supposed to expose and arrest the great evils of the day.

  3. Pastors should preach a sermon on gambling and the lottery. They should provide education on the problems of gambling. This is simply being faithful to their commission to preach the whole counsel of God.

  4. Invite a Representative of the Christian Action League to speak about gambling and the lottery. Call 919-787-0606.

  5. Support the Christian Action League financially. CAL is on the front line in the General Assembly of North Carolina combating the gambling industry and its highly paid and influential lobbyists. Take up a special offering in your church or put the League in your church's budget.

  6. Get to know your state representatives and state senators. Visit them. No influence is better or stronger than your personal input. Attend their meetings in your area and share your opposition to the lottery. Write to them. E-mail them. Call them. Lead your people to get to know them and contact them as well. Don't listen to the cynics; your efforts do make a difference. If you don't know who your state representatives and senators are, CAL can provide you with their names and contact information.

  7. Write a letter to the editor or an op-ed for your local newspaper, which delineates the harmful effects of a lottery and persuades others to oppose it. You could also send these to the larger newspapers like the News and Observer.

  8. Go to the Christian Action League's website at christianactionleague.net and pull up the prepared resolution on gambling. Get your church to adopt this resolution and send it to the legislators from your county. You can also access our Lottery petition on the same website. Get as many people in your county as possible to sign it and send it to your state representative and senators.

  9. Contact community and other religious groups. Share with them the problems associated with lotteries and ask them to work with you and defeat lottery legislation.

  10. Stay informed. Know what are the latest issues and significant people in the lottery debate. Keep your people informed.

  11. Remember, lotteries can be defeated. They were defeated in the past in our country because people saw how corrupt they were. They can be stopped today for the same reasons.

  12. Most importantly, pray, pray, pray!!! Claim James 1:5, God's promise for wisdom, and ask God to guide you in all that you do. You can be certain that God will answer that prayer. Furthermore, pray that God would spare our state the scourge of a lottery. Ask him to turn the hearts and minds of our legislators and other key leaders against it. While you are praying, don't forget to pray for CAL and its efforts to oppose a lottery in North Carolina.