I love the written word, the spoken word, and the sung word. As a regular preacher, words are especially important to me. Understanding how to best use words — to evoke vivid imagery, strong emotions, and moving memories — is essential to fulfilling my mission to bring people closer to God.
I also closely follow nascent social trends, such as the proliferation of legal gambling. What I’ve noticed is that as legal gambling expands in cities and states, so too do the words we use to describe it. This is no coincidence. The Reverend Desmond Tutu once said, “Words do not just describe realities, Create the reality it depicts” (emphasis added).
As we regularly hear news of corporate casino marketing campaigns, I pray that people of good will be able to articulate in clear moral terms the real realities that legalized gambling creates: meaningless lives, unlivable cities, and a fundamental decline in hope. Using moral language will create a transcendent reality in which better life choices can be made.
The linguistic constructions of legalized gambling are cleverly transactional, patently mundane, and, above all, just plain fun. Chicago’s casinos are described as “the opportunity of a lifetime,” creating “good-paying union jobs,” and a “major source of revenue” (to attract gamblers living outside the city).
Our very understanding of gambling has been erased by the use of “gambling,” “entertainment,” and “destination resorts” as euphemisms.In the boldest redefinition of language, the Des Plaines Casino, which opened in 2011, was built on a shallow pool of water to meet the regulatory requirements of the time and qualify as a “riverboat casino” on the “river.”
To some, this language is simply clever marketing. To me, it is plain offensive and I refuse to tolerate it in silence.
“It confuses the brain and reduces dignity.”
While I have no illusions that we will reverse policy decisions that further institutionalize gambling, I hope that good people who work hard, play by the rules, and contribute to their communities will find the pure moral language to condemn legalized gambling for what it is. Legalized gambling, like tobacco, opioids, and social media, manipulates and disrupts the way our brains function. It severs our connections with family, friends, and colleagues and isolates us in crowds. Worse, legalized gambling diminishes our human dignity and reduces us to animalistic appetites. We become rats running through a maze that promises rewards but is ultimately designed to deny them.
We often hear talk of the country being in a “vibesession,” referring to a disconnect between the performance of the economy and how people feel about their lives. In my view, the vibesession is also cultural, as on the one hand the government is encouraging destructive behavior to raise badly needed revenue, and on the other hand, Raising public awareness About “Gambling Disorder” 1.1 million residents Either they already have it or they are at risk of developing it. Such puzzling paradoxes are hidden by the fact that the words used to describe it are constantly shifting to change meaning.
Since moving to Chicago six years ago, I have had the pleasure of meeting and building relationships with the warm, kind and humble people who live here. Philoxenia (“Strangers to Friends.”) I’ve said that here many times, and I say it as a former New Yorker. To me, this city is about “building, destroying, [and] As Carl Sandburg pointed out, there is a “reconstruction” quality to a society, whether it’s recovery from fire, flood, or plague. This is a noble heritage worth preserving, and to me it counterbalances the degrading, alienating, and diminishing effects of legalized gambling.
September 9 marks the one-year anniversary of the opening of Chicago’s first land-based casino. Inevitably, coverage will be focused on how much gambling revenue was generated and whether the casinos were a good economic deal for the city.
As a person of faith and a witness to the goodness of this city, I offer a special prayer on that day in which good people of faith never forget that their understanding of their own dignity creates their own reality — the only reality that truly matters in a world full of distractions, temptations and uncertainties.
Archbishop Nathanael, Chicago Metropolitan Area It oversees the Greek Orthodox community in the Midwest.
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