Ministers Against VLTs

"The church has a responsibility to help bring morals to the area and help bring people out of certain lifestyles," said Bishop James M. Briscoe, pastor of Free Gospel Church of Bryans Road in Indian Head. "Gambling is something we don't need in the community." Proponents say that legalizing slots would help produce badly needed revenue for education and other programs in a state facing serious budget problems. Ministers have been an important part of the anti-slots effort, said Bridgett Frey, a spokeswoman for Marylanders United Against Slots. The group provides brochures describing arguments against slots to ministers and other community leaders, and the material "flies out the door," she said. Marylanders United lists more than 30 religious leaders among its roughly 150-member steering committee, including Briscoe, treasurer of the Charles ministers alliance. "People are so jaded by Annapolis at this point that politicians are a difficult group to trust," Frey said. "But when your pastor looks at you and says this is the wrong decision for the state, we think that's a very powerful message." Members of the ministers alliance said that moral and religious beliefs prompted them to oppose the legalization of slot machines. Many cite Scriptural prohibitions against gambling, including a passage from Proverbs that says, "An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed." Pastor Willie R. Hunt, who leads New Community Church of God in Christ in Waldorf, said he has seen the harm that gambling can cause families. He said he has counseled people who have lost their homes and watched personal relationships deteriorate. Briscoe, a lifelong Maryland resident and longtime pastor in Prince George's and Charles counties, said he remembers watching people put money into slot machines for hours during the 1950s, when they were legal. The machines prey on lower-income people hoping to get rich quickly, he said, and they contribute to the moral degradation of the community.