There's a couple of thoughts that come to mind: for one, most Protestants have lost the ability to distinguish between sin and vice, which was a clear distinction to the great Reformers. While the vast majority of vices are also sins, they represent distinct ways of looking at problems. Vices are bad because they reduce our positive capacities for action, or have bad consequences, and are a sub-soteriological way of looking at human behavior. Modern pastors seem to think that if it's not clearly a sin, it's simply a vice, it's not their business to condemn it. Talking about petty vices opens them up to the common dishonest left-wing tactic of saying "if gambling, why not tobacco, video games, obesity, or other vices of excess." And more importantly, it runs against the deeply-seated secular religious maxim that whatever is consensual cannot be immoral.
The cynic in me wants to say that Evangelical elites simply don't care about vices that mostly harm the working classes, but in this case it's probably a broader acculturation to upper-middle class secular norms and a less malign ignorance of the way poor people live.
"The cynic in me wants to say that Evangelical elites simply don't care about vices that mostly harm the working classes, but in this case it's probably a broader acculturation to upper-middle class secular norms and a less malign ignorance of the way poor people live."
My thoughts exactly. Combine this with Ryan Burge's data showing that church attendance is increasingly an upper-middle class behavior, and our pastors are often in the situation where they have never personally encountered problem gambling. Let me raise my hand and say that I've never personally encountered problem gambling, only a few second-hand stories from a friend who used to drive limos to and from an Indian casino.
Lust is a human universal, affecting men of all temperaments, all social and economic classes, all levels of learning. When Augustine discusses being overcome with lust starting as a late teen in his Confessions, it reads like it might as well have been written yesterday.
But gambling isn't that way. I recognize the ruin that problem gambling can invite into a man's life, but my temperament is such that I have a lot of trouble relating to it.
There's also a generational element I've noticed. Older, working-class Evangelical leaders are far more likely to focus on alcohol. I got chewed out by a former boss once by asking why we emphasize temperance so much but never say a word about the vices of what we watch on the television. We can condemn porn, but not Netflix, yet sometimes I have trouble telling them apart.
Gambling and pornography… two of the most widespread, soul-destroying vices, both now near omnipresent in communities as they are both easily accessible from the smartphones every normie Christian parent lets their children have… and you can go years in “respectable” churches without hearing a single word about either from the pulpit. Just pathetic.
(We are blessed in our church to have a pastor who preaches fearlessly on these topics but we ain’t that respectable ; ) )
So, didn’t realize there’s a book called Outliers. Wondering if that’s the impetus for the original group?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outliers_(book)
There's a couple of thoughts that come to mind: for one, most Protestants have lost the ability to distinguish between sin and vice, which was a clear distinction to the great Reformers. While the vast majority of vices are also sins, they represent distinct ways of looking at problems. Vices are bad because they reduce our positive capacities for action, or have bad consequences, and are a sub-soteriological way of looking at human behavior. Modern pastors seem to think that if it's not clearly a sin, it's simply a vice, it's not their business to condemn it. Talking about petty vices opens them up to the common dishonest left-wing tactic of saying "if gambling, why not tobacco, video games, obesity, or other vices of excess." And more importantly, it runs against the deeply-seated secular religious maxim that whatever is consensual cannot be immoral.
The cynic in me wants to say that Evangelical elites simply don't care about vices that mostly harm the working classes, but in this case it's probably a broader acculturation to upper-middle class secular norms and a less malign ignorance of the way poor people live.
"The cynic in me wants to say that Evangelical elites simply don't care about vices that mostly harm the working classes, but in this case it's probably a broader acculturation to upper-middle class secular norms and a less malign ignorance of the way poor people live."
My thoughts exactly. Combine this with Ryan Burge's data showing that church attendance is increasingly an upper-middle class behavior, and our pastors are often in the situation where they have never personally encountered problem gambling. Let me raise my hand and say that I've never personally encountered problem gambling, only a few second-hand stories from a friend who used to drive limos to and from an Indian casino.
Lust is a human universal, affecting men of all temperaments, all social and economic classes, all levels of learning. When Augustine discusses being overcome with lust starting as a late teen in his Confessions, it reads like it might as well have been written yesterday.
But gambling isn't that way. I recognize the ruin that problem gambling can invite into a man's life, but my temperament is such that I have a lot of trouble relating to it.
There's also a generational element I've noticed. Older, working-class Evangelical leaders are far more likely to focus on alcohol. I got chewed out by a former boss once by asking why we emphasize temperance so much but never say a word about the vices of what we watch on the television. We can condemn porn, but not Netflix, yet sometimes I have trouble telling them apart.
Gambling and pornography… two of the most widespread, soul-destroying vices, both now near omnipresent in communities as they are both easily accessible from the smartphones every normie Christian parent lets their children have… and you can go years in “respectable” churches without hearing a single word about either from the pulpit. Just pathetic.
(We are blessed in our church to have a pastor who preaches fearlessly on these topics but we ain’t that respectable ; ) )