TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Rich Wingo was a linebacker for the University of Alabama during one of the most famous plays in college football history, “The Goal Line Stand” in the 1978 national championship game against Penn State. Almost four decades later, he is preparing to make a very different stand, this time against the lottery in his current role as a state lawmaker.
In 1999, Alabamians voted down Gov. Don Siegelman’s proposed “education lottery” 54% to 46%. Since then, numerous statewide candidates — most of them Democrats — have run on a platform of letting the people vote again. In 2016, with Alabama’s budgeting woes continuing and the $1.6 billion Powerball jackpot sending lottery advocates into a craze, another push is beginning to emerge.
State Senator Jim McClendon (R-Springville) has filed a lottery bill for the 2016 legislative session, which is set to begin next month.
“I am sponsoring this because of constituent requests,” McClendon told ABC 33/40’s Lauren Walsh. “Throughout my district, people have said why don’t we have a lottery in Alabama? We’re driving to Georgia and Tennessee. We’re driving out of state and spending our money and we’d like to spend our money right here at home.”
McClendon says he believes the lottery would raise $300 million in additional revenue for the state on an annual basis, but his bill does not stipulate what the funds would be used for.
McClendon’s legislation, which would put the issue to a vote of the people, likely in November, has begun to pick up support, even from lawmakers who are not personally in favor of the lottery but are open to letting the statewide electorate vote.
State Rep. Wingo (R-Tuscaloosa) is not one of those lawmakers.
“I hope we’re seeking the word of God and for guidance,” Wingo told ABC 33/40. “I find nowhere in the Bible does it talk about the lottery in a positive way… I am totally opposed to any kind of gaming, the lottery. God won’t bless it.”
Wingo specifically referenced Matthew 25, in which Jesus tells the “Parable of the Talents.” In the story, two servants who invest their master’s money wisely are blessed, while a third who buried his money in the sand was chastised for being “wicked and slothful.”
The full parable can be read below.
Alabama’s 2016 Regular Legislative Sessions is set to begin next month.
The Parable of the Talents — Matthew 25:14-30 (Jesus speaking)
14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away.
16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.’
26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
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