MBC Launches Campaign to Stop

Branson Casino on Aug. 3rd Ballot

By Allen Palmeri, MBC Staff Writer

 

    The Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) has launched a campaign to defeat an August 3rd ballot initiative seeking to place a casino in family-oriented Branson, MO. Dubbed the ‘No Mo. Gambling’ campaign, it’s designed to educate Missourians on the hazards of gambling while encouraging churches to get actively involved in registering voters and getting them to the polls on August 3rd, said MBC Executive Director David Clippard. “If every Missouri Baptist will influence four friends, we can defeat this initiative,” Clippard said.

    Rockaway Beach, located about 10 miles from Branson, is the object of the ballot question going before the voters: “Shall the Missouri Constitution be

amended to authorize floating gambling facilities on or adjacent to the White River in Rockaway Beach, Missouri, to be licensed and regulated consistent with all other floating facilities in the state of Missouri, with 50 percent of the state revenues generated in the current year to be used for uniform salary supplement grants to all high quality teachers employed in priority schools, and the remaining state revenues generated in the current year to be distributed to all priority school districts on a per pupil basis for capital improvements to education facilities?”

    Missouri Baptist pastors are to take the fight to the gambling syndicate, said Jay Scribner, pastor, First Baptist Church, Branson. Billboards and bulletin inserts will be the bullets, he said.

Plans call for billboards to be purchased in and around St. Louis and Kansas City, where seven of the state’s 11 casinos are located. Pastors in support of ‘No Mo. Gambling’ are being asked to conduct voter registration drives well before the July 7 deadline, Scribner said. Two bulletin inserts for Missouri pastors to download from the MBC’s website will be made available in June as well.

    “The key to this grassroots campaign is networking,” Clippard said. He plans to do his part by following up on his first letter to pastors, sent the first week of June, with another toward the end of the month. All of the state’s directors of missions, who are positioned to encourage the pastors, will be contacted as well.

    Clippard said he got even more upset about gambling when he learned recently that for every casino in existence, $660 million annually leaves Missouri. Multiplied by 11, the number becomes astronomical. A twelfth casino would be unconscionable, Clippard stated. “These casinos do nothing but strip-mine wealth right out of our state,” he said. “Gambling does nothing to help our economy.”   Scribner has been the pastor of First Baptist Branson for 26 years and has been a statewide leader in the fight to protect families against gambling since 1992, when gambling became legal in Missouri. He said that gambling ruins a community spiritually, economically, morally and socially. It is time for no more gambling, Scribner said.

    “The gambling issue is purely symptomatic,” stated Scribner. “We are dealing with a values system gone awry. We are in a day and age where we are living in a values vacuum. Consequently, the issue of gambling is simply one more symptom of the cesspool of sin in which we find our society.”

    Telephone campaigns can be very effective. By setting up 12-15 lines so that callers could do surveys from the church, First Baptist Branson volunteers were able to help register 1,000 new voters in 1992.

    Any Missourian wishing to preserve Branson’s identity as a casino-free zone may visit www.NoMo.gambling.com.

 

Publisher’s Note

After receiving the terrific news that the MBC had launched its campaign to register voters and get them to the polls on August 3rd to vote against the Branson casino, I spoke with Casino Watch Chairman, Mark Andrews, who has been at the forefront of the battle to stop the expansion of gambling in Missouri for many years.

Mr. Andrews’ reaction to the news was one of excitement and praise, “Casino Watch is delighted to see the Missouri Baptist Convention join the battle in a serious way to put a stop to gambling expansion in Missouri.  Their steady presence in Jefferson City, progressing now to an all out statewide effort, is a tremendous statement of their commitment to the families of Missouri.”

For more information about Casino Watch and how you can join the battle to stop the expansion of gambling in Missouri visit Casino Watch’s web site at www.casinowatch.org.