Strong piece from a fearless writer.

[JohnnyLib2]

HOT TIP: Bet a trifecta box on Christian faith, hope and charity

Betty Bayé


The Kentucky Derby presents an annual challenge to many Christians: to bet or not to bet.

Despite having sat through countless hellfire preachments against gambling, Christians by the tens of thousands will be out at Churchill Downs tomorrow and Saturday for the Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby. Most, I imagine, will go to the windows and bet; some, if they lose, might even drown their sorrows in strong drink.

The guilt won't come until Sunday. Derby participants -- at least, those able to get up and make it to church -- easily might find themselves mocked for being so weak as to have partaken in unholy sport. Some will repent, promising never to gamble again, never to return to Churchill Downs, to Indiana's riverboats or to the decadent gambling dens of Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

But temptation is everywhere. To be sure, some Christians righteously rail against any sins they catch others committing but can see a world filled with poverty and injustice and do nothing about it.

I don't begin to understand Christian churches that are as cold as morgues, whose members are stuck up, and where anybody who manages to find some reason to say "Amen" above a whisper provokes disapproving stares.



During my 16-year affiliation with St. Stephen Church, I've been exposed to many types of preaching styles, everything from the whoopers and hollerers to the highly intellectual and contemplative.

But no matter the style, what I crave from the pulpit are honesty, respect and substance. It's not enough that my spiritual leaders know their Bible, but that they can identify with the daily struggles of the people in the pews and be empathetic with our lack of perfection on our life journeys.

I want spiritual leaders who don't just thump the Bible, but who walk the walk, as Jesus did, with both the upper-most and the least-most. I want them to sit, talk with and try to understand that sister who sells her body and that man who pimps. I want them to minister to the unmarried girl who has gotten pregnant, and the young boy who has walked away after fathering her baby.

In other words, I want to be among Christians who aren't so pious that they never smile, never laugh, never crack a joke and who aren't so judgmental that all they offer are wagging fingers and threats of hellfire to the alcoholics, the drug addicts, the people sick with HIV and AIDS, and the people who are or have been in prison.

I want to be in a community of Christians that feeds the poor, clothes them and gives shelter and rest without condemnation.

I want this from my faith because I'm from the streets. Because I remember that stranger who didn't step over the black man lying on a busy New York City street, who didn't dismiss him as a bum and a drunk, and who instead took my father to the hospital.

I want this because there's no telling where I'd be, were it not for some non-judgmental folks, some Christians, some Jews and some nonbelievers, who believed in me and guided me beyond any horizon that I could have imagined.

As my favorite poet, Langston Hughes, said, "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair. It's had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, and places with no carpet on the floor -- Bare."

I've attended church throughout my life, but I have not always been into church, if you know what I mean. Even now, my responses to world events and to the things said to me, done to me and said about me aren't always holy or wise.

Every day is a struggle.

So, I write this knowing that I'll be accused of rationalizing what I intend to do this Derby weekend, which is to bet on some horses, mostly $2 across the board on long shots. I may go hell for that, but I'm not inclined to believe that gambling at Churchill Downs is a sin of any consequence in this world that daily confronts Christians with racism, sexism, economic exploitation, gay-hating, genocide and war mongering.

Betty Winston Bayé's columns appear Thursdays. Her e-mail address is [e-mail].

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070503/COL

[raccoon]

1. K&R. "I want spiritual leaders who don't just thump the Bible,

, but who walk the walk, as Jesus did, with both the upper-most and the least-most."

No question but the ones who just thump the Bible are the ones who bray(NOT a typo! I meant bray.) the loudest.