JANE’S FALLS: I carefully maintain the use of affirmation rather than oath, when the occasion arises, especially on legal forms. I avoid participation in games of chance, including those presented by charitable causes, and joyfully throw out all “sweepstakes” and other junk mail unopened.
My employment does require me to prepare the New England lottery numbers for newspaper publication each Saturday night, an act that I perform with a sense of uneasiness. Yet that has been eye-opening, in seeing the response of so many of the composing room personnel to the lottery numbers, in discovering how widely the news services disseminate the information, and in receiving a number of phone calls each week from people wanting to discover if they’ve won. (Several times, I’ve received phone calls from a women in Florida who “need” to know that night’s number – imagine the extra expense in that long-distance call!) This job duty has convinced me of the cancerous nature of this get-rich-quick mentality, regardless of the revenue it supposedly raises for the support of New Hampshire schools.
I am more bothered by the giveaways on many of the so-called “Christian” radio stations in this country. I need to be faithful to protest, when opportunity presents.
~*~
For more Seasons of the Spirit, click here.