Use of gambling funds sparks concern about building project
5/8/2001 News media contact: Linda Bloom · (646) 369-3759 · New York By Matthew Carlisle* BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (UMNS) - United Methodists are abuzz about the implications of gambling proceeds indirectly affecting the construction of the new South Indiana Conference office building.
The United Methodist Church officially opposes gambling, and more than 90 members of the South Indiana Annual Conference have signed an open letter of concern about the funds.
The conflict stems from the use of $125,000 in grant money supplied to the city of Bloomington by the Build Indiana Fund, which is supported by gambling proceeds. The money is to be used to buy material for the water and sewer lines that will service Gateway Park. An eight-acre site in the park has been chosen as the site for the new South Indiana Conference building.
Water lines will be placed on a public easement that won't touch the land purchased by the annual conference. "The total infrastructure cost is $870,000, and the remaining $745,000 is funded by the city, developer, and state non-gambling funds," according to the conference headquarters planning task force.
Every citizen of Indiana potentially benefits from the state's legalized gambling, according to the task force. For example, state parks and public schools are funded with proceeds from legalized gambling, along with half of the motor vehicle excise tax, and a number of public improvements such as roads and state facilities are the results of legalized gambling.
"It is unfortunate that the city (Bloomington) had to use Build Indiana Funds on this project, but we are not naĂ¯ve enough to think that we can live in Indiana without being somehow indirectly involved with some of the proceeds of gambling money," the task force stated.
The Build Indiana Fund issue has been presented to the conference executive committee, the bishop's cabinet, and the conference corporation board of trustees. The groups share the opinion that the United Methodist position on gambling will not be compromised due to the building project.
The United Methodist Church condemns gambling in its Book of Discipline. "Gambling is a menace to society, deadly to the best interests of moral, social, economic, and spiritual life, and destructive of good government."
Indiana Area Bishop Woodie W. White has been a strong opponent of legalized gambling since the 1980s. "It (gambling) has to stop now," he has said. " Every church in Indiana must begin to rally as never before."
The writers of the open letter say this is an opportunity for the church to make a strong statement against legalized gambling. "Our purpose, therefore, is to broaden the dialogue as we move toward a decision." Members of the conference will act upon a proposal to build the office complex during their annual gathering in early June.
The letter was written by Cyndi Alte, Kevin Armstrong, Charles Ballard, Michael Cartwright, Darren Cushamn-Wood, Richard Hamilton, Gregory McGarvey - all United Methodist clergy - and Patricia Miller, a state senator and lay member of the South Indiana Conference.
The involvement of gambling money in the lives of citizens illustrates the state's growing dependence on gambling income, the letter writers state. "And we insist that the ethical question is substantially changed when, with advance knowledge and both freedom and responsibility to choose, the church elects to become a beneficiary of such funding."
As a way of distancing the building project from gambling revenue and public opposition, the conference's board of trustees voted on March 9 "to reimburse the city/developer for the Build Indiana Funds that are used to provide our eight acres with water and sewer utilities as a percentage of the total acres in the business park."
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*Carlisle is a staff writer for Hoosier United Methodist, the newspaper of the church's Indiana Area. A different version of this story first appeared in that publication.
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