Re: Should religion speak on gambling for the whole country?

Quote from: peter0425 on July 14, 2025, 02:14:53 AM

If you do not know, Philippines is heavily Catholic. 85 million individuals are Catholics in The Philippines and that makes up 78.8% of the country. A lot of the laws and beliefs in the country are influenced by the Catholic church. Even matters like divorce and LGBT rights are decided with the influence of the religion.

Now that gambling is booming in the country, it is expected that the Catholic church will intervene. The Philippine Church has described this as "a deepening crisis in the country" and is sounding the alarm about a social and cultural scourge that is destroying the lives of young people and entire families.

Obviously, we should respect the religion and the beliefs upheld but what about those who are not Catholic and would wish to continue to gamble? Does religion have the right to be included in conversations regarding gambling if their beliefs cloud their judgement?

It is a controversial issue, obviously, and the answer will depend on the point of view and the way each one of us was raised by our parents.
I have also come from a Catholic family and they have always been lax when comes to gambling.

In my personal point of view society itself is the one supposed to decide their destiny in a democratic way, without the direct influence of the Church in the issues of the State.
If the most of people in the country believe it is bad for gambling to be so widespread and they vote to limit it, then that is a democratic choice, though one cannot deny there would be still some implicit influence of the church on the way people vote, but that is up to them to decide.

Also, in biblical teachings there is much emphasis done in the capacity human beings have to take their own choices and build their own path, because we all have free will, so keeping that in mind, we all have the free will whether to partake in gambling or not.