I've just read a really interesting article in Third Way about optimism and linking it with the Lottery. I'm not a lottery person, I'm not a raffle person, I'm not a tumbola person (though I have a pension, but that's the point...read on).
There's been some good recent research into why people play the lottery and poorer people play more knowing the chances are zero of winning (or 1 in 14 000 000 which is almost zero) because playing is not about being irrational or unintelligent. Lottery is a game of the imagination. It's about hope. Lottery and optimism both have little regard for the odds.
So why don't I trust lotteries and raffles as decent things to do to raise money given how much of our faith is based on hope? Well, optimism and hope in faith terms is not a lottery. Faithful optimism is based on a promise and that's the massive difference (a bit like my pension because it promises a certain amount. There's another bit that is chancing it's arm in getting more and credit crunches have shown the difference between groundless hope and hope based on promise).
Lotteries, raffles etc "is not a tax on stupidity, but a tax on those who have no promise... to engage with". So where does that place us in finding church funds the easy way?
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