Christians Shouldn’t Participate in Vice

The title of this piece might seem as controversial as saying firefighters should use water or that people scared of heights shouldn’t sky-dive. Of course Christians shouldn’t participate in vice! Is anyone arguing they should? Well, from what I’ve seen, yes. There are in fact Christians arguing that certain vices aren’t that big a deal, vices like gambling, marijuana, or drinking. More specifically, the argument being made is that a Christian could theoretically participate in some of these activities without committing a sin. 

Personally, I’m not convinced of these arguments, but for a few moments let’s consider the possibility that I’m wrong. What if someone could drink, or smoke weed, or gamble, and not be personally sinning? Does that mean they should do it? My argument here will be simple: Christians should not participate in these activities because they are vices. And vices, over time, will rot your culture. 

 

Can I Do It?

I wrote an article for the most recent Frontline on how to apply biblical principles to questions of Christian liberty, things like alcohol, weed, or similar issues. Frontline also did a whole edition on gambling, so I’m not going to spend a lot of time rehashing these issues. To give a very brief overview, the first question we should ask when coming to any area of Christian liberty is, “Does the Bible forbid it?” The Bible clearly forbids drunkenness because that puts us under the control of something other than the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). This would seem to eliminate marijuana entirely from the question (nobody says, “I smoke weed but not enough to get high.”). But beyond biblical commands, we want to apply biblical wisdom. Again, these arguments have been made before and that’s not really the focus of this article. To sum things up quickly, we should study principles in God’s Word and ask, “Is this a wise decision?” At a certain point, a decision becomes so dumb (or, to use the biblical word, foolish) that’s is no longer just dumb but actually wrong.

But what if, at the end of the day, I could participate in one or more of these activities in such a way that I don’t sin or personally damage myself? Let’s take gambling as an example. You could make arguments against gambling such as that it’s wasteful, or that it can lead to addiction, or that it can encourage someone else to gamble who has a gambling problem. But let’s say you are talking this through with a friend who pushes back. They could say, “Look, I am very disciplined with a small, budgeted amount of money for sports gambling each week that I never exceed. It’s not wasteful, for me it’s entertainment. Nobody else knows I’m doing it (well, other than you, who won’t be tempted by it), so I’m not causing anyone to stumble. It’s a fun game. Why can’t I pay for a $5 parlay, not really expecting to win anything, if it makes watching sports more exciting for me? What’s the difference between that and regular entertainment?” 

A similar case is often made for alcohol. Someone might argue that they drink in moderation, never enough to get drunk, and that they avoid doing around others if they know it could cause someone to stumble because the person is, for example, a recovering alcoholic. What’s wrong with a beer or two in the evening with a friend if you don’t get drunk? The answer, I think, involves a careful understanding of what the whole concept of “vice.”

 

Vice Rots Cultures

The word vice often refers to individual character flaws, things like greed, envy, pride, sloth, and similar traits. But it can also refer to specific ways those vices show up in illegal or immoral behaviors in a given culture. These definitions show up, for example, in the Cambridge Dictionary and its definitions for vice: 

“a moral fault or weakness in someone’s character”

“Illegal and immoral activities, especially involving illegal sex, drugs, etc.” [1] 

 

There is an important connection between these two meanings. The “social vices” as we might call them are usually based on the “personal vices.” Greed leads to gambling. Envy leads to stealing. Lust leads to prostitution. Gluttony leads to drugs and drunkenness. Personal vices grow and bloom and become cultural problems. Now, you might argue that your participation in one of these activities isn’t based on a personal flaw, it’s just for fun. “Is it really greed behind me playing Texas Hold ‘Em with M&M’s? I think the game is fun.” Well maybe for you that’s the case, but the point here is that the primary driver of these behaviors in society at large is vice. If that’s not the case for you, then you are the exception that proves the norm. 

American culture used to outlaw many of these social vices because it was understood that their danger went beyond someone being personally victimized, as would be the case with stealing. Rather, vices such as drugs, gambling, and prostitution were outlawed because we realized that they led to broken fathers, ruined youth, devastated homes, and civilizational decay. We outlawed them, not because a single individual would always be immediately and personally wronged, but because many, many people would be indirectly wronged in the long run. 

In America today, however, the whole idea of vice is giving way to a libertarianism that says, “I don’t care what you do. I’ll leave you alone if you leave me alone.” Why should I care if you waste your family’s money gambling on sports? People should be able to gamble! Why should I care if people waste all their money on booze, cigarettes, and weed, let them live their own lives! All of this is in spite of the fact that we live in a data-driven age that shows the damage these behaviors have had and will have. Even if there are some people who could theoretically participate in some of these activities without getting into too much trouble, it’s hard to argue that on the whole our nation will be better off, or that they won’t have that big of an impact.

 

The Christian Response

So, as Christians we find ourselves in a culture that is increasingly legalizing and tolerating vices. How should we respond? What Scriptural principles can we turn to? For me at least, two come to mind.

First, the Bible teaches that “righteousness exalteth a nation: But sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). I’m not saying that the Old Testament law needs to be the law of the land in America. But when rules on the book preventing vice are being taken off the book, prepare for a reproach, or for a great shame. God has hardwired the universe a certain way, and then He told us how to live in His universe. When we live against the grain of God’s creation, we are going to harm ourselves and people around us. God also created government to promote the good and punish the evil (Romans 13:4). When a government goes from saying that something based on vice is illegal to saying that it is now acceptable, it is backing away from it’s God-given duty.

The second principle is that you should love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:30-31). It is not loving to my neighbor to feed a beast that is devouring families, and might just destroy him. It is not loving to pay money to Anheuser Busch or DraftKings so that they can expand their companies which trap people in addiction and lead to desolate lives. A good rule of thumb is that if the advertisement for the product has to warn you that it could destroy your life, not only should you not do it, but you shouldn’t be supporting the people making money off of it either. 

“But they’re going to do it anyway,” some might argue . Well, yes, some people will do it anyway. But more people will do it if we make it legal or support/condone it. Some libertarians try to argue, “More people do it because it’s illegal,” but that’s just not true. Are more or less people smoking weed or eating edibles now that it’s legal? If we see these behaviors as bad for most individuals, for families, and for our whole culture, wouldn’t the loving thing be to stand against them whenever we are able? 

So what about me? Well, I’ve decided not to participate in vice. I don’t gamble, or drink, or smoke weed. I know that’s probably shocking given that I’m a Baptist pastor at a conservative church, but I figured I might as well go on the record. I also will use my vote and my influence to discourage the passing of laws making these vices legal or increasing access to them. Marijuana is not legal in my home state of Indiana, and I will do what I can to see to it that it never will be. If you have the opportunity, I would encourage you to vote against expanding these vices. In fact, vote 100 times if you have to! (Just kidding. Don’t do that. That would be a vice.) As Christians we want to make sure that we aren’t obsessed over cultural issues, but we should be aware and we should participate as salt and light in appropriate ways. 

No, buying a 50/50 raffle won’t immediately lead to the downfall of society. And if a teenager smokes weed a few times in high school, that doesn’t mean they will definitely end up a crack addict living on the streets. But vice, like all sin, has a way of eating away at you so slowly you don’t notice it’s happening until things are really bad. It’s like the elephant slowly pushing its way into the tent. You see the trunk out of the corner of your eyes and decide it’s not that big a deal. You work on something else and by the time you turn around to check on the elephant it’s standing in the tent, and the tent is about to collapse. Vices are destructive to our country, and we should stand up to them rather than make sure we only participate in a safe way. 

You may feel like there’s no point in pushing back. Unlike the famous little Dutch boy, you might not be able to keep the whole dam from bursting by plugging up the hole yourself. But you can be a grain of salt seeking to make a difference. And if your church, and your Christian friends, and churches and Christians across America decided that they were going to do what they could to push back against societal vices, you might be surprised how big a difference that could make. And even if we try and fail and don’t make the difference we would like, at the end of the day, I still remain convinced that we should say no to these behaviors if for no other reason than Christians shouldn’t participate in vice. 

 

[1] “Vice,” Cambridge Dictionary https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/vice#google_vignette

 

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Ben Hicks is the Associate Pastor at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Indianapolis. You can check out Bible studies he has written as hearanddo.org.