I agree with Mark Shea. I think the uproar about Bill Bennett’s gambling is a tempest in a teapot and it doesn’t bother me. In fact, I’ve even—horrors!—been to casinos myself and used slot machines and played blackjack. I wish I could say I made money, or even like Bill, that I had enough money that losing $8 million was no big deal. But rather I lost as much as I was willing to lose, as much as I willing to pay for the entertainment and no more. If Bennett could do the same what’s the big deal? Is it because it was so much?
I think Americans have a fixation on other people’s wealth and Catholics are not immune to it. The Democrats play this to a “T”. We think of all the wealthy fat cats and we smolder inside with indignation and jealousy that we don’t have their money, while on the outside we complain about social justice and distribution of wealth. So we let others drag high-profile rich people down by onerous taxes and whisper campaigns. But not all rich people—wealthy left-wingers like celebrities and politicians get a pass because they mouth the right pieties.
But “hypocrites” like Bill Bennett are tarred and feathered because they dare to speak of virtues while engaging in “vices.” Gee, what about that current most-terrible vice of smoking? Didn’t Chesterton smoke? And Tolkien? Even Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati was pictured smoking pipes and cigars! A beati!
There is a strain of American puritanism that crosses all religious boundaries and even infects non-religious Americans and I think the Bennett situation exposes it.
On who’s judgment? Good stewardship is a subjective measure and what constitutes it will have a different answer depending on who you ask.
I guess I just don’t think the story deserves the attention it’s getting. It’s a private matter that has no impact on anything else. It’s not like Bennett is elected to anything. The only reason it’s getting any press is because Bennett’s a conservative and liberals think it smacks of hypocrisy and are gleefully rubbing their hands together at the prospect of conservatives trashing another one of their own at the liberals’ behest.
I certainly hope so or I’m in big trouble.
Dave,
He also said he won a lot of money. I don’t think he said he’s down a net $8 million.
I wonder if the reaction would be the same if
Bennett had purchased a private jet, a new home, and a vacation home with the $8 million. I know that in the end he still has the value of the $8 million, but like I said before we don’t know he’s down a net $8 million. There are plenty of rich, conservative Catholics who have spent more than $8 million on such things.
And, Dave, just because liberals view this as moral corruption, does that mean that Bennett is wrong? Should it really matter what those whose views are antithetical to our case think? Should not our message be strong despite what they say about one man?
I think it’s ironic that so much is written about the moral failings of Bennett for his gambling, when the US bishops have known pro-abortion politicians on their National Review Board for the Scandal.