From a reader:
Jonah,
I never knew you were a New Testament scholar. 🙂 I’m surprised your Corner Compatriots didn’t pick up on this first. Your position on the topic and Bennett’s swearing off gambling are 100% consistent with the thesis of Chapter 14 of Paul’s letter to the Romans, essentially: For some people, certain things are considered sinful, for others not (e.g., eating meat, worshipping on certain days, etc). The bottom line is that you shouldn’t put a stumbling block in front of your brother if he considers your activities sinful. I shouldn’t be surprised that since the secular press considers Bennett to a be a religious extremist, they couldn’t point out the scriptural consistency in his actions. To be fair, I haven’t heard the religious press make this point either.
Here’s the “chapter & verse” Romans 14, Verses 13 & 14: Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way. I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
Aloha,