Part 3 in the politics of online poker continuing series from Gene Bromberg. Online US poker players are 30 million plus strong and over 21. Politicians can hear large voting blocks very clearly. Gene Bromberg is writing for everyone that wants online poker legalized, so read it, talk about it, pass it around…let them hear you!

The push to legalize online gaming took center stage in Washington back on November 14th as the House Judiciary Committee convened a hearing entitled “Establishing Consistent Enforcement Policies in the Context of Online Wagers.” Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) invited both proponents and opponents of online gambling to give testimony, and among the panelists was Tom McClusky, who is the Vice-President of Government Affairs for the Family Research Council. The FRC is a Christian, right-wing lobbying organization that, according to its website, “champions marriage and family as the foundation of civilization, the seedbed of virtue, and the wellspring of society”.

So the FRC likes marriage and family. What the FRC doesn’t like is rather a longer list. The FRC anathematizes homosexuality, saying that “FRC does not consider homosexuality an alternative lifestyle or sexual ‘preference’; it is unhealthy and destructive to individual persons, families, and society”. The FRC claims that pornography is “closely linked to an increase in prostitution, child prostitution, and human trafficking” and urged the Department of Justice to prosecute people who view adult movies in hotel rooms, believing that this violates U.S. laws governing distribution of obscene materials. The FRC believes that the only manner of sex education that should be taught is abstinence, and it also supports the teaching of intelligent design in schools and believes the Theory of Evolution is mere “dogma”.

And, of course, the FRC is staunchly opposed to gambling, In a statement sent out this week by one of their “prayer teams” the FRC, in addition to calling for it’s members to pray for “the Peace of Jerusalem” and to pray that a no-spanking law in Massachusetts is defeated, also asked members to pray that “sufficient numbers of Americans from every state will oppose these efforts to legalize internet gambling. May they be defeated with sufficient strength that this will not become an annual fight!”

So this is what we’re up against–an organization that supports families, marriage and parent-on-child spanking, but is vehemently opposed to single people, gay people, sex, gambling, and the scientific method. And a lot of other things that I don’t have the space or time to list at the moment.

Click here to go to the article and read more.

Recovered from the Poker Players Alliance archive index. This is the archived item as preserved.