Taking a Stand

James Ryan is the pastor of True North Community Church in New York. His church was offered a share of a $3 million dollar lottery jackpot...and turned it down. Pastor Ryan rightly saw the hypocrisy of accepting gambling proceeds while preaching against gambling.

Someone will ask, "But what about all of the good that could have been done with the money?" Look at it this way: If someone robbed a bank and told me they were donating the stolen money to our church, would we accept it? Absolutely not. Stolen money is stolen money. It matters not how it was stolen.