Story Archive

Sanctioned Hypocrisy

Kathy Gilroy, 68, used to gamble regularly until she looked around at the broken-down gamblers. “I said, ‘What am I doing? This is so stupid,’” she remembers. “It dawned on me, this is not the lifestyle I want. I don’t want to even associate with these people.” She not only stepped away, but went on a crusade against gambling in Illinois, which she believes erodes society, takes money from the poor, and leads to addiction, bankruptcy, crime, and suicide. She’s shut down several gambling operations including VFW raffles, and fought to reject lifting a ban that blocked a gambling café in Villa Park. Ironically, that’s the same café where she won $25,000 in a sweepstakes. “I called a pastor friend,” Gilroy said. “And said, ‘Oh my God, should I send it back? What do I do? Do I donate it?’ He said, ‘Don’t feel guilty. You just got paid for all your volunteer work against gambling’.” Gilroy thus concludes “It’s God showing his grace on me,” so she decided to keep the money. “It’s the gambling I oppose,” she said, “not the sweepstakes.” (MS/Chicago Tribune) ...Because it’s not hypocrisy if you can figure out a justification for it.