Is Vegas the Problem?

I recently spent a week in Las Vegas. That was the first time I’d ever spent more than a few hours there, and I came away surprised, though I’m not sure why, at how spiritually oppressed I felt. I’ve been to some spiritually dark places before: India, Nicaragua, New York City. But Vegas wins the prize. Vegas seems to be everything that is wrong with our country. According to Neil Postman it is also a microcosm of where our country is headed. He said, “Today, we must look to the city of Las Vegas, Nevada, as a metaphor for our national spirity and aspiration...”

Maybe it’s because I was reading Radical by David Platt while there, but the thing that hit me the most wasn’t the rampant immorality, but the raging greed and gluttony. Of course, there’s the individual greed – the hope to hit it big for doing nothing but pushing a few buttons or betting on some cards. But what stood out even more than the greed of people looking to strike it rich was the greed of “corporate” America. This is personified in Las Vegas. Here are some examples. The first night there we ate at a nice steak restaurant. Granted, it was one of the best steaks I have eaten, but the 8 oz Filet Mignon was $55. That’s right. Something that costs around $12-$16 a pound in the grocery store was $55. While it was one of the best steaks I have had, it wasn’t three times better than what I can get at Texas Roadhouse.

We stayed at Caesar’s palace. The normal rate for the room I was in was over $300 a night. I received a conference special so only paid $195 a night. Simple room. One king-sized bed, a couple chairs, a desk, and an old tube-based television. In Phoenix, when I go for work, I’ve been staying at a brand new Hyatt in Gilbert for $125 a night. The rooms are ten times nicer than the one I had at Caesar’s Palace. Sectional sofa, nice desk, large screen HD television and free WiFi. Caesar’s Palace charges $15 a day for WiFi! Even the local Comfort Inn has free WiFi. My theory is that hotel management doesn’t want people to stay in their room, they want them in the casino gambling. Most hotels have free exercise rooms. Not Caesar’s palace. $25 a day to use their exercise facility. Again, I think it goes back to hotel management wanting people in the casino, not working out. You might as well drop that $25 on a game or two of 3 card poker instead of getting in shape. After all, you might hit a royal flush and win thousands. Of course, you’ll drop dead at 55 of a coronary.

The outrageous costs didn’t end at the restaurant or the room fees. Caesar’s Palace has a kiosk for printing an airline boarding pass. Most hotels have computers in their lobbies for this purpose. Most hotels charge nothing for them. Caesar’s Palace charges $5.00 to print a piece of paper. The ATM in Caesar’s Palace charges $4.99 for getting cash. This seems counter-intuitive to me. I would think a casino would make it as painless and cheap as possible to get cash.

There are a few free things around. The fountain show at the Bellagio is free. All two minutes of it. So is the pirate show at Treasure Island and the volcano at the Mirage. But most things cost. It’s $18 to tour the aquarium at Mandalay Bay. It was okay, but not worth $18. Bottom line, the casinos in Vegas are raking in money. A local tour guide said that the average casino clears $4 million a day. Take that amount and multiple it by the number of casinos, and the total profit is well over $200 million a day.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for capitalism, free market, and all that. But, stop and think about this. Just one day’s profit from the casinos in Vegas would feed the hungry of the world for a long time. However, I’m not going to hold my breath and wait for all the casinos to decide to give away one day’s profit so that children in Kenya can have a meal. And we shouldn’t wait for that to happen, because it’s not corporate America’s job to feed the poor.

Shortly after I returned, I read this passage from Isaiah: “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke , to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter – when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. ‘If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday.” Isaiah 58:6-10.

Vegas doesn’t exist because of corporate America’s greed. It exists because of the individual American’s greed. It is each of us, including Christians, who feed the beast. We are the ones shelling out dollar after dollar gambling, drinking, and eating. We are the ones guilty of gluttony, especially gluttony of pleasure. And it’s not just in Vegas that this happens. At home we gorge ourselves on entertainment. We spend millions, even billions on things like video games, movies, alcohol, tobacco, even drugs. And let’s throw clothes, makeup, and other toiletries in there. We are a vain country. All the while, hundreds of millions of people around the world starve.

Lest you think I’m aiming this at the heathen population in America, think about this. According to a George Barna study a while back, if all those in America who claimed to be evangelical Christians tithed – that is gave 10% of their GROSS pay – the churches of America would have enough excess money to feed the starving, not of the US, but of the world. That’s right, evangelical Christians in America can solve the poverty problem worldwide. So, why is there still a poverty problem? Because evangelical Christians are not living any differently than non-Christians. Because we too are gluttons when it comes to pleasure. Instead of the $1.00 coffee at Denny’s we need to purchase a $5.00 coffee at Starbucks. Instead of a fuel efficient car, we buy fuel guzzling SUV’s and monster pick-ups. Instead of spending time outside chatting with our neighbors we sit inside playing $59 video games on $1000 televisions. Instead of taking our kids to the park and playing catch with them, we sign them up for sports teams or dance classes that cost us hundreds if not thousands of dollars each year. I recently attended a dance recital and many of the kids were in five or more numbers, with costumes at $80-$100 each for one, maybe two uses.

David Platt in his book, Radical, calls us to do something radical like go off to Africa and help the poor while sharing the Gospel. While Platt may seem to indicate this is the duty of all Christians, I’m a little more practical in that there is a need for some of us to stay where we are. But, here’s a radical idea that we all can try. What if we reduced our pleasure expenditure just enough so that we did actually tithe? According to Barna, that would be enough to feed the world.

Unfortunately, many American Christians continue to live in the now, trusting not in God, but in themselves and the all-mighty dollar. We need to trust in God to supply what we need. Malachi 3:10 says, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house. And thereby put Me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”

There’s a radical thought. Trust God, fill up the storehouses, and wait for His blessings on our life. And His blessings are permanent and good. Whereas the blessings we get from our own pleasures are temporary and often hollow.

As sin-ridden and greed infested as Vegas is, it’s really not the problem with America. The problem with America is Christians that don’t obey God. You may not agree with David Platt and feel you don’t need to sell everything and move to some poverty-infested area of the world to help those people. But, you do need to do your part. Tithing is just the start. What else can we do without so that others can have what they need just to survive?

I’ll end with this scripture. No commentary. I’ll leave interpretation to the reader. “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So, also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” James 2:14-17.