Powerball Winner To Pay Tithes First, Raising Controversy About Christians Gambling And Playing The Lottery

One of the winners of the most recent huge Powerball lottery jackpot, as reported by the Inquisitr, is Marie Holmes, a woman who seems more deserving than almost anyone to take home such a large jackpot.

That’s because Holmes is a 26-year-old single mom to four children, one of whom has special needs as the result of having cerebral palsy. But it’s Holmes’ “first purchase” of paying her tithes that’s got tongues wagging in the Christian world.

When Marie said, ““First I’m going to pay my tithes,” as reported by the Christian Post, the publication went on to wade into the age-old debate over whether Christians should, in fact, play the lottery or gamble in the first place, and, therefore, use their winnings to pay tithes and offerings to God through their churches.

“First I’m going to pay my tithes because I wouldn’t have none of it if it wasn’t for God.”

The complete WECT interview video with the Powerball winner out of Shallotte, North Carolina, has acted as a catalyst for folks to delve into the biblical perspective of gambling and being a believer. While good points are made in the Bible about not developing a love of money, or to never lust for filthy lucre so badly that people are willing to get it in the wrong way, even Scripture experts admit that there’s no explicit chapter and verse that prohibits Christians from gambling.

Full disclosure: This Christian journalist pays tithes, and also doesn’t mind playing a Powerball ticket here and there, or perhaps a scratch-off. Like the winning Powerball ticket holder Holmes, this writer isn’t a frequent lottery player but did fantasize about paying tithes to three different churches if I’d won.

Including paying her tithes, Marie says she plans to spend her $188 million on her children. I say good for the mom who had to quit her jobs at McDonald’s and Walmart — the latter of which has been in the news quite a bit for low worker wages — in order to take care of her children, as reported by WTVR.

“Everything is for them. All the struggles that I went through it was all for them. I just want them to understand that money doesn’t change you. It can help you. They don’t have to worry about that. They can go to college, on me. And they don’t have to worry about nothing. I’m glad I can do that for them.”

As for the controversy over Christians playing the lottery? Methinks that it’s most likely only a problem mainly raised by pastors who would like to see those tithes going into church coffers instead — one that would magically disappear if women like Holmes decided to tithe $18.8 million to their church.

[Image via WECT-TV VIDEO]