A Sydney Anglican minister plans to be a Christian voice at a community forum on gambling today.
St Barnabas', Fairfield assistant minister Steve Frederick has been invited to speak at today's South West Sydney Problem Gambling Summit.
"This is a fantastic opportunity to offer a Christian voice on an issue of such importance for the south west of Sydney," Mr Frederick says.
Mr Frederick was invited to speak at the summit after writing an email of encouragement to a member of Fairfield Council who came under fire from the rest of the council for an opinion piece he'd written in the local paper.
"In the article Councillor Thang Ngo expressed concern about the disproportionately high number of pokies in Fairfield and the staggeringly high proportion of disposable income that residents of the area spend on them," Mr Frederick says.
Mr Frederick will give a community perspective on problem gambling in the area along with other speakers including gambling counsellors, researchers and industry representatives, including the Australian Hotels Association.
"This is a fantastic opportunity for us as Christians to love our city. It's a chance for us as a Christian community to show our concern and love for our neighbours in Fairfield, especially those who are suffering as a result of problem gambling," Mr Frederick says.
"I'll be sharing my own experience of the harm caused to communities by gambling. I'll encourage our community to let a concern for the "common good' rather than its "right to gamble' guide its response to poker machines."
Mr Frederick plans to share the experiences of problem gambling that he and others have been close to, including people pressured into lending friends money to hide gambling losses from wives or partners and children who have come home to find their parents have sold their toys to fund pokie addiction.
"In these cases, and in many others like them, it is clear that problem gambling undermines, rather than supports, the family relationships which make up our community."
Mr Frederick hopes this opportunity will encourage more Christians in the south west to use their own voice to bring attention to the problem of gambling.
"Often we allow public antagonism to the gospel in which we hope, to discourage us from speaking," he says.
"However, the new birth that is ours through Jesus' death and resurrection gives Christians a profoundly coherent and insightful understanding of our world."
Visit these websites for more details about the Problem Gambling Summit and for more thoughts from Steve Frederick.
