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I take it you have reached the level of exaltedness that you know who and who can not speak with moral authority?

I heard the testimony of a recovered alcohaulic who had been a successful business man who nearly lost his family and home because of drink. He got into a drunken religious arguement with another drunk. He described the other drunk as suddenly standing up and delivering a Salvation message that would put Billy Graham to shame. The encounter left him sober and he gave his heart to Jesus Christ and lost all desire for drink. He was so completely changed that his wife came back to him and he was able to recover his former financial status. He has offered much to the Kingdom since.

As for the other sermonizing drunk, the amazing thing is he had remained a drunkard the last time the the recovered alcoholic had checked.

My point is Bennett is speaking age old truths about virtues that no one on the left likes to hear, or that matter conservatives who don't like their own petty vices punctured. It is a fallacy that an imperfect man nullifies truth when he speaks it.

When a "conservative" emperor (of virtue) is suddenly confronted with the notion that he has no clothes and has become a laughing stock for his vanity, his first act is to acknowledge his foolishness and to put his clothes back on...that is if he has any hope of recovering any sense of authority and respect in the eyes of the populace.

A "liberal" emperor when confronted with his nakedness will brazenly command by force that all shall be as naked as him under penalty of fines under his PC hate law anti discrimination against naked people inititiatives.! Since it was a child that saw thru the nakedness in the first place, the child will be forceably re-educated by the "caring" councilors at the NAMBLA Camp for Wrong thinking and Wrongly taught Children. His parents will be executed.

Bennett will have to undergo some slings and arrows but he will be stronger than ever for it. God will sometimes publically humiliate his own children to do corrective spiritual surgery on some trouble-some aspect of their natures...then he sets them upright again..stronger than ever! But God will hold us responsible for the truths Bennett espouses despite his "gambling" issue.

Truth and Virtue are ideas larger than the men espousing them, even if the men espousing them sometimes fall short of their moral influences. They are after all road-maps away from immorality and a guide to that which is perfect...and thru-out our lives we know that as long as we live...we never quite "get there yet", as I suspect Bennett has him-self discovered!

I take it you have reached the level of exaltedness that you know who and who can not speak with moral authority?

I assume you and many others on this forum are well acquainted with virtue. Unfortunately you and many others do not seem to know much about vice, particularly high rolling. I could suggest putting up a $250,000 line of credit and sending the limo over at 2:00. Barring that, try this thought experiment: you are the center of the universe, everyone waits on you hand and foot, makes sure you feel the best you can possibly feel at all times.

It's obvious Bennett has discovered nothing since Humility is the only antidote to his overdose of Vanity.

But I don't see where he has suffered any extreme moral lapse, and we conservatives fall into the trap that the amoralistic liberals love to see us fall into when we start to "eat our own".

I don't think he has suffered any extreme moral lapse either. However, I judge people by all sorts of things... their language, their habits, behviors, etc. The simple fact is that knowing that this person pissed away 8 million dollars on something affects my judgement of his judgement.

Your Post 45 was a well reasoned commentary. Thank you.

I'm sure I will continue to agree with Bennett in most areas of his moral crusade.

But his admission of failure does not appear at this stage to include repentance--turning away entirely from the activity that tempts you.

He seems to think that it was only the excess of gambling that was his problem and that if he just lightens up on it, all will be well. IMO, that's like an alcoholic deciding to only have 2 drinks a day or a liar deciding to lie only 2 times a day.

The Bible says that if your right arm causes you to sin, cut it off or if one of your eyes causes you to sin, pluck it out. Bennett's deceiving himself to think that he can continue to gamble at a lesser rate and all will be well. I think he is deceiving himself.

Just as I wouldn't give money to a friend I knew was using it to gamble or buy alcohol, I don't feel inclined to purchase Bennett's books with the knowledge that he will be using some of the royalties to gamble.