National Rugby League boss David Gallop yesterday revealed several of its Sydney teams is in financial trouble.
The leagues clubs which fund the teams are said to be losing money and their position and future in the competition is in danger.
Mr Gallop says taxes on poker machines the New South Wales state government had instated is hurting the clubs and has pleaded with the government to decrease them.
The poker machine tax has been a controversial policy since the NSW government introduced it in 2003.
Many pub and club owners were angered as they claimed they rely on revenue made from poker machines to keep business open and the taxes could force them to close.
However, last year, Peter Holmes A Court, co-owner of the South Sydney Rabbitohs NRL team, caused a stir when he said he was removing poker machines from the leagues club, saying there were other ways the leagues club could create revenue and keep it alive with out relying on revenue from poker machines and problem gambling.
Not surprisingly many of the clubs members were angered and his plan was initially met with ridicule.
ITS UGLY AND SATAN LOVES IT
Australia has a large gambling culture. One of its "most important” days is centered on a horse race, yet the horse race itself is not really the main focus, its the punt.
On this one day a year Australians spend millions of dollars betting on the Melbourne Cup and many consider it their one time of the year where they can have a gamble and not worry about the consequences.
The Australian community by and large has a similar attitude towards poker machines, but its more of a love / hate relationship.
They're hated because millions of people have entered into devastating gambling addicitions that have destroyed marriages and sent people homeless.
Yet they're needed because if they are suddenly gone, there goes the town football club, and there goes a business or two. Suddenly destroyed marriages and homeless people do not matter any more.
Its an ugly part of Australian culture, a culture many agree we could do with out, but, there is a but, and its because its considered a necessary evil.
Satan loves the term necessary evil. He has been using the term since the time of creation and nothing has changed.
He has successfully fooled many with necessary evils.
He has doing it with war. He is doing it in marriages.
Television ushers up necessary evils every second advertisement and every second show, particularly as far as sex and violence is concerned.
We have become desensitized to a point where nothing shocks us any more. So desensitized that many immoral things are being normalized.
Softer forms of pornography for example, was at one time considered taboo for television at any time. Now after 8:30pm on our television sets, we can watch the most sexually explicit scenes ever seen in television history, even though they might have nothing to do with story any way, and even if they did, the producers of the show leave no stone unturned and show us everything because these days its okay.
Sex and violence are necessary evils for the sake of entertainment.
And if its not okay, get with the times.
DELUDED CHURCHES POWERLESS
Such has become the delusion the enemy has been able to craft, many men and marriages have fallen in to this trap and the temptations to explore forbidden boundaries are strengthening and proving irresistable.
Another word for this is called postmodernity, its basic definition is, its okay for some to participate in open marriages and maybe not for others, but its still okay.
Satan has successfully deluded churches with necessary evils as well and Paul's letters to the Corinthians focused a lot of energy on this issue.
The ancient Greek society was a postmodern world before postmodernity became a term, and the Corinthian church had carried this culture over in to its congregation … so much so it horrified Paul.
It didn't surprise him, but it angered him, and he knew the enemy and his agents were behind it and having too much influence. ( 2 Corinthians 11: 14 - 15 )
The church was heavily divided, reliant on worldly wisdom, dictated by its culture and religion, engaging in sexual immorality, deceptive and false teachings were rampant, and the apostle sent them a rather stern note and at the start of his first letter he sounds almost exasperated:
"Is Christ divided … was it I who was crucified for you … did I baptize you … I am thankful that I didn't … I was sent to preach the gospel, but not with human wisdom as that would make the cross meaningless.” (1 Corinthians 1: 13 – 17)
He the goes on to say, "Don't deceive yourselves, if anyone considers himself wise by today's standards, he should make himself a fool, so he can become wise. As the wisdom of the world is foolish in God's eyes.” ( 1 Corinthians 3 : 18 – 19 )
NECESSARY EVILS: MAKE THEM A LAUGHING STOCK
One wonders if modern Christianity is any different.
We have a discipleship issue, or a lack of discipleship, at epidemic proportions, and it almost seems we are prepared to accept anything because anything goes.
We have the problem of the so called Christian right or left wing, and now, particularly in Western culture, being dictated too by popular culture, which drives it to submit to political correctness and being told to stay silent.
This is counterproductive to what Christ came to achieve.
Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount did teach us to do things in silence. Paul said to make it our life ambition. ( 1 Thessalonians 4: 11 – 12)
But he didn't tell us to remain silent to the point where no one knows what we believe or what we stand for, let alone what we stand against.
There is always a lot of talking about what the church stands against but never about what it stands for … a divided church can not do that because there is too much confusion.
American philosopher and author Dallas Willard says there is actually too much talking from churches and that they should all just be quiet and listen. Listen and be obedient to God.
This is something the early church did, and did well.
Natural Church Development encourages balance in our churches, this we know with the Three Color Cycle.
And what a balanced church would do with necessary evils is this:
A balanced church – Christian community – focused completely on the continuation of the development of the Kingdom of God, remaining obedient to the teachings of Christ, the Son of God, and by learning his Father's perspective on life, and being open and obedient to the Spirit of God's guidance and counsel which guides us to truth, would logically, ideologically, and practically, turn any notion of a necessary evil in to a laughing stock. It would deliver a serious blow to the ego of Satan; he is still reeling from the cross!
At present, the opposite is happening.