Gambling at the Last Supper?

Another day, another clash between religion and gambling, it seems. First of all, a Mississippi state representative from Pass Christian has called would-be moralists out over their insistence that Katrina was doing God’s bidding:

Rep. Jim Simpson of Pass Christian couldn’t believe the e-mails he received from some self-proclaimed Christians this week attempting to lobby against casinos rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina.

“I’ve gotten more than half a dozen from people who said, ‘I prayed for the destruction of Katrina. This is God’s wrath,’” said Simpson. “I got so mad I wanted to scream at them. But I didn’t respond. Not yet.”

Many of Simpson’s constituents died in Katrina. He lost his home and his business and pretty much everything he owns.

“I’m going to get together a list of all the obituaries,” Simpson said, “and send them in my response to them. I’m going to send that list and ask, ‘OK, was this part of your prayers? Did you want this to happen?’

Again, I’m not going to claim any kind of moral high ground or divine inspiration, but it seems to me that anyone who prays for harm to befall someone else is pretty twisted.

That’s not the biggest story that mixes gambling with religion today, though. For that we can thank Paddy Power, an Irish bookmaking company that felt it would be a tremendous laugh to restyle Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous Last Supper–as a gambling party.

From CNN:

Irish bookmaker Paddy Power was fending off the wrath of Christians in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Ireland on Friday over an advertisement depicting Jesus and the Apostles gambling at the Last Supper.

The billboard posters, on display in the Irish capital, adapt Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting of the event to show Jesus with a stack of poker chips, Judas with 30 pieces of silver and other apostles clutching hands of cards.

“There’s a place for fun and games,” says the caption.

Father Micheal MacGreil, Jesuit priest at St. Francis Xavier’s Church in central Dublin, branded the advert “grossly inappropriate and vulgar”.

“This is an insult to the religious sensitivities of a lot of people and should be withdrawn immediately,” he told Reuters.

“To abuse this image, which is central to Christian beliefs, in a vulgar advertising campaign is totally and grossly inappropriate and Paddy Power should apologize to the people.” Paddy Power acknowledged it had taken a “load of flak” over the advert.

‘Last Supper’ gambling ad blasted

A more apt painting of gambling in a religious context may have been one of several well-known crucifiction scenes that depict soldiers gambling for Christ’s robes at the foot of the cross. If you’re curious, here’s an article that actually compares the soliders to “Las Vegas Texas-hold ‘em world champions.” Everyone’s hopping on the poker bandwagon.

Religious sensibilities aside, Paddy Power’s depiction is of course anachronistic, as playing cards did not appear in Asia until c. 1100 A.D. and in the Mediterranean area for at least another 100 years.

Pedantic academic observations aside, could it be that Paddy Power chose a deliberately offensive image to get themselves in the news?