TOCCOA – If the strongest man can’t make it through one day without Jesus Christ, how can you?

It’s a question posed at the base of a life-sized, bronze tribute to Toccoa’s favorite son, Olympic weightlifter Paul Anderson, who is depicted with a rack of weights thrust triumphantly overhead.

The query, etched prominently in stone, also reflects the rock-ribbed conservative culture of this small city in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains, near the South Carolina state line.

It was here in Stephens County that residents – many of them morally opposed to gambling in any form – soundly rejected the state lottery in 1992.

Seventy percent of voters – more than any other county in Georgia – shot it down. Statewide the lottery narrowly passed, thanks to support from urban areas.

That was nearly 24 years ago, and 7,577 residents of Stephens County, home to about 26,000 people, have since collected on the HOPE scholarship funded by the lottery.

Even so, local views on gambling haven’t softened much over time, which could be bad news for those eyeing casino gaming as a way to fund HOPE scholarships amid increasing demand for college aid.

Bill Grant, who is active in the local Republican Party, said he likely voted against the lottery in 1992.

His opinion, for one, hasn’t changed.

“I think it’s as bad as any drug that you can take,” he said.

Broader support

Two measures – one that created a framework for casino gaming and another that would ask voters to consider a constitutional amendment allowing it – were nearly put to a vote of the Legislature this year.

The proposal would have licensed four casinos – including two outside of the Atlanta area. Supporters said the facilities could have raised more than $1 billion in taxes and fees.

House Speaker David Ralston postponed the vote when he concluded that some lawmakers did not seem too keen on taking up the issue. That pushes a potential referendum to 2018 – the next year that a constitutional amendment can be put on a ballot.

Rep. Rusty Kidd, an independent from Milledgeville, said he thinks even hardline evangelicals can be won over in the meantime.

Kidd has proposed devoting a portion of casino proceeds to purposes other than pre-K and the HOPE scholarship and grant program, which awards college aid based on merit. His idea started to gain traction this session as it became clear that expanding gambling in the name of HOPE held little appeal for some lawmakers.

Kidd said sending money to communities across the state for struggling rural hospitals, or to roll back property taxes, would go a long way to broaden support for casinos.

“There are probably five more rural hospitals in Georgia that will close between now and the end of 2018,” he said this week. “In those counties that know their hospital is in trouble, would they rather have one casino in Atlanta and keep their hospital open, or have no casino in Georgia and see their hospital close?”

Rep. Jason Shaw, R-Lakeland, chairman of the Legislature’s rural caucus, said that approach could possibly make casino gaming more palatable outside Atlanta and other urban areas.

For now, he said, rural lawmakers remain divided.

Mike Griffin, lobbyist for the Georgia Baptist Mission Board, which represents about 1.4 million Baptists, said that approach to broadening support is shortsighted.

“Any sin tax is regressive,” he said. “You’re just going to be applying money to one area and creating another need somewhere else.”

Black and white

Back in Stephens County, Dean Scarborough said offering a few “carrots” – preferably a tax break, he added – might win over the “middle of the road people.”

“But I think those people who are morally opposed to it will continue to be opposed to it,” said Scarborough, a county commissioner.

To Georgia’s most devout, the lottery clashes with Biblical teachings and merely takes money from some to benefit others. That wariness still lingers in Stephens County, home to the Georgia Baptist Conference Center and Toccoa Falls College, a private Christian college.

“I believe you’re a child of God or a child of the Devil. There’s no grey in between,” said Marvin Whitehead, whose barbershop, The Clipper, is in downtown Toccoa.

Whitehead lives in nearby Habersham County, where 68 percent of voters rejected the lottery.

He sees gambling, whether it’s the lottery or slot machines, in the same black-and-white way.

It’s simply wrong, he said.

Not everyone in Stephens County feels that way.

“Casino gaming is like everything else,” said Bryan Westmoreland, who owns the X-Factor Grill in downtown Toccoa. “TV can be a sin. Too much time on the Internet can be a sin. Casino gaming can be a sin.”

Westmoreland said he thinks locals will be more likely to support the casino proposal – and maybe even sneak off to visit one – as long as it’s not in their backyard.

With or without his home county’s support, he said he believes a casino vote would pass statewide.

“It’s the world we live in,” he said.

A non-binding question on the 2012 Republican primary ballot indicates that others feel this way, too. When asked if Georgia should “have casino gambling with funds going to education,” only 54 percent of voters in Stephens County said no.

Statewide, half of Republican voters supported the idea.

‘A Preacher’s Position’

Some locals point to the recent passage of Sunday alcohol sales in Toccoa as a sign of how much times have changed in Stephens County since Anderson took gold at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956, and even since the county voted against the lottery in 1992.

By a 23-vote margin last year, residents made it possible for restaurants to sell alcohol on Sundays, as some neighboring jurisdictions already do. So far, four businesses have paid $500 for a license to do so.

This has rankled some in the local faith community.

“Someone explain to me how our society has condemned smoking cigarettes and has glorified alcohol?” asked the Rev. Jesse Colbert, pastor of Sunnyside Baptist Church in Toccoa, in a recent blog post.

The recent vote, he added, had “nothing to do with the virtue of consuming alcohol. It had everything to do with money.”

Colbert has also recently used his blog, called A Preacher’s Position, to decry the state’s lottery as a program that preys on the poor. He didn’t respond to a request to be interviewed.

In a day where fewer people identify as Christian, according to research from the Pew Research Center, Scarborough said church attendance remains high in Stephens County, and its churches remain influential.

Still, Griffin said he worries that if a question about gambling makes it onto a ballot, the faith community across the state will struggle to be heard over the powerful pro-casino forces.

He said he was encouraged by Ralston’s decision to postpone the vote, and he hopes the prospect of casinos – and horse racing, for that matter – won’t survive the legislative process.

“There’s no way the smaller denominations or faith-based organizations are going to be able to compete with the money that they’re going to be able to pour in, to be able to try to convince people that, as I call it, because it glitters it has to be gold,” he said.

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com.