Local Clerics Look To Help Unemployed AC Casino Workers Emotionally
By David Madden
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (CBS) - The shutdown of two Atlantic City casinos last weekend -- with a third set for just after the Miss America pageant next weekend -- has left thousands of people out of work.
Many of them need more than financial assistance, and that's where the local religious community steps in.
Reverend David McGettigan is pastor at St. Andrew by the Sea Lutheran Church in Atlantic City. He and other religious leaders are counseling hundreds of people who find themselves unemployed, worried and…hopeful.
"As soon as they get a chance to pour their hearts out and to ask for your compassion and perhaps prayer, they speak immediately about the future and their hopes for Atlantic City," he says.
McGettigan says they have some experience in dealing with disaster:
"We learned a lot from Superstorm Sandy in the Atlantic City area for sure. We're gonna marshal those resources including the ability to pull many clergy together...not be lone rangers in all of this."
McGettigan and his colleagues are looking for some help themselves from priests, rabbis and imams throughout South Jersey to assist in the spiritual healing -- which can be just as important as looking for that next job.
