Howard C. Wilkinson - "You May Have Already Won" (November 13, 1966)

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-	Follow it with thy blessing	0:03
	that it may promote peace and goodwill among men	0:05
	and advanced thy kingdom of justice and righteousness.	0:08
	As we place this money up on the alter oh Lord,	0:13
	we bring together the sacred and secular	0:16
	the material and the spiritual, our work, and our worship.	0:19
	Help us, we ask to use all our gifts	0:25
	to unify life and not to split it apart	0:27
	to create fellowship and not to disrupt it	0:31
	in the name of Christ. Amen.	0:35
	(soft upbeat music)	0:39
-	The sermon today is an examination of five words,	1:01
	which have been mailed out	1:07
	to tens of millions of persons	1:08
	in the United States during the last several years.	1:11
	Not only have multiplied millions	1:15
	of people received these five words,	1:18
	but they have received them	1:21
	in an identically the same form	1:23
	from a wide variety of senders over and over again.	1:26
	It's a conservative guess	1:34
	to estimate that during the past three or four years,	1:36
	these five words have been printed and mailed out	1:39
	in at least 2 billion separate envelopes	1:43
	each one individually addressed.	1:48
	The words are, 'You may have already won.'	1:51
	You may have already won.	1:58
	Almost every person in chapel this morning.	2:03
	And those who are listening in by radio	2:05
	have received them in your mail,	2:07
	not once but many times	2:10
	during the past several years,	2:13
	by means of these five words	2:16
	and the lure of so-called sweepstakes prizes	2:18
	that go along with them.	2:22
	More than 15	2:25
	of the leading brand name corporations in America	2:26
	have been attempting to sell you and me	2:30
	everything from toothpaste to scotch tape,	2:32
	everything from shampoo to cooking ware.	2:35
	I shouldn't fail to mention deodorants,	2:39
	soft drinks, magazines.	2:42
	Now, the way it works is something like this.	2:47
	You go to your mailbox	2:49
	and there you find an envelope	2:51
	with your very own name on it.	2:52
	On the outside is printed.	2:56
	The glorious news that you may have already won	2:58
	upon opening the envelope with nervous eagerness,	3:05
	you read that you may indeed	3:08
	have already won a large cash prize,	3:10
	a new car, or a mink coat and electric carving knife,	3:14
	movie camera, diamond ring,	3:21
	an expensive watch, tape recorder,	3:23
	stereo set, a billiard table,	3:24
	or maybe a hundred dollars a month every month	3:27
	for the rest of your life.	3:30
	Several years ago,	3:35
	I began to receive these announcements through the mail.	3:36
	And after many months had gone by,	3:38
	I became so impressed with the frequency of their arrival,	3:41
	the grandiose blessings they offered to confer upon me	3:45
	and the sameness of the wording in the announcements	3:51
	that I'd decided to keep tabs on them for awhile.	3:55
	Now, I want to tell you what I found out.	3:58
	I do this not to report	4:01
	on how things are going in my private life,	4:03
	but because I'm confident that	4:07
	what was sent to me	4:09
	has also been sent to most of you in the congregation,	4:11
	as well as to many, many millions of our fellow citizens.	4:15
	It seems that we are faced with something	4:21
	which is growing in America.	4:22
	Perhaps we should pause to take a look at it	4:25
	and to examine its implications.	4:29
	So here we go, less than two years ago,	4:32
	specifically beginning in January of 1965,	4:36
	I began collecting in a file folder, all of them,	4:40
	which I received in my post office box or at my home,	4:44
	then a few weeks ago,	4:50
	I took this file folder to an adding machine	4:52
	and made some tabulations,	4:54
	which proved to be rather interesting.	4:56
	I discovered that in 22 months,	4:59
	I had been personally informed by leading corporations	5:01
	that I may have already won in 30 sweepstakes offers.	5:07
	I was given the happy news	5:14
	on the average of about once every three weeks	5:15
	that it was altogether possible	5:19
	that $10,000 or $25,000 cash	5:21
	was already awaiting me.	5:27
	But if not that then a new Chrysler automobile.	5:30
	And if not that, then I call a TV set.	5:34
	And if not that then possibly	5:39
	I may have won one one of 70,000 phonograph records	5:41
	on which I could hear Bing Crosby croon.	5:46
	When my sugar goes down the street,	5:49
	all the birdies go tweet, tweet, tweet.	5:51
	The corporation did not guarantee	5:58
	that I had won anything at all,	6:01
	not even a wax record,	6:05
	but the impression was left	6:08
	that since there were more than 70,000 chances	6:10
	that I had already won something,	6:13
	it would be all such a shame not to find out.	6:16
	When I added up the number of prizes	6:22
	and the total value of them	6:25
	as stated in their correspondence.	6:27
	I was astonished to learn that	6:29
	in these 30 sweepstakes offers,	6:30
	there was a total of 1,032,690 prizes involved,	6:32
	ranging in value all the way from a wax record	6:40
	to a life income of a hundred dollars per month	6:43
	and get this, the total value	6:47
	of the sweepstakes prizes offered on these 30 occasions	6:52
	was $14,090,500.	6:55
	Now and lucky man that I'm	7:01
	I was granted out of the goodness	7:04
	of their collective hearts, 30 free chances	7:06
	to win something.	7:09
	Perhaps it would be a good idea for me now to pause	7:14
	and see how things have gone with you,	7:18
	who are here in the congregation this morning,	7:20
	to be realistic,	7:24
	even though we have well over a thousand people	7:27
	in the congregation today,	7:29
	I doubt that there are as many as 10 among you	7:31
	who have during the past three or four years won	7:37
	that grand sweepstakes prize in one of these contests.	7:40
	Now I would like for any of you	7:45
	who have won the big prize,	7:47
	of say a hundred dollars a month for life	7:48
	or a new car or something like that,	7:50
	raise your hand right now.	7:53
	No hands, think of that.	8:01
	Well, surely quite a few of you have won something	8:06
	in one of these glamorous offerings.	8:10
	So let me ask that all of you	8:13
	who have won at least as much as a wax record	8:14
	in one of these sweepstakes to lift your hand.	8:17
	Two hands, only two	8:26
	the rest of us got left out, or did we?	8:31
	You may think that this lack of winning	8:37
	that all of us but two have experienced means that	8:41
	we have not received anything at all	8:46
	from these sweepstakes offers	8:50
	on the contrary,	8:53
	I think that have all received quite a great deal.	8:54
	The gift, however, is of questionable value.	8:59
	And we may not wish to accept it.	9:03
	Let's take a few minutes now	9:07
	to analyze these sweepstakes	9:08
	and you'll see what I mean.	9:09
	I'm going to list the characteristics held in common	9:12
	by all of the 30, which came in my mail.	9:15
	First, all of these sweepstakes are personalized.	9:18
	They're not publicized	9:23
	by miscellaneous billboard advertising.	9:24
	They are sent through the mail.	9:27
	They bear your very own name and address.	9:31
	Why all of the 30 IBM machines,	9:36
	they wrote me and knew my name, except one.	9:38
	It addressed me simply as occupant and crushed my feelings.	9:43
	But even that machine had my correct address	9:49
	all the way down to the proper zip code number.	9:52
	Now this emphasis upon personalization	9:56
	is carried a step farther.	9:59
	Each one of these corporations gave me a gift of a number,	10:01
	which would be my very own.	10:05
	For instance, one of them assigned me number	10:09
	2 4 8 dash 8 1 2 dash 7 7 8, my number.	10:13
	Another one made me a present of number 446365LO.	10:23
	And then they made it clear	10:31
	that in all of this big wide world,	10:33
	nobody else had that great big old number,	10:36
	except little old me.	10:37
	A second characteristic,	10:43
	common to all 30 of these sweepstakes is	10:44
	that they wrote to give me the glad tidings	10:47
	of great joy that I may have won something valuable,	10:49
	whatever I have or whether I have in fact won	10:52
	has already been decided.	10:58
	And the results of that decision	11:00
	have been safely stashed away	11:01
	in the vault of some impartial judging outfit.	11:03
	And even before I knew that anything at all	11:07
	was being enterprises on my behalf	11:09
	an electronic computer went to work,	11:13
	picked the winning numbers	11:16
	and nothing can change its decision.	11:18
	This means that by the time I first learned	11:21
	about the sweepstakes at all,	11:24
	the final result was already fixed permanently.	11:27
	Third, It was made crystal clear	11:34
	that all I had to do	11:36
	to receive any prize I may have already won	11:39
	was to find out, that's all.	11:44
	All I needed to do was to write my name and address	11:48
	the same one they had written	11:50
	on the outside of the envelope	11:51
	on a enclosed card together	11:54
	with the assigned number,	11:57
	mail it back to the corporation.	11:59
	In other words,	12:02
	if the number they had mailed to me	12:03
	had been picked by the computer	12:07
	to win a cash prize of $25,000.	12:09
	The sole difference between my getting the money	12:14
	and not getting it,	12:18
	consisted simply in my sending in my name	12:20
	and address on a card.	12:23
	That's all I had to do, nothing to write	12:25
	nothing to learn, nothing to sell,	12:30
	just send in the card and wait.	12:33
	There wasn't even at any need of the hope	12:37
	because the outcome had already been fixed, just wait.	12:39
	In fact, one is forbidden to do anything,	12:45
	to earn the price.	12:48
	Well the fourth characteristic common	12:52
	to all of these sweepstakes	12:54
	is a special motivation to send in your card.	12:56
	And I noticed this	13:01
	the company not only informed you	13:03
	how valuable is the prize,	13:05
	you may have already won,	13:07
	but for some reason,	13:10
	they also tell you the total value	13:13
	of all the prizes they're going to give away	13:17
	in that sweepstakes.	13:19
	What is that reason?	13:22
	Why do they tell you that the total value	13:25
	of all the prizes in this particular sweepstakes	13:27
	is a million dollars for instance,	13:29
	I think it is for the purpose of initially causing you	13:33
	to wonder where they got all that money.	13:37
	And they hope you ultimately will realize	13:42
	that you have paid them part of that prize money yourself	13:44
	and that you think it's about time you got it back.	13:53
	Where did those corporations get	13:57
	the $14,090,500 prize money	14:00
	they gave away in those 30 sweepstakes offers.	14:04
	Very simply, they got it from folks such as you and me,	14:08
	including you and me	14:13
	by charging enough extra	14:15
	on the products we previously bought from them	14:17
	to pay for $14 million worth of prizes.	14:19
	Now you see the average man,	14:26
	doesn't enjoy thinking	14:27
	that he's throwing his money away	14:28
	and getting nothing in return for it.	14:29
	So he this motivates him	14:32
	to enter the sweepstakes.	14:34
	Last, another characteristic common	14:38
	to all of these sweepstakes offers	14:41
	is the gentle suggestion,	14:43
	as delicate as the falling snow.	14:47
	That even now,	14:50
	you may wish to buy one of that company's products.	14:51
	It has made clear that you might win a prize	14:58
	without buying something,	15:01
	but they suggest that as long as they have your attention.	15:04
	And since you're going to be mailing in the card	15:10
	with your name and address anyway,	15:12
	why not just order a Christmas album	15:14
	or some kitchenware	15:17
	or just anything listed	15:19
	in their attractive mail order catalog.	15:20
	Now, these companies are all too nice to say this.	15:25
	And of course they wouldn't stoop to any such mischief,	15:29
	but you can't help wondering	15:31
	if the clerks who receive these return cards	15:35
	might simply throw them in the trash can	15:40
	if you're a too stingy to order any of their merchandise.	15:43
	So if you're going to return your card at all,	15:48
	you're probably going to be motivated to order something.	15:51
	So as to motivate them,	15:54
	to check your number against that list they have,	15:56
	they claim to have locked up in the vault.	15:58
	Now, before listing these five characteristics,	16:03
	I said that all of us	16:06
	have received something from these sweepstakes offers.	16:08
	What we have received	16:13
	is a group of attitudes and assumptions	16:15
	by the constant bombardment of our minds	16:20
	with these sweepstakes,	16:23
	there is the real possibility	16:24
	that their implied doctrines	16:26
	may lodge themselves in either our conscious	16:28
	or subconscious minds	16:31
	and become a part of our functional philosophy of life.	16:34
	I believe we should consciously and firmly reject them.	16:39
	I believe we should spurn the gift of these attitudes.	16:44
	And I say this because I have seen the misery,	16:48
	the disillusionment and anger in gender	16:51
	in many people who have accepted these assumptions.	16:55
	What are they?	16:59
	There are three of them,	17:02
	First, they tend to communicate the attitude,	17:04
	that wonderful things happen to us.	17:08
	And that abundant life comes to us	17:12
	by some pre-determined system	17:17
	over which we have no personal control,	17:19
	rather than by decisions we make,	17:24
	disciplines we develop, goal we achieve,	17:28
	knowledge we learn or work we do.	17:32
	These sweepstakes offers emphasize	17:37
	that the outcome is already fixed from the beginning.	17:39
	That we're either happy or unhappy	17:42
	because of something which occurred somewhere else	17:44
	before we knew anything about it.	17:46
	Effort is not important.	17:50
	Our chance to win is not improved	17:53
	if we read a book or 10 books,	17:55
	nor has it helped if we discipline our voices	17:57
	to sing in a choir.	17:59
	Only two things count	18:02
	a predetermined selection of winners	18:04
	and you're asking to be told	18:07
	if you are among them.	18:10
	Just after a great many people	18:14
	had pushed the idea of predestination out of their minds	18:16
	through the front door.	18:19
	It is seeking to gain entrance again	18:20
	through the back door, so to speak	18:22
	by means of these sweepstakes.	18:25
	You see this as a subtle new form	18:27
	of predestination by Calvinistic computer.	18:30
	It is cybernetic for ordination.	18:36
	It carries with it deceptive theologies	18:39
	and ethical structures which infect character.	18:42
	For some, this is an attractive code	18:47
	in an age of accident and war.	18:50
	Two men board separate airplanes,	18:55
	one crashes and the other does not. Why?	18:57
	Two students graduated together.	19:02
	One is drafted and spends many months	19:05
	in the jungles of Vietnam.	19:07
	The other one spends the same months	19:09
	in an air conditioned office,	19:12
	high above the noise of the street	19:14
	and thousands of miles away from sniper fire, why?	19:16
	Is it because a Pentagon computer predetermines	19:24
	our lives to such an extent	19:27
	that we don't even have to think	19:28
	about these things	19:30
	much less be able to determine our destinies	19:31
	by any choice we make in any sense.	19:34
	Indeed this is an attractive code in a world like this one,	19:37
	you may have already won, who knows.	19:42
	You may have already been ticketed for death.	19:46
	Who knows?	19:49
	You may succeed, you may fail.	19:51
	Que sera, sera, what will be, will be.	19:53
	Or to quote another old song.	19:59
	If you haven't got it, you haven't got.	20:00
	But think how foreign this attitude is	20:06
	to the basic assumption of academic life.	20:08
	Suppose that on the first day of the semester,	20:13
	Dr. Ann Scott were to stand before her class	20:16
	and announce, 'You may have already passed history.'	20:18
	(congregation laughing )	20:23
	All you have to do	20:26
	is hand in your name and address	20:27
	wait until the end of the semester.	20:29
	And you will be notified	20:31
	by an impartial judging agency	20:32
	if you have passed.	20:34
	Meanwhile, nothing to write,	20:38
	nothing to read, nothing to learn,	20:41
	nothing to do, but wait.	20:44
	Think also how far on this assumption is	20:47
	to the Christian faith.	20:49
	The initial announcement of the sweepstakes is	20:52
	you may have already won	20:55
	the initial announcement of the Christian religion	20:58
	is not you may have already won,	21:00
	It isn't even you may have already lost.	21:04
	Instead, it is, you are already lost.	21:08
	The message is that all have sinned	21:13
	and come short of the glory of God.	21:15
	We are all condemned by the judgment of a righteous God,	21:18
	because we have knowingly	21:21
	and freely and willfully broken His will.	21:22
	However, all of us can be redeemed,	21:26
	not just a few holders of lucky numbers.	21:31
	All of us can be redeemed	21:33
	if we'll repent believe and obey.	21:35
	So in Christian doctrine,	21:40
	we find universal condemnation,	21:42
	not by a predetermined computer choice,	21:44
	but by individually chosen sin.	21:47
	And we find an open invitation	21:50
	to universal redemption	21:52
	by individual repentance, faith and obedience.	21:54
	Now the second attitude	21:59
	these sweepstakes tend to communicate to us is that	22:01
	we are losers.	22:03
	The reason they do is that in their propaganda,	22:07
	they announced so excitedly to you addressing you by name	22:11
	that you may have already won something valuable	22:15
	that if you're not on guard,	22:19
	they almost convince you that you have	22:21
	only to discover that you have not.	22:24
	Considering the fact that	22:31
	they send these announcements	22:32
	to multiplied millions of people.	22:33
	It is mathematically certain	22:35
	that only a very tiny fraction of the receivers	22:37
	could possibly win even a Bing Crosby record,	22:41
	much less the grand prize.	22:45
	You saw how it was a little while ago	22:48
	when I asked for a show of hands	22:50
	of the winners right here.	22:52
	Were a chapel full of losers, let's face it.	22:54
	How do I know we're losers,	23:00
	the computer said so.	23:02
	It decided it and informed us	23:05
	the sweepstakes computers	23:08
	have any effect toll tens of millions of people	23:10
	that they're losers	23:13
	while telling only an extremely small number	23:14
	that they were winners population by and large,	23:16
	as told by the computers that there are a bunch of losers.	23:19
	How often have I sat in my office right back here	23:24
	behind this pulpit and listened	23:26
	to students dejectedly affirm that they're just losers.	23:28
	Why did they feel that they're losers?	23:33
	They feel that things are stacked against them.	23:36
	Over and over again	23:39
	they have been told either by this	23:40
	or something else 'you may have already won'	23:42
	And then they have found out that they did not win.	23:45
	The outcome hinged on fate on luck.	23:49
	Fate was against them, their luck was down.	23:54
	They're just losers.	23:57
	A person does not mature though,	24:00
	until he can bring himself to rise above this self-pity	24:02
	and stop blaming his problems on some predetermined fate	24:06
	or on some distant computer.	24:09
	We might change the meaning of Cassius famous speech	24:13
	to Brutus by paraphrasing it	24:16
	and make Cassius to say the fault,	24:18
	dear Brutus is not in our cosmic computer,	24:20
	but in ourselves, if we are losers.	24:23
	Well, the third attitude	24:27
	we tend to catch by reading this barrage	24:29
	of sweepstakes offers is that	24:31
	every plan which appears to be altruistic	24:35
	and calculated to help mankind	24:40
	is only a front for a selfish scheme	24:44
	to make a profit for the party	24:48
	who claims to be so loving.	24:49
	It is an implied denial that there is any true altruism.	24:53
	Any real, agape love.	25:00
	These sweepstakes offers are hypocritical.	25:04
	In fact, they do mask a lot of profit	25:06
	hungry manipulation by a friendly front	25:10
	listen to the pitch.	25:13
	You may have already won	25:15
	because we have volunteered to assign you a number.	25:16
	We have placed that number in a fair drawing.	25:20
	And now you may be on the verge of winning a valuable prize,	25:23
	which we have paid for in which will cost you nothing.	25:27
	If you have won it.	25:31
	Well, how much more friendly than that can you get?	25:33
	And yet every person who stops to think about it	25:38
	and who has a modicum of intelligence	25:40
	will know that the company	25:43
	didn't mail out those announcements	25:44
	with a benevolent desire	25:46
	to give some unsuspecting co-ed a new Mustang.	25:47
	They did it in the hope of boosting their sales	25:51
	and pyramiding their own profits	25:54
	yet because this intentionally profitable maneuver wears	25:57
	the mask of altruism and has the effect	26:00
	of teaching millions of people	26:03
	that goodness is a phony	26:06
	and it's a front for selfishness.	26:09
	And that behind all apparently kind acts,	26:11
	there is really nothing but study the grand Desmon.	26:13
	This is indeed a cruel teaching and we need to reject it.	26:18
	Granting that slicer had human pride,	26:23
	that Gandhi could lose his temper.	26:26
	The cago well could be impulsive	26:28
	that the apostle Paul and the apostle Peter	26:30
	could argue hotly over sacred things	26:32
	that Wesley on his death bed	26:34
	could justifiably feel that he was a sinner.	26:36
	Granting that Luther liked to argue	26:39
	and that no Saint has ever completely transcended	26:41
	the sins of the spirit.	26:44
	Nevertheless, there is such a thing as a benevolent act,	26:45
	there is such a thing as genuine altruism	26:51
	again and again,	26:54
	men who were imperfect	26:55
	have sought nevertheless	26:57
	to labor for the glory of God	26:58
	and the up building of mankind	27:00
	in spite of their imperfections.	27:01
	And I say that shining examples of unselfish,	27:04
	courage and devotion,	27:07
	aluminate the pages of history	27:08
	and decorate the vistas of the modern world	27:09
	and let no sweepstakes promotions scheme	27:13
	tarnish their brilliance.	27:17
	This is the world created by a God who loves us,	27:20
	who loves us all equally,	27:24
	whatever our computer number,	27:27
	the color of our skin,	27:31
	the place of our birth or anything else.	27:32
	He calls us to respond to his love and freedom,	27:35
	and he offers us the free grace we need	27:39
	to acquire that discipline,	27:42
	which underlies every great life.	27:43
	So instead of wasting our time	27:47
	and energy running after lucky numbers	27:49
	and searching for fool's gold	27:51
	at the foot of a computer rainbow,	27:53
	we should turn our faces towards the open future,	27:55
	lift our hearts to God	27:58
	and walk steadfastly in the sure way	28:00
	that leads to human dignity,	28:04
	to honest toil and to fellowship with God.	28:06
	Almighty God, our heavenly father,	28:18
	we trust thee who does love us	28:21
	and who are fair and just, and honorable.	28:24
	Grant that we may acquire our attitudes	28:28
	and assumptions from thy gospel	28:32
	rather than from the world.	28:35
	Now may the grace of the Lord,	28:39
	Jesus Christ be with you all.	28:40
	(soft upbeat music)	28:50

Item Info

Title:

Howard C. Wilkinson - "You May Have Already Won" (November 13, 1966)

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4zc7ww13

Date:

November 13, 1966

Speaker:

Wilkinson, Howard C.

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 RR-0361
ref5925_hhg
uachapelsermaud
duke:628030
dcrau002357
ark:/87924/r4zc7ww13
4095fd3e-7aed-42f7-a45d-e3ebacc7a278

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Related Resources:

See below

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

Educational Use Permitted

Rights Note:

This material is made available for educational and non-commercial use. This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the license indicated here. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For other reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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Howard C. Wilkinson - "You May Have Already Won" (November 13, 1966)

Transcript

Item Info

1. Howard C. Wilkinson - "You May Have Already Won" (November 13, 1966)

Duke University Archives

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Howard C. Wilkinson - "You May Have Already Won" (November 13, 1966)

Transcript

Item Info

Related Item

Duke University Archives

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