Bishop says 20 second ‘cooling off’ time on gambling machines isn’t enough

The machines use Artificial Intelligence to spot whether the user is exhibiting addictive behaviour and will be introduced in betting shops such as William Hill, Paddy Power and Ladbrokes.

The Anonymous Player Awareness System (APAS) looks out for whether a player is betting erratically in order to keep playing and monitors how long they’ve been gambling for.

If the gamer is playing in a way that could danger them, they are locked out of it for at least 30 seconds and a manager is alerted.

 

 

Warnings are then displayed on the screen about safe gambling.

A “cooling off” period of 20 seconds will also stop a player gambling if they have been on the machine for 20 minutes.

Rt Rev Dr Alan Smith, Bishop of St Albans, who has campaigned about gambling in the House of Lords, said: “I am glad that the industry has acknowledged the problems its products are still creating on our high streets.

He said the idea was good and a step forward but: “As anyone who has ever watched people use these types of machines know, 20 seconds appears to be too small a time-limit. Could 20 seconds be so short that it is effectively meaningless?

“If this initiative is really going to help those experiencing gambling-related harm, it will need to have robust, transparent and independent academic review using anonymised data to test its effectiveness.”

Bishop Alan added: “As the world and the…

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Chick-fil-A Fans Outraged after Company Caves, Halts Donations to FCA, Salvation Army

Chick-fil-A Fans Outraged after Company Caves, Halts Donations to FCA, Salvation Army



Chick-fil-A said Monday it would halt contributions made to certain charities and organizations – such as the Salvation Army and the Fellowship of Christian Athletes – that have sparked a controversy among LGBT groups. 


Instead, the Chick-fil-A Foundation will focus its charities on three areas: education, homelessness and hunger.


“There’s no question we know that, as we go into new markets, we need to be clear about who we are,” Chick-fil-A President and Chief Operating Officer Tim Tassopoulos told Bisnow. “There are lots of articles and newscasts about Chick-fil-A, and we thought we needed to be clear about our message.”


This means the Chick-fil-A Foundation will no longer donate to the Salvation Army, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) and the Paul Anderson Youth Home, Bisnow reported. In a press release, Chick-fil-A said it was “introducing a more focused giving approach to provide additional clarity and impact with the causes it supports.” Going forward, the Chick-fil-A Foundation will support Junior Achievement, Covenant House International and local food banks. It will donate $9 million to those causes in 2020.


“The Foundation has made these changes to create more clarity and to better address three critical needs facing children across the communities we serve,” the press release said. 


Chick-fil-A is the…

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Kanye announces Jesus Is King II with Dr Dre

West’s original Jesus Is King album, which launched 25th October, made history in the Christian music industry after becoming the first album ever to take the top 10 spots on both Billboard’s Hot Christian Songs and Hot Gospel Songs charts.

On Monday the star told fans a follow-up project was in production.

“Ye and Dre Jesus is King Part II coming soon” he posted on Twitter, sharing a photo with the famed producer and rapper in the studio.

 

  

The album will mark the first official collaboration of two of the most prominent artists in the hip hop industry.

West, who announced he is now “born again” earlier this year also plans to release a Christmas album titled Jesus is Born.

Last weekend, West performed a Sunday service session at Houston’s Lakewood Church, featuring a sermon from the megachurch pastor Joel Osteen.

 

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Justin Welby says Jesus would not have been given a visa in the UK

Speaking at the CBI conference on Monday, where the political party leaders also pitched their ideas to the business community, the Archbishop of Canterbury took part in a discussion about social inequality.

The discussion was chaired by Faisal Islam, BBC’s economics editor and also included Denise Wilson, Ruth Harrison and Brian Gilvary – who all work in business and equality.

 

 

During the session, Archbishop Justin said: “Our founder Jesus Christ was of course not white, middle class and British…by any standard of imagination.

“Are you sure?” asked Faisal Islam.

“I’m absolutely certain – he certainly wouldn’t have got a visa, unless we’re particularly short of carpenters”.

 

 

They also discussed gender parity on company boards, whether companies should make relationships which have climate change implications and social injustice.

 

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Chick-fil-A Foundation will no longer donate to Salvation Army and FCA: A question and two important facts

The Chick-fil-A Foundation announced yesterday that it is “introducing a more focused giving approach to provide additional clarity and impact with the causes it supports.” As a result, it will “deepen its giving to a small number of organizations working exclusively in the areas of education, homelessness and hunger.”

As a result, the Foundation has committed $9 million in 2020 to three initiatives: it will support education through Junior Achievement, address youth homelessness through Covenant House International, and fight hunger by dedicating $25,000 to a local food bank at each new Chick-fil-A opening. The company’s total benevolent gifts will approximate $32 million next year. 

What the Foundation will not do is continue its financial support of The Salvation Army or the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA), each of which has been accused of anti-LGBTQ bias. 

The question is why. 

An overview of the issue 

Chick-fil-A first made LGBT-related headlines in 2011 after the WinShape Foundation, supported by restaurant founder S. Truett Cathy and his family, made contributions to the Family Research Council and Exodus International. LGBTQ activists protested, considering these groups to be discriminatory. 

The next year, CEO Dan Cathy publicly stated his support for traditional marriage. Following a public backlash, the Civil Rights Agenda announced that Chick-fil-A had “ceased donating to organizations that promote discrimination, specifically against LGBT civil rights.” 

The company also formed a new charitable arm, the Chick-fil-A Foundation, which continued to support groups like the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and The Salvation Army, which are not focused on political action. 

However, protests against the company’s alleged anti-LGBTQ bias have continued to escalate. Airports in San Antonio, Buffalo, and San Jose have prevented the restaurant from opening or stated they would not renew its…

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Taoiseach backs priest’s anti-violence stance over Lunney attack

Leo Varadkar offered his support to Fr Oliver O’Reilly from Ballyconnell parish.

Fr O’Reilly previously described a “long reign of terror” hanging over the Cavan-Fermanagh area and urged those involved to end the violence.

 

 

The Taoiseach said: “In his homily following the vicious assault on Kevin Lunney, Fr O’Reilly spoke from the heart and the head, and offered leadership to a distressed community.

“He offered moral guidance to his community, he condemned the savagery of the kidnapping and the ongoing campaign of intimidation, and called on everyone to co-operate with the authorities.

“I believe that Fr O’Reilly showed considerable courage in giving this homily and I commend him for doing so.”

It was reported over the weekend that one of Fr O’Reilly’s parishioners, the businessman Sean Quinn, has written to the Vatican to complain.

The Quinn family have consistently condemned and distanced themselves from those attacking the new owners.

Mr Lunney, 50, a director of Quinn Industrial Holdings (QIH), was snatched near his Co Fermanagh home and brutally assaulted in September.

The father of six spoke out about the attack in a BBC Spotlight interview, describing how he had been slashed with a knife, doused with bleach and branded by his captors before being dumped on a remote road in Co Cavan.

Criminals targeting QIH executives are believed to have been behind the…

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Five Ways to Address the Oversized Sanctuary

Podcast Episode #590

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Church practices change with cultural norms. The norm in the church used to be everyone gathering at one time in one place. Today, Thom and Sam discuss changing church practices and five ways to address an oversized sanctuary. 

5 Ways to Address the Oversized Sanctuary:

  1. Understand the “why” behind the trends.
  2. Use curtains or ropes.
  3. Close off the balcony.
  4. Remodel the facility.
  5. Focus on a larger fellowship area.

Other highlights:

  • A common renovation in churches today include expanding the lobby or common space and reducing the main worship center.
  • The average size of a new worship center is getting smaller.
  • Large worship centers were built because church practice required one service each morning. Today churches hold multiple services requiring less space for Sunday worship.
  • Culturally the fellowship time is now happening before and after the worship service. An open lobby space could revolutionize your church culture.

Resources mentioned in today’s podcast


Episode Sponsors

Vanderbloemen has been serving churches for nine years, but did you know that Vanderbloemen also serves Christian schools, nonprofits, and Christian businesses? So if you’re listening, and you know a Christian school, nonprofit, or values-based business that is hiring, contact our friends at Vanderbloemen for your staffing needs.

For more information, visit Vanderbloemen.com.


The mission at…

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‘The Only Superstar Is Jesus,’ Kanye West Says During Testimony at Joel Osteen’s Church

‘The Only Superstar Is Jesus,’ Kanye West Says During Testimony at Joel Osteen’s Church



Kanye West’s new faith-centric album may have surprised some fans, but he said Sunday that God has been drawing him into Christian music for several years. 


West spoke at a jam-packed Sunday morning service at Houston’s Lakewood Church, the megachurch where Joel Osteen serves as pastor. Tickets were free. That night, West performed a concert at the church. 


“God’s been calling me for a long time, and the devil has been distracting me for a long time,” West said. “When I was in my lowest point, God was there with me and sending me visions and inspiring me.”


West referenced a time in 2016 when he was admitted to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center for stress and exhaustion. It caused the remainder of his 2016 tour to be cancelled. 


“I remember sitting in the hospital [in 2016] at UCLA after having a mental breakdown, and there’s documentations of me drawing a church and … writing, ‘start a church in the middle of Calabasas.’”


Earlier in 2016, West had released an album, Life of Pablo, that at the time he called a “gospel album.” 


“And I didn’t know how to totally make a gospel album,” he said.


The Christians surrounding him in 2016 didn’t tell him what he needed to hear, he said. They were “beaten into submission by society to not speak up and profess the gospel to me because I was a superstar,”…

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Outrage as rugby star links Australian wildfires to God’s wrath

Folau, who was sacked by Rugby Australia (RA) in May for posting controversial comments on social media, described the fires as a “little taste of God’s judgement”.

Wildfires have raged across eastern Australia in recent weeks destroying hundreds of homes and killing six people.

 

Speaking to members of Sydney’s Truth of Jesus Christ Church on Sunday, the former Wallabies player implied the natural disaster was an act of judgement by God following the nation’s recent decision to pass laws on abortion and same-sex marriage.

“God’s word says for a man and a woman to be together, one man and one woman in the covenant of marriage to be together.

“Abortion – it’s now okay to murder and kill unborn children and they deem that to be okay.

“Look how rapid these bushfires, these droughts, all these things have come in a short period of time, do you think it’s a coincidence or not?

“God is speaking to you guys – Australia, you need to repent and take these laws and turn it back into following what is right by God,” Folau said.

Australian Prime Minister and Christian, Scott Morrison has condemned Folau’s remarks as “appallingly insensitive”.

Morrsion told reporters on Monday: “He is a free citizen, he can say whatever he likes but that doesn’t mean he can’t have regard to the grievance [and] offence this would have caused to the people whose homes have burnt down.”

Folau is…

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Pro-Life Organization May Have to Pay $1.6 Million for Misuse of Taxpayer Money

Pro-Life Organization May Have to Pay $1.6 Million for Misuse of Taxpayer Money



An evangelical pro-life organization in Texas may be forced to pay a million and a half dollars in fines for violations.


According to Relevant Magazine, the Heidi Group, the pro-life organization contracted by the state to provide women’s health service resources, may have misused taxpayer funds.


The Heidi Group also overpaid subcontractors and operated without oversight, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission Office of Inspector General said.


In 2016, the Heidi Group was awarded a $1.6 million contract with the state of Texas to provide women’s healthcare resources to low-income residents. The Heidi Group was tasked with building those health care resources after state laws forced the closure of women’s health clinics that violated Texas’ abortion law.


The Heidi Group said it would provide women’s health resources to about 51,000 low-income women in the state. A state audit, however, found that the work by the organization only helped about 2,300 women.


In a separate $5.1 million contract with the state, the Health and Human Services Commission said the organization only helped about 1,000 people. The contract was for the state’s Family Planning Program which was supposed to help some 18,000 people.


“The difference in the number of recipients served and the funds expended implies that the Heidi Group mismanaged grant funds under…

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