Apple Removes Bible and Qur’an from China

Two months ago, Apple quietly removed a Quran app and a Bible App from its app store in China at the request of the Chinese Communist Party. Apple claimed in a statement they had to do it because they have to, quote, “obey local laws.”

This is the same 2.8-trillion-dollar company with an “Inclusion and Diversity” initiative that claims, without a sense of irony, to hold a, quote, “long-standing commitment to making… the world more just.” According to its American website, that means hiring a more racially diverse group of employees. That’s great. It’s unclear how that helps the 1.4 billion people living under increasing religious oppression in China.

This is a good reminder. When companies like Apple throw around the word “inclusive,” it’s because they see a profit opportunity. When companies like Apple are happily complicit in outright oppression, it’s because they won’t risk a profit opportunity. If the day comes when American culture gives Apple an ultimatum: either nix the Bible here or lose your profit, we need only look to China to discover what they’d do.

Copyright 2021 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.

Arkansas Racing Commission Approves Online Sports Betting

On Thursday the Arkansas Racing Commission voted to approve online sports betting.

Under the rules that the commission approved, gamblers would be able to bet on sporting events online via the casinos in the state.

The way the rules are written, wagers could be placed online via a computer, smart phone, or other mobile device from anywhere in Arkansas.

According to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the new rules now go to the state legislature’s Legislative Council Committee for final review on January 28.

Lawmakers on the committee will vote to approve or deny the new rules at that time.

As we have said before, it’s impossible to monitor online gambling to be sure all state and federal laws are being followed.

No matter how many safeguards and security features are in place, there’s no way to guarantee that children won’t gamble via these smart phone apps.

When voters passed Amendment 100 in 2018, they were authorizing casino gambling at certain locations in Arkansas — not from anywhere in the state over the Internet.

This rule change would permit mobile sports betting anywhere in Arkansas. That isn’t what voters had in mind when they approved the casino amendment three years ago.

People who gamble online face a serious risk of developing a gambling addiction, and some research indicates that people who engage in sports betting are twice as likely to suffer from gambling problems.

Arkansas already has enough problems from gambling. These new rules will only make those problems worse.

Bottom line: Online sports betting is a bad bet for Arkansas.