Author: Curated Post

(CNBC) Mastercard is piloting new technology that lets shoppers make payments with just their face or hand at the checkout point.

The company on Tuesday launched a program for retailers to offer biometric payment methods, like facial recognition and fingerprint scanning. At checkout, users will be able to authenticate their payment by showing their face or the palm of their hand instead of swiping their card.

The program has already gone live in five St Marche grocery stores in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Mastercard says it plans to roll it out globally later this year.

“All the research that we’ve done has told us that consumers love biometrics,” Ajay Bhalla, Mastercard’s president of cyber and intelligence, told CNBC.

“They want making a payment at a store to be as convenient as opening their phone.”

About 1.4 billion people are expected to use facial recognition technology to authenticate a payment by 2025, more than doubling from 671 million in 2020, according to a forecast from Juniper Research.

How does it work?

To sign up on Mastercard, you take a picture of your face or scan your fingerprint to register it with an app. This is done either on your smartphone or at a payment terminal. You can then add a credit card, which gets linked to your biometric data.

It’s similar to tech that’s being trialed by Amazon in the U.S.

Mastercard says it plans to bring the program to the U.S., Europe, the Middle East and Asia…to continue reading click here

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Editor’s Note. This article was written by Ryane Browne for CNBC

(Capstone Report) Gavin Ortlund attacks Tucker Carlson as leftists attempt to censor the Fox News phenomena.

Earlier, Gavin Ortlund insulted the church as somehow unwilling to talk about White Supremacy—despite everyone in evangelicalism talking nonstop about white supremacy since about 2010. Ortlund (TGC contributor and pastor of First Baptist Church of Ojai) doubled down on this when challenged over his remarks. Ortlund says that watching Tucker Carlson is proof that white supremacy is a problem in the church.

Ortlund opined, “For the life of me, I cannot fathom how saying ‘condemnation of white supremacy cannot be assumed’ amounts to an insult. Are people not aware of the influence of folks like Tucker Carlson on church-goers? Do they not think we have to address this?”

Cody Libolt summarized it perfectly, “Agreeing with Tucker Carlson = White Supre…to continue reading, click here:

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Editor’s Note. This article was written and published at the Capstone Report

(Ministry Watch) Anecdotally, clergy have talked about the disruption in worship attendance in this pandemic age. Now, Southern Baptists have statistics to prove it.

The average in-person weekly attendance at Southern Baptist Convention churches declined 18.75%, from 4,439,797 in 2020 to 3,607,530 in 2021.

Christian education saw an even larger decrease of 22.15%, with Sunday school, Bible study, and small groups reduced from 2,879,130 to 2,241,514. 

The Annual Church Profile, a compilation from the denomination’s state conventions, was released Thursday (May 12) by Lifeway Christian Resources, the convention’s data gathering division.

Researchers also blamed COVID-19 for the slowdown in baptisms in the past two years. While there has been a 26% annual increase in baptisms at Southern Baptist churches, from 123,160 in 2020 to 154,701 in 2021, overall baptisms are nowhere near the total of 235,748 reported in 2019, the year before the pandemic began.

Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, said the recent rise in baptisms was due not only to…to continue reading, click here.

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Editor’s Note. This article was written by Adelle Banks and published at Ministry Watch

(Standing For Freedom) One week after Politico published the leaked opinion draft of Dobbs v. Jackson, which strongly indicated a reverse to Roe v. Wade, nearly 200 pro-abortion activists took to the streets — but not the streets of Capitol Hill or downtown Washington D.C. A quiet northern Virginia community was disrupted by loud and vulgar chants in angry response to the impending decision that will gut abortion access in the United States.

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Pro-aborts gathering to march to Justice Alito’s house, equipped with megaphones and *very convincing* literature. pic.twitter.com/joYAFGOdvv

— John Wesley Reid (@johnwesleyreid) May 10, 2022

The crowd met at a local parking lot and marched to the home of Justice Samuel Alito, which garnered a heavy police presence.

En route to Alito’s house, chants, which rung more vulgar than at most demonstrations, echoed throughout the upscale suburban community.

F*** the Court and the legislature!
We are not your incubator!

What do we want?
Justice!
When do we want it?
Now!
If we don’t get it…
Shut it down!

But through the shouts and vulgarities, one neighbor found comfort in the hymn “‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus” and wanted others to hear it, too. With open windows, the pianist played the age-old hymn on the family’s grand piano, which was easily heard from the street.

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Alito’s neighbor plays “Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus” on piano with window open as pro-aborts picket #Alito home.

Quote: “I wanted to do something to counter the noise…There is nothing more steadfast than the joy of worshipping our Savior through precious hymns.” pic.twitter.com/8jUk1htSMO

— John Wesley Reid (@johnwesleyreid) May 10, 2022

The neighbor wished to remain anonymous for safety concerns but provided the Standing for Freedom Center with a quote:

“I wanted to do something beautiful and thoughtful to counter the noise, the chaos, the sadness of those protesting…

to continue reading, click here

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Editor’s Note. This article was written by John Wesley Reid and published at Standing for Freedom

(Capstone report) Tom Ascol details how Ed Litton’s Sex Abuse Task Force politicized its entire process. He explains how the Task Force bungled its handling of the attempt to blackmail Tom and Jennifer Buck.  

Ascol: ‘Jennifer Buck deserves the exact same kind of care that we say as a convention we want to extend to those who have been sexually abused. Yet, she has not received that and I am grieved over that.’

Disgraced SBC President Ed Litton’s handpicked Sex Abuse Task Force bungled its handling of the SBC attack on abuse victims Tom and Jennifer Buck and Tom Ascol blasted the chairman of the task force Bruce Frank in a powerful comment during an SBC candidate forum this week.

“I do have some concerns that this process has been politicized,” Dr. Tom Ascol said.

This is true. The process is political. As we’ve pointed out Ed Litton’s personal choice to lead the Sex Abuse Task Force is biased and has repeatedly made clear it detests the Conservative Baptist Network.

And Ascol has specifics in mind—like how Sex Abuse Task Force leader acted in the case of Willy Rice as compared to the task force’s actions in the blackmail attempt against Tom and Jennifer Buck. First, Ascol explains the background of the attempt among SBC leadership to blackmail Tom Buck.

“A case in point is what is going on in a church not far from here—about 50 miles from here, First Baptist Church of…to continue reading click here.

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Editor’s Note. This article was written and published at the Capstone Report.

(Dissenter) Louis Giglio, the pastor of Passion City Church and the leader of the highly popular youth-oriented Passion Conference that regularly features people like Christine Caine and John Piper, says that making everything about God puts you outside of God’s will.

Giglio posted his quip on his Facebook page where it received thousands of likes and tons of affirming comments.

His comment appears to be a rewording of the old adage, “don’t be so heavenly-minded that you’re of no earthly good.” Of course, he’s attacking a straw man and that is certainly no biblical adage. It’s really an attack on the sovereignty and supremacy of God in all things. To translate what Giglio actually means when he says this, he’s essentially saying that if all you do is think about God all the time, you’ll wind up with a theology that doesn’t take into account social justice and commands to love your neighbor, and so on and so forth…

Nobody who is actually heavenly-minded by the Bible’s definition is outside of the will of God. Whatever earthly good they may be is a result of their being truly heavenly-minded. It’s not that…to continue reading click here

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Editor’s Note. This article was written by Jeff Maples and published at Dissenter.

(Faithwire) Amazon.com, Inc., the second-largest private employer in the country, announced Monday it will pay U.S. employees up to $4,000 in travel expenses for non-life-threatening treatments and procedures, including abortions.

According to Reuters, Amazon is not alone in its pro-abortion offering. Other companies offering similar reimbursements include Yelp, Inc., and Citigroup, Inc. The corporate actions are in response to Republican-led states whose lawmakers have approved so-called “trigger laws” that will ban abortions should the U.S. Supreme Court overturn the precedent established by Amazon.com, Inc., the second-largest private employer in the country, announced Monday it will pay U.S. employees up to $4,000 in travel expenses for non-life-threatening treatments and procedures, including abortions. Roe v. Wade granted nationwide legal cover to abortion in 1973.

The high court looks poised to do exactly that, according to a leaked opinion on the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case, which centers on a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks. Should the leaked document become official, abortion would move from a federal issue to a states’ rights matter.

Amazon’s newly announced benefit — effective to Jan. 1 retroactively — applies if an operation is more than 100 miles away from the employee’s residence and a virtual visit is not an option. It is worth… to continue reading, click here:

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Editor’s Note. This article was written by Tré Goins-Phillips and published at Faithwire. Title changed by Protestia