Churches in Sante Fe Stop Bingo Fundraising Efforts
A Santa Fe, New Mexico community which is pre-dominantly Catholic recently decided to let go of its annual $50,000 dollars fundraising activity because of apprehensions that they would be a contributing factor to the gambling addiction problem of their community.
The decision by the community to cancel its yearly fundraiser was influenced by the statement of the community pastor that games of chance, like bingo and raffle draws, clashed with the church's anti-gambling views.
The recent decision by the community is mostly a part by the church leaders joint effort to promote other means of raising money and discourage using raffle and bingo games as a tool for to collect money to use for different community projects.
Just recently, Calgary Bishop Fred Henry triggered public outrage when he threatened to blacklist schools who will not follow his order to stop using bingo as a fundraiser tool to raise money needed for the schools different programs and vowed that he will every means available to him to punished this schools including removing the Catholic designation from them.