A rising threat to free societies is de-banking, something that has become especially controversial among financial institutions for being utilized as a weapon in the culture war.
De-banking, or de-risking as it’s referred to within the industry, is defined as the closure of individual or organizational bank accounts by those banks who perceive that the account holders pose a financial, legal, regulatory, or reputational risk to the financial institution.
It sounds straightforward. However, a recent complaint filed in Tennessee shows that the activities of Christian ministries may be in the crosshairs of these financial institutions. Last May, Bank of America (BoA) notified Indigenous Advance Ministries (IAM), a Christian non-profit that works with impoverished Ugandans, that their accounts with the bank would be closed as its “risk profile no longer aligns with the bank’s risk tolerance.”
Information presented on the website of the missionary outlet shows a possible reason why.
The ministry provides basic life necessities to impoverished people in Uganda. However, the religious positions taken by the missionary group may be the issue that has created the rancor with the multinational investment bank. The group espouses pro-life positions and traditional Christian sexual morality that all sexual relations should be between a married man and woman.
On May 29, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed into law one of the strictest sodomy laws in Africa. The law drew widespread criticism from Western governments, including the U.S. State Department. The World Bank subsequently cut funding to Uganda because of the law.
In a statement, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “the United States is deeply troubled by Uganda’s passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act.” Blinken further stated that the passage of this legislation “is part of a broader degradation of human rights protections that put Ugandan citizens at risk and damages the country’s reputation as a destination for investment, development, tourism and refugees.” The missionary group has not adopted a stance on this law.
The global liberal/left outrage created by the Ugandan law has overshadowed what Indigenous Advance Ministries is doing in the East African nation to alleviate the plight of the Christian community there. In the annual State Department report on International Religious Freedom, the entry for Uganda includes language highlighting efforts by government officials to close Evangelical churches in remote locations that failed to comply with registration requirements. There were also reported efforts to remove street preachers from the Ugandan capital Kampala.
Another major concern in Uganda has failed to draw the level of scrutiny provoked by the LGBT law. In the east of the country, a pattern of violence has emerged: recent converts to Christianity and evangelists who preached to them have been attacked by local Muslims. Additionally, Islamic militants crossed the border into Uganda and attacked a school early this summer, killing 41 students. Within days, 20 collaborators would be taken in custody by Ugandan security forces. Many Christians in Uganda are struggling, and BoA’s de-banking of Indigenous Advance Ministries makes efforts to alleviate the suffering more difficult.
The ministry filed a consumer complaint on August 22 against BoA asking Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti to investigate whether or not the bank illegally discriminated against the charity because of its religious views. At the time of publication there was no word if an investigation would be launched.
It is illegal for a public accommodation to refuse or deny the full enjoyment of goods, facilities, and accommodations based on age, color, creed, national origin, race, religion or sex according to the Tennessee Human Rights Commission. The law applies to any business, including banks, which provide services to the public.
De-banking actions are concerning because they involve financial institutions effectively regulating the beliefs, activities, and goals of a Christian ministry. In 2022, after Chase Bank closed an account for the National Coalition for Religious Freedom, it offered to reopen the account if the NGO provided the bank with a list of donors, a potential list of political candidates they planned on endorsing, and the criteria that they used to determine how these candidates would garner their support. This is a clear effort to hold a client organization (and an advocacy organization at that) to an ideological rather than fiscal standard.
Indigenous Advance Ministries has found a new bank to handle their transactions to support the people on the ground. But financial services are clearly being used as a weapon in the culture war. This case highlights problems that Christian churches and ministries operating in the United States will have to confront for the foreseeable future.
Comment by Dan W on September 4, 2023 at 10:25 pm
Scott Morgan, thanks for another timely article!
I do not know if these “Big Brother” tactics originate from the banks, or if they are pressured behind the scenes. Either way, it’s not good for a free society. Christians need to stand against persecution everywhere.
Comment by George on September 5, 2023 at 12:12 pm
Call it what you want to. De-risking? De-banking? Why don’t we just call it what it is. The term is “black balling”. Oh, I’m sorry. Is that too racially charged for the woke folks out there? Are Christians going to continue burying their heads in the sand and ignore what is happening around us? This and things like this were done to the Jews in the early 1930s. It’s been going on for some time now. Yes you will make a wedding cake for us or we will get the government on your butt. Yes, you will plan our wedding or we will sue you in court.
If you disagree with our life style, we will get you fired from your job. Being open about your Christian faith and trying to live by those standards will get harder and harder till you just throw up your hands and give in to the darkness. Well ….. any suggestions?
Comment by Corvus Corax on September 6, 2023 at 11:31 am
The moneychangers have hated Christ since the day he scourged them from the Temple. This is also a good and timely reminder that a Christian cannot serve two masters.
Comment by David on September 6, 2023 at 5:28 pm
Uganda did not have Jews to kick around to promote national unity, so they turned to gays. This was encouraged by US Evangelicals as widely reported. There are now persons facing the death penalty in Uganda. There are also an increasing number of child sacrifices as a drought has continued. All of this deserves the rebuke of the civilized world.
Comment by David on September 6, 2023 at 5:34 pm
The poor money changers were not inside the Temple but in the surrounding plaza. The whole point of their business was that offerings of money could not be brought into the Temple if it bore a graven image such as the head of a ruler. They performed a necessary religious function, though they may have charged too much for their services. The same is the case for those who sold sacrificial animals. Unless they captured them on their own, Mary and Joseph purchased doves for her purification.
Comment by George on September 6, 2023 at 6:44 pm
So David believes taking a knee before the alter of LGBTQetc shows you are of a civilized community. He seems very concerned about so called reported child sacrifices in Uganda but doesn’t seem to care about the tens of thousands of babies aborted in his own country. Then he has the gall to say Jesus was wrong to turn the money changers tables over. Come on David, what else did Jesus do that you find fault with?
Comment by David on September 6, 2023 at 9:12 pm
There is nothing wrong with treating people equally. Babies are not aborted, fetuses are. A born person has full rights. Indeed, it can be argued that one does not have a “soul” until air is breathed.
Comment by Ken MacAlister on September 6, 2023 at 9:49 pm
“ Babies are not aborted, fetuses are. A born person has full rights. Indeed, it can be argued that one does not have a “soul” until air is breathed.”
David, I hope you don’t really believe the malarkey you wrote with the exception of the first sentence. That first sentence is the only thing you got right. The Bible states clearly that God knew us BEFORE we were in the womb. He put the number of our days in His book also. Not to mention children are a blessing from God. This means we are a person to God before God sent us into this world. I don’t care what people believe personhood is & when it begins & ends. The only opinion that matters is that of God. His opinion will be the only one that matters in the end also. Put yourself in God’s place. If you created a person how would you react if the one you gifted with a child not only rejected the child, but terminated the life you gave it.
Comment by David on September 7, 2023 at 3:01 pm
Ultra-sensitive hCG used to detect conceptions has shown that a very large percentage do not make it to term. Most of these fail within the first 6 weeks of pregnancy and often before the pregnancy is even noted. A leading cause is having the wrong number of chromosomes. There is obviously no divine concern for these conceptions. Of course, why they were permitted to appear with this defect in the first place is a question.
What is translated as “soul” in English is related to breathing. Without respiration, there is no spirit.
Comment by Corvus Corax on September 7, 2023 at 5:46 pm
Oh David, you equivocate. The moneychangers “may” have charged too much for their services? Did Jesus say “you *may* have turned a house of prayer into a den of thieves”?
Comment by Amber on September 9, 2023 at 1:14 am
David, you have to know that your miscarriage argument is faulty. Yes, many pregnancies do not end with a healthy, full-term baby. Arguing that there is nothing morally wrong with deliberately killing the unborn child because unintentional miscarriage exists is exactly the same as argung that since we all are 100% likely to die sometime there us nothing morally wrong with murder.
Comment by David on September 9, 2023 at 8:26 am
“However, an important biological feature of human embryos has been left out of a lot of ethical and even scientific discussion informing reproductive policy – most human embryos die before anyone, including doctors, even know they exist. This embryo loss typically occurs in the first two months after fertilization, before the clump of cells has developed into a fetus with immature forms of the body’s major organs. Total abortion bans that define personhood at conception mean that full legal rights exist for a 5-day-old blastocyst, a hollow ball of cells roughly 0.008 inches (0.2 millimeters) across with a high likelihood of disintegrating within a few days…In people, the most common outcome of reproduction by far is embryo loss due to random genetic errors. An estimated 70% to 75% of human conceptions fail to survive to birth. That number includes both embryos that are reabsorbed into the parent’s body before anyone knows an egg has been fertilized and miscarriages that happen later in the pregnancy.”
Comment by George on September 9, 2023 at 2:26 pm
David, you are so incredibly smart. You know so many things. Please let us know when human life begins and at what moment, down to the exact second, does a human fetus become a human baby? We can’t just use your rule of thumb. That might have us murdering a child who just moments before was just a fetus. We need a defining exact time when this incredible miracle takes place. You will no doubt have that information locked away somewhere. Tell me when. I know you can’t but I’m willing to give you a better chance of answering that question than you would give an unborn child at life.
Somewhere out there are some very critically ill folks who are on life support . Unable to breathe or eat on their own. Would you have us kill them as you would a 3 or 4 month old fetus/baby? Does life mean so little to you? You might ought to think about these questions before you just throw out something you read in some liberal rag. Try thinking on your own for once. I’m pulling for you.
Comment by Search4Truth on September 9, 2023 at 6:16 pm
Come on people, the only thing David believes in is hearing his over-sized mouth show how many disconnected facts he can nonsensically spew out. He has demonstrated beyond question he believes in nothing beyond his inflated ego and fears nothing. We should be praying for him; one day he will meet the creator that he doesn’t believe in.
Comment by David on September 10, 2023 at 3:01 pm
Nothing like ad hominems when you have nothing to add to a discussion.
The money changers were likely not inside the temple as I explained. The New Testament writers might have been unaware of this as it had been destroyed by then. The temple proper was surrounded by a barrier with signs threatening death to non-Jews who might pass beyond. Some of these signs still exist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Warning_inscription#:~:text=The%20inscription%20was%20a%20warning,proceed%20under%20penalty%20of%20death.&text=Fragment%20of%20the%20inscription%20at%20the%20Israel%20Museum.
The area outside of the barrier was open to all including pagans and served as a religious shopping center.
Comment by George on September 10, 2023 at 5:34 pm
David, I’m waiting.
Comment by Pastor Mike on September 11, 2023 at 7:10 am
Pro abortionists typically dehumanize aborted babies by using terms such as “fetuses” and insisting that a child in the womb does not have “full rights” as a human. They also tend to be atheists. (Pew Research Center).
Comment by Pastor Mike on September 11, 2023 at 8:59 am
There were two Temples of Jerusalem. The First Temple was constructed during the reign of David’s son, Solomon in 957 B.C. It was totally destroyed in 587 B.C. by Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylonia. The Temple was rebuilt and completed in 515 BC. by Cyrus II. It was plundered and desecrated by foreign rulers over the years. Herod built the Second Temple starting in 20 B.C. and work continued for 46 years. Matthew wrote his Gospel before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. He describes Jerusalem in the book as the “holy city” and he speaks of the customs of the Jews as continuing until “this day.” Furthermore, Jesus’ prophecy (recorded in 24:2) of Jerusalem’s destruction includes no indication that it had already occurred when Matthew wrote Jesus’ words. It is reasonable to conclude that the Gospel of Matthew that records Jesus overturning the moneychangers’ tables in the Temple serves an eyewitness account and was written sometime between A.D. 50 and 60.