Posted on 10/14/2022 8:21:27 PM PDT by TigerClaws
JPMorgan Chase & Co reportedly canceled the account of a religious nonprofit organization for unexplained reasons, and said it would only reconsider the decision if the group provided its donor list, and a list of political candidates it intended to support.
The National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF) launched on January 18, 2022 “to defend religious freedom for all Americans and all their religious communities by supporting political candidates at the local, state, and national levels—regardless of party affiliation—who support the free exercise of religion,” according to its website.
“Religious freedom is a cornerstone of America’s constitutional democracy and was at the heart of America’s founding,” said CCRF founder Sam Brownback in January. “We are creating the National Committee for Religious Freedom to uphold this fundamental right, so revered by our Founders, by providing a critically needed political response to the ongoing attacks, in law and culture, on America’s First Freedom. ”
In a post at Restoring America, Brownback, a former Republican U.S. senator and governor from Kansas, said that CCRF is “diverse” and “bipartisan,” and represents “people from every faith and walk of life. Its Advisory Board, he noted, “includes members who are Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Latter-Day Saints, and Muslim.”
Brownback served as the United State’s Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom under former president Trump from February 1, 2018 to January 20, 2021.
After establishing the NCRF as a 501(c)(4), Brownback said he and his executive director chose to open a nonprofit business checking account at JPMorgan Chase & Co “because of its national footprint and the multigenerational banking relationships our team had with the bank.”
He described his initial experience with the bank as “very positive,” but three weeks after opening the account, they received a letter notifying them that Chase had decided to “end their relationship” with the NCRF and that the account would be closed.
Brownback said the bank actually closed the account before they received the letter.
We were surprised at being canceled by Chase. When our executive director called to see if this was an error, he was informed that “a note in the file read that Chase employees were not permitted to provide any further clarifying information to the customer.”
Why the cancellation ? Why the secrecy and lack of transparency? Why was Chase hiding its reasons and intentions for closing the account of a client that seeks to serve the public good and defend religious freedom for every person in America? After all, in the words of the bank’s CEO, religious freedom is a core value that forms part of the fabric that binds us together as a country. So why cancel an organization that exists to protect the most foundational of core American values?
Brownback said his organization was able to open a new account at a different bank, but not before Chase’s action “triggered a chain reaction that led to other financial service accounts being closed and caused the fledgling organization to experience unexpected operational and financial challenges.”
He said he heard from multiple Chase employees that the decision came from the “corporate office.”
The decision to cancel the NCRF was described by multiple Chase employees as one from the “corporate office.”
It was initially explained to us by someone at the Chase corporate office that the decision was final and nonrevocable.
To this day, the NCRF does not have a clear reason as to why our account was closed after only three weeks. We certainly hadn’t made any transactions in that short amount of time that would have triggered any regulatory red flags.
Brownback said that he was “shocked and surprised” to learn that “someone from Chase eventually reached out to our executive director and informed him that it would be willing to reconsider doing business with the NCRF if we would provide our donor list, a list of political candidates we intended to support, and a full explanation of the criteria by which we would endorse and support those candidates.”
He argued that the demands for “this type of information” was “entirely inappropriate,” and unfortunately, not the first time a religious organization “has found itself facing sudden and unexplained account closures.”
“Does Chase ask every customer what politicians they support and why before deciding whether or not to accept them as a customer?,” he asked.
Religious institutions, houses of worship, and people of all faiths should be greatly concerned that their business, credit, or even personal or private bank accounts could likewise be terminated for any or no reason at all.
Since finding ourselves chased away, we have begun to investigate if other organizations, public or private, have received similar cancellation letters from their financial service providers. The National Committee for Religious Freedom has launched a #ChasedAway campaign to invite comments and testimonies from others who may have found themselves canceled by financial institutions.
In response to a tweet about this story, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who sits on the powerful Senate Judiciary, Armed Services, and Homeland Security committees, said simply, “what?”
Hawley’s office did not immediately respond to American Greatness’ request for further comment.
Donor list?! Why, do they can determine exactly who needs to be cancelled? How very commie of them.
Wae must be in Phase Two by now.
The Socialist agenda is quickly advancing, with nary an official challenge.
As in 1776, this nonsense will only be resolved with bloodshed.
Oh, please, hackers, have a crack at JP Morgan Chase and give up all the dirt. It has to be delicious.
Have you considered that the Government Officials are approving and assisting the imposition of the Socialists Agenda?
Chase hires idiots.
I reported that I received a charge on a card I had never used (it was for future emergencies), telling them they had an internal breach. The charge was from some gas station in Los Angeles and I hadn’t been to California in over a decade.
They said it was not possible the card information had been breached on their end and that no one else had such an issue.
They refunded the charge and I closed the account.
“Reconsider the decision”? Tell them to go to hell, not as a curse but as a statement of fact: the REAL Big Guy is someone not to mess with.
Donor list?
Wow
The government has to tell financial institutions and Big Tech who to cancel, in order to keep those fascists from gaining any power.
/s
Big banks as political enforcers. How very Democrat.
Boycott,,,
This is the same institution that just cancelled Kanye West!! What the hell is going on? ANYONE that has this institution in their 401k needs to demand they be removed from their retirement account!!
yep
There is no doubt this administration approves and facilitates it.
That pesky little First Amendment doesn’t stand a chance when the establishment can get its big business cronies to do its dirty work.
So is this the way it’s going to be now, or are there still banks that will, strictly speaking, mind their own business, which means banking, not regulating political and religious expression?
facilitates it...
for sure!
If true conservatives are not swept into power in a few weeks then it won't make any difference, because they will send people with guns to close down those banks an seize their accounts.
If November doesn't bring good news, expect decades of darkness (and plan accordingly).
The situation in this country is getting scarier by the week.
“Wae must be in Phase Two by now.”
When PayPal decided to mess with people’s funds it was predicted that more mainstream financial businesses would eventually follow suit. Who knew it would only take a week?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.