Posted on 08/29/2023 8:32:52 AM PDT by Morgana
Did Bank of America discriminate against a Tennessee ministry over its Christian views or was it simply a business matter?
Steve Happ, board member and founder of Indigenous Advance, a Memphis-based charity that, along with Indigenous Advance Customer Center LLC, has partnered with and served indigenous people in Uganda since 2015 to provide basic needs and share the Gospel.
Despite holding deposit and credit card accounts with Bank of America since its inception, Indigenous Advance received a series of letters in April in which the bank announced it was closing the group’s accounts within 30 days.
According to the nonprofit legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the only explanation provided in the letters was that "upon review of [the] account(s) we have determined you're operating in a business type we have chosen not to service at Bank of America."
The group’s deposit account had over $270,000, according to ADF. A partner entity, Indigenous Advance Customer Center, LLC, and a church operating at the group's address, Servants of Christ Community dba University House of Prayer (UHOP), received similar letters closing their accounts.
Happ said after experiencing “shock and confusion” upon receiving one of the letters that referenced Indigenous Advance’s “business type,” he reached out multiple times to Bank of America.
“I asked them, ‘What type of business do you think we are?’ and they wouldn’t answer me,” he told The Christian Post via phone Wednesday. “They said, I’m sorry, we cannot give you that information.’”
Far from being simply an inconvenience, Happ said Bank of America’s actions significantly disrupted the group’s outreach and impact.
“When they closed the accounts, it meant that people who are dependent on us couldn't eat,” he said. “To us, it’s not that big of a deal if your paycheck is delayed for a day or two, but for Ugandans, they live day to day, trying to find where they’re going to find their next meal.”
Happ said due to the bank’s actions, Indigenous Advance couldn’t pay its employees or provide their ministry partners with donations until Hap returned to the States to sort out the issue.
In a statement shared with CP, a spokesperson for Bank of America said, “religious beliefs are not a factor in any account-closing decision,” but rather it was debt collection services provided by Indigenous Advance’s customer center that led to the account closures.
The statement added: “Our U.S. division that serves small businesses doesn’t offer banking services to organizations that provide debt collection services for a variety of risk-related considerations and doesn’t serve small businesses operating outside the United States.”
After a complaint was filed with the Tennessee attorney general’s office, it’s still unclear whether the state will open an investigation, but regardless of the outcome, ADF Senior Counsel and Senior Vice President for Corporate Engagement, Jeremy Tedesco, said Bank of America and other large banks are leveraging their own “risk tolerance” policies in order to “box out disfavored but legal business operations.”
The practice, said Tedesco, started during the Obama administration under “Operation Chokepoint,” which sought to eliminate fraud in the U.S. banking system but was criticized by Republicans and other industry advocates before it was shut down in 2017 under the Trump DOJ.
Tedesco said Operation Chokepoint used reputational risk as a “tool to get the federal regulators to push banks to push certain industries out of banking privileges and access to services” and may have opened the door to further “de-bank” Christians, conservatives and other aligned groups which “hold certain views the progressive Left doesn’t like.
“So now it’s reputationally risky to serve Christian or other organizations that the Left disagrees with,” he added.
He pointed to a separate incident last year where Chase Bank abruptly closed the bank account of the National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF), a faith-based nonprofit organization led by Sam Brownback, former U.S. Ambassador-At-Large for Religious Freedom.
“This is exactly what happened with JP Morgan Chase, Samuel Brownback, and the same story’s playing out here with Indigenous Advance,” Tedesco said.
Bank of Anti-America.
The Secretary of State should just Revoke their Corporate Charter and give them 30 days to shut down all business operations and liquidate all assets in the State or they will be Siezed.
“Bank of Anti-America.”
Yes and no. One of the things our side needs to understand is that corporate America hardly ever does crap like this on their own as their execs are often conservative and are far too busy to give a crap about something like a Christian Outreach organization - not to mention that news of stuff like this is a bad for business.
They get pushed into it, and probably from the White House in most cases (sometimes left-wing groups in other cases). From the viewpoint of a bank, the feds can make life VERY DIFFICULT, so they capitulate.
So the problem originates primarily with having a corrupt government.
There is no such thing as “Corporate America”, Corporations are global entities, they don’t care where they make their money from.
To understand what the WEF/deep state is for, one must discern Who it is that they are against.
BofA: "Not only is your business spreading the Christian gospel to others, it is spreading it to negroes, which is abhorrent to us!"
Please show evidence that the executives of major US corporations are conservative. Those days passed years ago.
add Wells Fargo as two banks I will never do business with.
The bank may well have been threatened by the feds because of Uganda’s stance on the alphabet mafia.
God’s gonna get them for that.....................
BAKE THE CAKE!!
EC
Very ominous in my opinion.
How much longer until banks begin closing accounts of individuals because of their Christian faith? It’s only one step away from de-banking a person because they belong to the wrong denomination or faith.
Upon review of your bank, we have determined you’re operating in a demonic business type and we have chosen not to do business with you. We will notify all our donors of your actions.
Spirit of antichrist preparing the way for Satan’s anti-messiah THE Antichrist
(lurkers please click on my screen name to see my FR homepage for more information)
“...leveraging their own “risk tolerance” policies in order to ‘box out disfavored but legal business operations.’”
If I read this statement correct they are saying because I don’t like your message even though it is none of anyone’s business you bank with B of A, I am refusing to take your business. We’re right back to the cake decoration debacle when a Christian bakery refused to make a same sex cake top for a homosexual marriage, only the other direction.
Interesting here is that the B of A is an international commercial bank with operations in all 50 states and territories which makes it an interstate business besides international. So if one has created a policy does that mean it is the same with all of them? They can’t run from their own business so it now becomes interstate commerce and falls under the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Discriminatory practices trigger liability under the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), which prohibits unfair, deceptive and abusive acts and practices (UDAAPs).
Here is a copy of their doctrine concerning discrimination:
And to make matters more appropriate, the religious group becomes a witness rather than the prosecuting part protecting them from counter suing from B of A. All the religious group has to do is ask the question publicly to start the ball rolling.
wy69
I think less often than you think.
“The bank may well have been threatened by the feds because of Uganda’s stance on the alphabet mafia.”
Yes, that may be the REAL reason. Our government and the WEF types seem to be focused on spreading the LGBTQRZ#@ agenda everywhere in the world - and that, I think, is the reason they hate Putin.
Putin made it illegal to teach, i.e.indoctrinate, i.e. groom LGBTQRZ#@ to children.
>> We’re right back to the cake decoration debacle when a Christian bakery refused to make a same sex cake top for a homosexual marriage, only the other direction. <<
No, because one is usual services and the other special services including a message.
What BoA is doing is more like the bakery refusing to sell cakes or pastries which are on display to homosexuals. The bakers have not been doing that, just refusing to tale special orders on homosexual wedding cakes.
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