Religious and political ‘debanking’ must end

OPINION:

Helping orphans in Uganda would seem to have few opponents. 

But Indigenous Advance Ministries, a Memphis, Tennessee-based Christian organization that works in the African nation, learned last year that Bank of America no longer wants to provide its financial services to the nonprofit. The bank targeted the group amid the rise of leftist “debanking,” in which financial institutions close the accounts of clients that hold unfashionable religious or political views. 

Thankfully, on April 22, Tennessee fought back with a new law that protects people’s right to hold deeply held views while keeping their bank accounts. Every state should follow suit.

Indigenous Advance Ministries has served vulnerable children and families in Uganda since 2012 with a mission to “raise godly men and women to lead Uganda and influence the nations for Christ.” As for the earthly matter of financial stability, the group opened its first account with Bank of America in 2015. Eight years later, in April 2023, the bank sent the ministry a letter noting that its accounts would be closed within 30 days. The stated reason: “upon review of your account(s), we have determined you’re operating a business type we have chosen not to service.”

Indigenous Advance Ministries pressed Bank of America for more clarity, which is when the bank’s story began to shift. A subsequent letter said that the group “no longer aligns with the bank’s risk tolerance.” After the ministry went public, Bank of America told the Daily Mail that the group engaged in debt collection, which violated its policies. Yet not only did Bank of America tell the media more than it told its customer, it also couldn’t point to a specific internal policy that guided its decision. According to Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, Indigenous Advance Ministries does not engage in debt collection.

Two of the group’s board members filed a complaint with Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, expressing concern that Bank of America closed its accounts “because it disagrees with our religious views.”

The group’s “core beliefs” — which are prominently featured on its website — include “an orthodox Christian view of life, identity, marriage, and sexual morality” while rejecting abortion, same-sex marriage and transgenderism. (Bank of America has said that religious beliefs are not a factor in any account-closing decision.) As the nonprofit’s board members wrote, the account closings “disrupted our mission trip to Uganda in June, and we were temporarily unable to pay salaries in Uganda.”

Its denial notwithstanding, Bank of America and other financial institutions can, in most cases, dismiss customers based on their religious and political views with impunity — an ability they appear to be using with increasing frequency.

Family Council, which promotes “traditional family values” in the public square, had its credit card processor account closed by JPMorgan Chase in 2021, a decision the bank later justified on the grounds of risk. JPMorgan Chase also closed the checking account of the National Committee for Religious Freedom, chaired by former Sen. Sam Brownback, without explanation in 2022. The bank said it may reopen the account if the committee disclosed its large donors and planned political expenditures.

Such actions are occurring amid a nationwide activist campaign to push corporate America in a leftist direction under the guise of both diversity, equity and inclusion and environmental, social and governance standards. Yet debanking clients based on religious or political views is little different from refusing to work with someone based on their skin color or gender — something that federal law rightly bans. Protecting people from viewpoint discrimination is a matter of basic civil rights, too.

Tennessee lawmakers refused to let this injustice stand. The state’s new law broadly bans religious or politically motivated debanking of Volunteer State residents, businesses and nonprofits. While Tennessee is the second state to ban debanking, its law is much stronger than Florida’s, which passed last year. Tennessee’s new law ensures that people can’t be discriminated against based on their views on abortion, marriage, illegal immigration, fossil fuels, and other issues where leftist activists demand conformity of thought. If a bank does close a customer’s account, Tennessee’s law gives the customer the right to know why.

Banks oppose these laws on the grounds that viewpoint discrimination doesn’t happen, so reform isn’t needed. It’s a specious argument given what individuals and groups are experiencing nationwide, and besides, religious and political protections should be enshrined in law regardless of what financial institutions do. In Tennessee, at least, groups like Indigenous Advance Ministries can keep volunteering to help orphaned children in Uganda without fear that their American bank will punish them. If only more states would do the right thing.

• Eric Bledsoe is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Government Accountability.