Bank of America blacklists Christian nonprofit for what appears to be political reasons
They’re coming for you next: Despite operating two different bank accounts without problems since 2015, Bank of America suddenly shut down the bank accounts of the Christian charitable non-profit Indigenous Advanced Ministries in April 2023, with the bank’s letters announcing the shut down [pdf] exceedingly vague but suggesting that politics played a part.
The initial letters gave no specific reason for the closures, only stating that “upon review of your account(s), we have determined you’re operating in a business type we have chosen not to service at Bank of America.” A later letter said, without explanation, that Indigenous Advance “no longer aligns with the bank’s risk tolerance.” The nonprofit does not advocate for any political causes and has maintained the same mission since it first opened its account with Bank of America.
Officials of the non-profit suspect hostility to its mission was the reason for the cancellations, however, and they have filed a consumer complaint [pdf] against Bank of America with Tennessee’s attorney general, demanding an investigation and noting that the sudden nature of the bank’s action caused a great deal of disruption and the non-profit.
We had to find another bank and open new accounts and adjust our payroll, accounting, accounts payable and receivable, and other parts of our business. It also disrupted our mission trip to Uganda in June and we were temporarily unable to pay salaries in Uganda.
…“Real people in Uganda rely on us, and they matter,” said Indigenous Advance Ministries Founder Steve Happ. “We have five employees in Uganda, and they had to wait an extra week for a paycheck. That may not sound like much in the West, but in Uganda, that can mean a week without eating a full meal. At the end of the day, our purpose is to serve people in need in Uganda. No bank should hinder efforts to help widows, orphans, and the impoverished.” [emphasis mine]
Indigenous Advanced Ministries is a Memphis-based Christian missionary organization that partners with other Christian missionaries in Uganda to spread the Christian gospel there while providing charitable services. In its complaint to Tennessee, submitted with the help of the legal non-profit Alliance Defending Freedom, it expresses concern that the cancellations occurred because Bank of America “disagrees with our religious views,” a concern that is entirely reasonable based on the recent wave of blacklisting from the left against many Christians and conservatives, solely because of a hatred of those viewpoints.
Several banks have sadly contributed enthusiastically to that wave of blacklisting. For example, Bank of America has previously done this exact thing to a firearms manufacturer in 2013 because it believed the manufacturer “should not be selling guns and parts on the Internet.” Chase Bank meanwhile took the same cancellation action for political reasons against President Trump’s first National Security Advisor Lieutenant General Mike Flynn in 2021, did it again in that same year against Covfefe coffee, and repeated this discriminatory behavior a third time this year against a doctor and his family and friends. Minnesota Bank & Trust also did the same to My Pillow owner Mike Lindell in 2022.
Sadly, it is questionable the complaint will achieve much. What really needs to happen is for customers to flee these banks — which I have so generously named in this post — and find banks that don’t play politics and don’t believe in blacklisting. Everyone should go to the 1792 Exchanges Corporate Bias Ratings list and find the banks that have been rated as a low risk for such evil behavior, and switch to those banks.
Don’t sit on your hands. Don’t simply make a snarky comment below. Do something! Make these thugs sweat a little for being jack-booted thugs.
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They’re coming for you next: Despite operating two different bank accounts without problems since 2015, Bank of America suddenly shut down the bank accounts of the Christian charitable non-profit Indigenous Advanced Ministries in April 2023, with the bank’s letters announcing the shut down [pdf] exceedingly vague but suggesting that politics played a part.
The initial letters gave no specific reason for the closures, only stating that “upon review of your account(s), we have determined you’re operating in a business type we have chosen not to service at Bank of America.” A later letter said, without explanation, that Indigenous Advance “no longer aligns with the bank’s risk tolerance.” The nonprofit does not advocate for any political causes and has maintained the same mission since it first opened its account with Bank of America.
Officials of the non-profit suspect hostility to its mission was the reason for the cancellations, however, and they have filed a consumer complaint [pdf] against Bank of America with Tennessee’s attorney general, demanding an investigation and noting that the sudden nature of the bank’s action caused a great deal of disruption and the non-profit.
We had to find another bank and open new accounts and adjust our payroll, accounting, accounts payable and receivable, and other parts of our business. It also disrupted our mission trip to Uganda in June and we were temporarily unable to pay salaries in Uganda.
…“Real people in Uganda rely on us, and they matter,” said Indigenous Advance Ministries Founder Steve Happ. “We have five employees in Uganda, and they had to wait an extra week for a paycheck. That may not sound like much in the West, but in Uganda, that can mean a week without eating a full meal. At the end of the day, our purpose is to serve people in need in Uganda. No bank should hinder efforts to help widows, orphans, and the impoverished.” [emphasis mine]
Indigenous Advanced Ministries is a Memphis-based Christian missionary organization that partners with other Christian missionaries in Uganda to spread the Christian gospel there while providing charitable services. In its complaint to Tennessee, submitted with the help of the legal non-profit Alliance Defending Freedom, it expresses concern that the cancellations occurred because Bank of America “disagrees with our religious views,” a concern that is entirely reasonable based on the recent wave of blacklisting from the left against many Christians and conservatives, solely because of a hatred of those viewpoints.
Several banks have sadly contributed enthusiastically to that wave of blacklisting. For example, Bank of America has previously done this exact thing to a firearms manufacturer in 2013 because it believed the manufacturer “should not be selling guns and parts on the Internet.” Chase Bank meanwhile took the same cancellation action for political reasons against President Trump’s first National Security Advisor Lieutenant General Mike Flynn in 2021, did it again in that same year against Covfefe coffee, and repeated this discriminatory behavior a third time this year against a doctor and his family and friends. Minnesota Bank & Trust also did the same to My Pillow owner Mike Lindell in 2022.
Sadly, it is questionable the complaint will achieve much. What really needs to happen is for customers to flee these banks — which I have so generously named in this post — and find banks that don’t play politics and don’t believe in blacklisting. Everyone should go to the 1792 Exchanges Corporate Bias Ratings list and find the banks that have been rated as a low risk for such evil behavior, and switch to those banks.
Don’t sit on your hands. Don’t simply make a snarky comment below. Do something! Make these thugs sweat a little for being jack-booted thugs.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
That’s right, you better not comment or we will cancel you also..
Conservatives have no right to tell anyone what to do.
They are wrong and the left is correct in all things.
Closed my BOA credit card account last week. For exactly this kind of reason.
Can’t boycott ’em all. But will resist wherever I can.