The Christian Post recently reported that the Bank of America closed the accounts of Indigenous Advance Ministries, a Christian nonprofit whose goal is discipleship and business training for young Ugandans. The bank denies closing the accounts based on the ministry’s religious beliefs, claiming it instead closed them because of the kind of debt-collection business it has in Uganda. 

Still, Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jeremy Tedesco points out that, under an Obama-era policy, many large banks have leveraged risk tolerance policies to “box out disfavored but legal business operations.” Often, that means conservative and Christian groups.  

There are unknowns involved in this case, but debanking is a very real threat to religious organizations. There are too many examples for all of them to be coincidences. Some institutions will even refuse to allow charitable gifts to be made to some groups through a donor-advised fund. 

Consider where you bank, and how those institutions treat Christian organizations, churches, mission groups, and nonprofits. There are other options.