17 then you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.'
18 And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
Andrew Sorrell is the State Auditor of Alabama. He is certainly in an important position to hold the state of Alabama accountable for its financial practices. Recently, he called attention to financial trends impacting the private sector that are become more prevalent in our culture that negatively impact people of faith.
He wrote recently at 1819 News:
Over the past few years, there has been an uptick in politicized "debanking," a tactic that the activist Wall Street crowd uses to harass, silence or blacklist individuals and organizations that don't align with their narrow, woke political agenda. They are targeting gun stores, energy companies and sometimes even churches for destruction by denying them access to credit and basic banking services.
He has experienced that first-hand in a business of which he owns a portion. In the article, he outlined instances in which government and those in the financial sector have attempted to punish citizens and consumers because of their ideology. Here are some examples:
As we now know from the "Twitter files," hundreds, if not thousands, of people lost their reach on social media or were banned entirely at the request of government operatives — in this case, the FBI.He also included this in the article: "Just this April, a 15-state coalition of state attorneys general, including Alabama's Steve Marshall, were compelled to send a letter to Bank of America's CEO Brian Moynihan for 'conditioning access to its services on customers having the bank's preferred religious or political views.'"
During the Obama administration's infamous Operation Choke Point, The FDIC and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency warned financial institutions that doing business with ammunition sellers, coin dealers, and other lawful businesses disfavored by the administration increased their risk of fraud. Banks took the hint, terminating many long-held, mutually beneficial relationships, typically without warning or explanation.
Last year, 19 state attorneys general castigated Chase CEO Jamie Dimon for the bank's "attempt to condition critical services on a customer passing some unarticulated religious or political litmus test," saying that it "flies in the face of Chase's anti-discrimination policies." A separate letter signed by 14 state financial officers urged Dimon "to immediately take steps to identify and address internal drivers of political or anti-religious bias that could undermine its fiduciary obligations and impair the freedom of its customers to access financial services without fear of discrimination."
This hearkens back to a discovery made public by U.S. Representative Jim Jordan, who stated in a letter, according to The Washington Stand, "The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) 'urged large financial institutions to comb through the private transactions of their customers for suspicious charges on the basis of protected political and religious expression...'"
That article said:
One noteworthy red flag was “the purchase of books (including religious texts) and subscriptions to other media containing extremist views.” Given the context, “extremist views” should here mean those that incite violence or otherwise encourage acts of domestic terrorism, such as pro-ISIS mullahs encouraging “lone wolf”-style terrorist attacks in the U.S.
The Washington Stand also noted that action by government actors "raises the possibility that more mainstream religions were also considered 'extremist.'” For example,
Documents obtained by the weaponization subcommittee indicate that FBI field offices from coast to coast were involved in drafting a memo targeting “radical, traditional” Catholics as a potential source of domestic extremism, and the FBI recruited at least one undercover agent to spy on the religious group.
Are you kidding me? A spy sent in undercover to monitor a religious organization? Financial institutions monitoring its own customers to look for purchases it may deem to be concerning, just because it's religious? Banks terminating financial relationships with people of faith? This is the land in which we live.
This certainly calls for vigilance and a knowledge of who is doing what. But, through it all, we can be faithful to the cause of Christ. At last year's National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Orlando, Franklin Graham issued words of warning, CBN News reported:
The evangelist urged Christian organizations to prepare to defend themselves against the growing cancel culture in business, insurance, banking, and technology. He challenged them to continue sharing the hope of Jesus Christ in the face of increasingly difficult circumstances.
Graham said any organization sharing the Christian message could be targeted and canceled by financial institutions and big tech. As CBN News has reported, there have already been multiple cases of banks ousting Christian ministries or big-tech de-platforming Christians.
"Now, if you don't preach the Gospel, you don't have anything to worry about," he said. "If you're not going to talk about sin, you don't have anything to worry about. But if you're going to try to preach and proclaim the Gospel, they're going to try to shut you up."
But he said Christian communicators are called by God to keep telling the Gospel message "the way it is" no matter what may happen.
Well-known Christian evangelist, paraplegic Nick Vujocic experienced the phenomenon of being "de-banked" some six years ago. Another CBN News story covered Vujocic's steps to open a pro-life bank, which has faced issues in raising capital. The backstory:
As CBN News reported, Vujicic began exploring the idea of starting-up a bank in 2018 after he was kicked out of his own bank for supporting the pro-life cause.
"I got kicked out of a bank with no warning. They froze my credit cards, froze my debit cards," he said. "They gave me a letter to say that they did a review of me as a client and they don't want anything to do with me."
The pro-life advocate chose to take on the project with Gray to educate others by exposing banking networks that partner with abortion providers.
"We want to tell everyone, yeah, there's a choice coming for you," Vujicic told the Epoch Times at the time. "And not only will this be a for-profit bank, we are actually known as a for-giving bank. We will not fund abortion, but we'll actually fund 50 percent net profits to Judeo-Christian-aligned nonprofit organizations that are biblically aligned in doing the will of God according to our belief systems."
According to its website, the bank is scheduled to open later this year. It says that "We are visualizing a global financial ecosystem and community that honors God’s wealth and inspires change in our world." It will feature an "independent technology platform."
This is another example of being in the world, but not of it. The Pro-Life Bank and Pro-Life Fintech are attempting to establish themselves independent of the world's technology to preserve financial integrity and independence. We are rapidly advancing toward an age in which only those who demonstrate allegiance to a world power will be able to participate in commerce. With this approaching, we should develop a sense of urgency to impact this world for the gospel, recognizing that once the Church is gone and the Antichrist is in control, total surrender will be the order of the day. Our allegiance, as always, should be to the cause of Christ.
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