Banks accused of denying basic services to Christian ministries and politically incorrect industries have been feeling the heat, as states and private activists push back against viewpoint discrimination.

Louisiana Treasurer Dr. John Fleming last week denied a request for the Bank of America to become one of his state’s “authorized fiscal agents” after Christians say the bank shut down their accounts based on its religious viewpoint. “Since the 1960s, the people of the United States have made it clear that discrimination against fellow Americans is unacceptable. It appears that Bank of America, among other financial institutions, has revived this disgraceful practice,” warned Fleming.

Last year, Bank of America closed the accounts of Indigenous Advance Ministries (IAM), a Memphis-based ministry that serves orphans and vulnerable people in Uganda. The closure came as the World Bank denied all future funding to Uganda after the nation defied the globalist organization’s pressure and outlawed homosexual child molestation and other forms of non-consensual gay sex. Bank of America denied the charges, insisting it closed accounts “based on a totality of circumstances and factors.”

Bank of America is far from alone, as financial centers have apparently denied basic services to Christians based on the ministries’ perceived political views or adherence to Christian morality. Among the accused is the nation’s largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, which recently relaxed its most extreme policies after public exposure.

A Chase-owned company canceled the Arkansas Family Council without warning. “Out of the blue on July 7th, 2021, at 10:29 a.m., I received an email from WePay,” a Chase Bank company, “saying, ‘Unfortunately, we can no longer support your business. Best of luck to you. We’re closing your account,’” explained David Cox, assistant director of the Arkansas Family Council on last Thursday’s “Washington Watch.” “Later, at 10:30 a.m., we were no longer able to accept credit card donations online. We didn’t get any explanation about what happened.”

Online donations account for one-third of his pro-family organization’s revenue, he said, leaving the organization financially hamstrung.

“We eventually learned that WePay’s trust and safety team had closed our account, because they had designated us as a high-risk organization,” said Cox. He later found “language was buried in our customer service agreement that we had to sign in order to do business with this banking institution,” which paved the way for its cancellation. “There’s always wisdom in reading the fine print.”

WePay’s “high-risk” categories included businesses such as “Astrology and psychic services,” a designation that hardly fit the conservative Christian advocacy organization. Yet the terms also included wording that any organization “subject to allegation and impacts related to hate groups, systemic racism, sexual harassment and corporate culture.” (Emphasis added.) “Fortunately for us, we were able to scramble, and within a matter of hours we had switched to a different credit card processor who aligned with our values and wasn’t going to cancel us without notice,” said Cox.

“We found we weren’t alone, that there were other organizations with very similar experiences,” Cox revealed. 

JPMorgan Chase also canceled the accounts of former U.S. Ambassador at Large for Religious Freedom Sam Brownback after he founded the National Committee for Religious Freedom. “They said, ‘Your bank account has been canceled. We’ll be sending you back your funds. That’s it,’” Brownback told “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” at the time. Officials reportedly offered to reconsider, if NCRF turned over their donor list.

Similarly, the online payment processing center Vanco revoked its services to The Ruth Institute, founded by Dr. Jennifer Roback-Morse, claiming the marriage and child defense organization “has been flagged by Card Brands as being affiliated with a product/service that promotes hate, violence, harassment and/or abuse.” The Southern Poverty Law Center had flagged the pro-family organization as a “hate group” for its acceptance of biblical morality.

JPMorgan Chase rescinded WePay’s controversial policy in May. Yet even with improvements, JPMorgan Chase scored only a 9% on the Alliance Defending Freedom’s most recent Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index. “Threats to freedom don’t just come from Big Government, but Big Banking and Big Tech that have concentrated power over essential services,” said ADF Senior Vice President for Corporate Engagement Jeremy Tedesco. “We commend Chase for these initial, positive steps. But it needs to do more.”

The process stems from the financial sector’s adoption of the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing movement, said Jerry Bowyer, president of Bowyer Research and author of “The Maker Versus the Takers: What Jesus Really Said About Social Justice and Economics.” Many have compared ESG to the Wall Street version of the Chinese Communist Party’s social credit score.

“Activists were putting proposals on ballots of major American companies pressuring them to divest from pro-life states, which is ridiculous. They’re saying it’s a business risk to do business in a pro-life state,” Bowyer told “Washington Watch” guest host Jody Hice on the same program. For instance, the CEO of Salesforce, Marc Benioff, threatened to stop doing business with states that adopt pro-life protections or other pro-family policies. Evangelist Nick Vujicic also revealed his bank cut ties with him after he began speaking out about abortion. “They froze my credit cards, froze my debit cards,” he said.

These “private sector” activities have sometimes gotten backing from the U.S. government. In 2013, the Obama-Biden administration’s Operation Choke Point harassed bankers who did business with industries it dislikes, including legal firearms dealers. More recently, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) have pressured banks to stop serving the fossil fuel industry.

Bowyer warned the ESG movement has enlarged its vision for constricting capitalism. “The activist community in corporate boardrooms is moving from anti-energy to anti-food. They believe the only way to get to net zero is to cut food production in half, to move us away from meat, and also just to cut food production in general.” They also endorse “depopulation,” Bowyer pointed out.

But Bowyer said individual states’ efforts to ban taxpayer funds from fueling ESG agendas have been “effective in getting some of these companies to back off from the anti-carbon, the anti-fossil fuel agenda, and also on the abortion agenda.”

Until businesses return to a nondiscriminatory policy of providing services to all Americans, Cox advises Christians to “find businesses that align with your values, that aren’t supporting an agenda that you disagree with” and to “have a backup plan” in case the service is canceled. “Ask yourself, ‘What would I do if I no longer had this service available?”

“And definitely, definitely read the fine print,” he said.

Christians can counteract Wall Street’s censorship agenda by attending board meetings and making their voices heard. “I’m a Christian. I believe that every institution to which we do not apply salt is constantly in a state of rot,” Bowyer told Hice. 

“Somebody’s voting with your money,” Bowyer warned. “You need to take back control of that.”