Debunking ADF’s ‘Debanking’ Conspiracy Theory

Despite the lack of evidence for any broad-based, anti-conservative Christian banking conspiracy, the idea has been gaining traction in the right-wing political sphere, even finding a sympathetic audience with some lawmakers.

Making a conspiracy

ADF’s senior vice president for corporate engagement, Jeremy Tedesco, testified about debanking at a March 7 hearing before the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. His testimony largely centered on ADF’s yearslong legal, lobbying and public relations efforts to coerce boards of publicly traded companies to vote on anti-DEI policies, characterized as “viewpoint diversity” advocacy.

ADF claims that “debanking” is the result of government and corporate collusion to silence – and close the bank accounts of – conservative Christians. The government and banks, Tedesco claimed in his testimony, have shown an “unsettling willingness” to monitor “customers’ speech and religious exercise.”

By conflating the market consequences for supporting hate and extremism – such as customers choosing not to patronize and shareholders not investing in corporations that do business with extremist groups – ADF has perpetuated a false conspiracy theory that claims big government and big corporations are victimizing conservative Christians.

“The government can and will weaponize the financial marketplace against Americans for political benefit,” Tedesco warned. At the same time, he implored the committee to adopt a bill, the “Fair Access to Banking Act,” that would coerce banks and financial institutions to violate their corporate DEI values, forcing them to do business with hate and extremist groups.

In 2024, ADF has devoted significant resources to pushing the idea of “debanking” into the public sphere, even as the group claims that its own donations have suffered in the past five years as large, donor-advised funds question the group’s record of spreading anti-LGBTQ+ hate and extremism.

Tedesco’s public appearances suggest ADF is drawing on both Christian right and white nationalist themes to build its case for government regulation to stop what it characterizes as an anti-white and anti-Christian conspiracy.

In a May 16 interview with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, who is now in federal prison for defying a congressional subpoena, Tedesco described “debanking” as an Obama-era “collusion” by banking regulators to secretly pressure financial institutions to drop conservative clients. “It’s definitely a newer phenomenon that really started under President Obama,” Tedesco claimed, describing a “secret” process in which “they can go to the banks and say, hey, you know, you’ve got this client that has some pretty negative publicity, we think it’s risky for you guys to continue to bank them. You should think about that.”

Tedesco claims that financial institutions, spurred on by federal regulators, use “reputational risk” policies that “ban hate speech or intolerance” to “restrict or deny service based on a customer’s speech or religion.” The claim is consistent with ADF’s attempts to link anti-LGBTQ+ extremism with the concept of “religious freedom” in international law and American foreign policy.

In both cases, ADF argues that the private sector and even other private religious groups should not be allowed to hold hate groups accountable for their extremist views. Instead, they assert, banks should be punished when they choose not to do business with groups that promote hate and extremism.

Other Christian-right personalities and conspiracy theorists have given ADF’s debanking claims even more urgency by amplifying perceived threats to conservative Christians and situating the “debanking” conspiracy theory within apocalyptic Christian theology.

“Debanking Christians is literally apocalyptic,” reads the headline of John Zmirak’s March 11 article in the Christian-right publication The Stream, in which Tedesco’s March 7 testimony to Congress is heavily featured. Debanking, Zmirak says, “closely parallels the text of [the New Testament Book of] Revelation.”

During a March 15 interview with Christian-right commentator Eric Metaxas, Tedesco described debanking as an “Orwellian” system of “collusion” between banks and the federal government to silence Christians.

“Are you paying attention that we’re in a war?” Metaxas asked his audience. “So, if you love God and the United States of America, you’re the bad guy according to these evil actors.”

As Hatewatch previously reported, Tedesco discussed debanking with far-right commentator Tim Pool in June. Tedesco described ADF’s work as “trying to stop the Biden administration weaponizing the federal government and private corporations against our First Amendment rights.” Pool replied: “I do also feel that it’s not just about white people, but also, it’s like if you’re a white Christian, it’s fair game. If you’re a white Christian man, good luck.”

Questionable claims

At the center of many recent ADF debanking narratives is a Tennessee-based nonprofit called Indigenous Advance Ministries, which also operates a for-profit debt collection service and call center in Uganda called Indigenous Advance Customer Center. In Tedesco’s March 7 testimony to Congress, he insinuated that Bank of America closed the accounts of both groups because it engaged in “viewpoint-based de-banking.”

However, ADF senior counsel Matt Sharp told the Chattanooga Times Free Press in February that it “remained unclear why the accounts were canceled.” The Times Free Press also quoted a Bank of America spokesperson who said the bank’s small business division “doesn’t offer banking services to organizations that provide debt collection services for a variety of risk-related considerations and doesn’t serve small businesses operating outside the United States.”

In 2024, ADF successfully used the narrative it created about Indigenous Advance Customer Center to advocate a first-of-its kind bill in Tennessee that would override some large banks’ corporate DEI policies, potentially compelling them to do business with hate and extremist groups.

In his testimony to Congress, Tedesco also claimed JPMorgan Chase “debanked” the National Committee for Religious Freedom (NCRF), a group led by former Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback whose board includes former ADF President Michael Farris. In a March 2023 Newsweek commentary, Brownback and Tedesco directly accused Chase of “debanking” the group because the bank asked NCRF for a list of its largest donors to comply with federal money-laundering laws, conflating the request for information with religious discrimination.

As Hatewatch previously reported, ADF’s viewpoint diversity initiative is supported by an advisory council full of far-right figures, many of whom have multibillion-dollar investment firms at their disposal. One, a former Morgan Stanley managing director named David Bahnsen, went after JPMorgan Chase with accusations of “debanking.”

As reported by Bloomberg in 2023, Bahnsen’s family trust submitted a proposal to JPMorgan Chase demanding the company investigate and report on “how it oversees risks” related to several categories such as “religion (including religious views) ... or political views, and whether such discrimination may impact individuals’ exercise of their constitutionally protected civil rights.”

The letter accompanying the proposal cited ADF’s 2022 Viewpoint Diversity Index and a statement co-authored by Viewpoint Diversity Score advisers that was sent to more than 50 financial institutions. The letter suggested an internal investigation by JPMorgan Chase was warranted because, it claimed, many businesses “push divisive concepts in employee trainings, openly discriminate against employees of faith, weaponize their capital and political clout to undermine free speech and religious freedom, and refuse to disclose public and private demands to cancel or ‘debank’ certain individuals or organizations.”

Brownback has since appeared with ADF at public events, warning of the threat of “debanking,” and his Newsweek commentary has been recycled by ADF and in a May 2023 letter by 19 state attorneys general who demanded JPMorgan Chase reform its policies.

After the JPMorgan Chase board decided not to vote on the Bahnsen proposal, ADF, assisted by the law firm Boyden Gray PLLC, filed a complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In March 2023, the SEC ruled in favor of Bahnsen and required the company’s shareholders to vote on the proposal. However, Bahnsen withdrew the proposal in 2024, prior to the shareholder vote.

Illustration at top: Alliance Defending Freedom claims that “debanking” is the result of government and corporate collusion to silence – and close the bank accounts of – conservative Christians. (Credit: SPLC)