Faith Ventures welcomes Frank Clement, who has spent seven years at America’s Christian Credit Union helping churches, Christian schools, and ministry families access financial resources that conventional banks increasingly decline to provide. Before that, he worked in public relations for energy companies during one of the more politically hostile periods for that industry — which gave him a clearer-eyed view of institutional risk logic than most people who comment on debanking ever develop. This episode of Faith Ventures takes on the questions Christians should be asking about where they bank and why it matters.
The Questions Christians Should Be Asking About Banking, Debanking, and Their Money
How do banks actually work — and why does it matter for Christians?
Banks don’t have money of their own. What they have is yours. They take deposits and lend out up to 90% of that money by law — to whoever clears their risk assessment. The interest on those loans is their business model. This means the money sitting in your checking account right now is already working somewhere in the economy, deployed on your behalf by an institution that didn’t ask your permission and isn’t required to tell you where it went. The only financial decision you actually control is which institution you appoint to do that deploying. For Christians who take stewardship seriously, that decision is a values decision, not just a convenience decision.
What is debanking, and is it really happening to Christian organizations?
Debanking is the cancellation of a banking relationship — either a depository account or an active loan — by a financial institution that has decided a customer poses too much reputational or regulatory risk. It is happening to Christian organizations, and Frank gives specific documented examples. During COVID, churches that kept meeting had commercial loans called by banks that cited the church’s violation of local ordinances as a new material risk in the lending relationship. Ministries that took public stances on cultural issues lost depository relationships because banks concluded the association was a liability. This isn’t necessarily motivated by anti-Christian animus. It’s motivated by institutional risk management logic that has no category for religious conscience — which makes it no less serious and considerably harder to fight.
Why are megabanks particularly likely to debank Christian organizations?
Because they are too big to fail — and they know it. Banks of systemic importance survive only at the pleasure of the administration currently in power, which means they have strong institutional incentives to stay in that administration’s good graces. When the political environment is hostile to traditional Christian values on cultural issues, the megabanks will follow that signal. Frank’s read on the current moment is measured: debanking is quieter right now. But the structural logic hasn’t changed, and the second something changes in Washington, there is no reason to believe it won’t return.
Why won’t conventional banks lend to churches, and what does ACCU’s default rate actually prove?
Conventional banks see churches as risky borrowers for two reasons: their income is giving-based, which reads as inconsistent and seasonal, and their primary asset is a special-use building that’s nearly impossible to sell if the loan goes bad. These objections aren’t irrational from a conventional risk standpoint. They’re just wrong when measured against actual performance data. ACCU’s commercial loan default rate is less than half the national average. Churches pay their loans back — not just because they have to, but because they made a commitment and their conscience holds them to it. The pastor whose church couldn’t pay during the 2008 recession kept sending money voluntarily after the loan was charged off. That’s the character of borrower that conventional risk models consistently fail to recognize, and it’s the reason ACCU can make loans that no one else will.
How does debanking affect Christian schools, and what should school leaders do about it?
The expansion of school choice and ESA programs is genuinely good news for Christian education, but it has created a cash flow crisis that’s closing schools before they get started. State programs disburse funds quarterly or twice a year. Schools that are used to monthly tuition payments run out of operating cash in the gap, go to lenders at the worst possible moment — when they look terrible on paper — and get turned down. Frank’s practical advice is direct: get a line of credit before the school choice program starts, not after. Draw on it to cover expenses during the disbursement gap. Pay it off when the state funds arrive. The parable of the ten bridesmaids applies here: the worst time to look for oil is when the lamps are already going out.
What should I actually do with this information?
Two things. First, find out what your bank is doing with your money. Frank calls it “a little creative Googling” — it doesn’t take long. If your financial institution is investing your deposits in things that contradict your values, you have options, and ACCU is one of them. Second, if you lead or serve a church, a Christian school, or a ministry with a commercial banking relationship, find out whether that relationship is with an institution that would call your loan if the political winds shifted. The threat is structural, not theoretical, and the time to find an alternative is before you need one — not after your loans have been called.
Conclusion: Christian Banking — The Kingdom Is Waiting for Your Deposits
Frank Clement’s closing argument is simple and worth sitting with. Every financial institution lends out 90% of its customers’ deposits. Somewhere in the economy right now, your money is helping build something, fund something, or start something. At most banks, you have no say in what that is. At ACCU, your deposits help a church expand its sanctuary, a family adopt a child, or a Christian school open its doors.
That’s not charity. It earns a competitive return. It’s just mission-aligned banking — and the kingdom of God could use a lot more of it.
Norman Horn, Faith Seeking Freedom (LCI) — LCI’s flagship resource on Christian libertarian thought, including the theology of voluntary institutions, free markets, and stewardship.
Civilly, individuals are prohibited from intiating aggression against others. Non-aggressive immorality may be addressed by non-civil entities such as the church.
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Christians aren't disobeying 1 Tim 6:10 so long as they aren't pursuing money as an end in itself. It's the love of money that's prohibited, not the mere accumulation of it.
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Christians aren't disobeying 1 Tim 6:10 so long as they aren't pursuing money as an end in itself. It's the love of money that's prohibited, not the mere accumulation of it.
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Historically libertarians have not been settled on the abortion issue, and we argue that abortion is a violation of the non-aggression principle and therefore anti-libertarian.
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God has provided people the tools that we need to face these challenges, starting with the first garments he fashioned for Adam and Eve from animal skins (Gen. 3:21)
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