It’s not a new tactic when left-wing political groups call their right-wing enemies hate-filled and harmful, but conservative groups are now learning the Biden administration concluded they are so dangerous their bank accounts should be shuttered.
That's right. Close their bank accounts. Put them out of business.
So, who are the so-called "hate groups," and which banks?
Be informed, not misled.
The 38-page report titled "Bankrolling Bigotry" begins with this summary:
Hatred is surging across the United States. Figures released by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) suggest that the number of hate groups rose steadily between 2014 and 2018, including a 55% growth in the number of white nationalist groups active between 2017 and 2019.
In 2018 the FBI announced that hate crimes were at the highest volume they had been for 16 years.
And recent analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies identifies white supremacists as the most significant terror threat facing the US.
This matches global trends where white supremacist terrorism has spiked by 320%, in part buoyed by a broad morass of hate against communities including Jews, Muslims, immigrants, people of color, people with disabilities, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and others (LGBTQ+) community.
The “Bankrolling Bigotry” report was created by a London-based think tank, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue states its mission is to reverse “extremism” and “disinformation.”
Who are these "white supremacist" "hate" groups?
To name a few, they are Liberty Counsel, Alliance Defending Freedom, Pacific Justice Institute, FAIR, Family Research Council, MassResistance, and the Center for Immigration Studies.
These and others like them are included in the "evil" list. All biblically sound organizations, doing great work for the Lord, and well known to biblical Christians.
All those groups and many others are cited in the “Bankrolling Bigotry” report. That call to action, published in 2020, calls for ending the groups’ access to financial services, dropping their IRS non-profit status, and blocking their online fund-raising capability because their views are considered harmful to society.
For its report, the Institute states it defined "hate" as "beliefs or practices that result in attacking, maligning, delegitimizing or excluding an entire class of people based on immutable characteristics, including their ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability."
Sexual behavior is not an immutable characteristic.
To accumulate its list of groups, 73 in all, the Institute relied heavily on the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center. That Alabama-based group, which fought Jim Crow laws in the 1960s, is credited with inventing the “hate group” label for the Klan and Neo-Nazi groups scattered around the country. More recently, the SPLC began adding right-leaning groups such as ADF and AFA to its "hate list," too.
You can find the entire list of "evil" groups on page 9 of the report.
Note that Christian organizations are included with extremist groups.
The “Bankrolling Bigotry” report follows a similar pattern. Under the label “Anti-LGBTQ+,” for example, ADF, Liberty Counsel, FRC, and AFA are listed with Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church.
The report also makes no distinction between Westboro and groups such as AFA and FRC, whose views reflect Orthodox Christianity. The report ominously concludes that all "anti-LGBTQ" groups are "masked behind the banner of Christian and evangelical activism."
How did this become public knowledge? Who asked the banks to shut down the accounts?
American Family Association did the research. Here's what they found:
With a copy of the “Bankrolling Bigotry” report in hand, a financial crimes agency at the U.S. Treasury Department sent the report in 2021 to top banking executives at major U.S. banks, including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citibank, and JP Morgan Chase.
The secretive plan by the Biden administration to punish its political enemies now dates back three years ago. It was only made public last week when Treasury Department documents were released by the appropriately-named House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
The government culprit behind the bank lobbying is a Treasury agency called the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN. That agency was also named by the House weaponization subcommittee, which learned FinCEN used the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol to ask banks to filter customer transactions for words such as “MAGA” and “Trump,” and to flag purchases at stores known for gun sales such as Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shop.
On his “Today’s Issues” show this week, AFA president Tim Wildmon summarized the issue for the radio audience. “The Treasury Department,” Wildmon said, “puts out a memo to banks all across America, 'Hey, these are groups you need to avoid doing business with because they're hate groups.'”
The public now knows, Wildmon added, that a “far-left” special interest group defined what “hate” means and then that definition was willingly adopted by our own federal government to target its political enemies.
Now you know.
Takeaway
Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
When there is no "king," everyone does what is right in their own eyes, creating a culture of lawlessness.
Then, a dictator will arise from the chaos, and all will become servants of the government.
We are witnessing steps being taken toward both.
Star Parker said yesterday, "In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed."
She continued, "It marked the end of an experiment that lasted almost a century testing the premise that godless secularization, turning control of people's lives over to other people to rule them, who decide what others need and how they should live and conduct their lives, is the answer for mankind."
"In the free world, the collapse of the Soviet Union was a cause for celebration. In the USA, it was widely viewed as a victory of the American way of life – a free nation under God."
"But let's not get confused between things and the names we give them."
"Our own country – despite the words in our founding documents about freedom and God – has been on a path adopting the same premises about human reality that led to the collapse of the communist world. This was evident in President Joe Biden's message to the nation last week in his State of the Union address," she added.
She concludes, "The truth really is..... It's about politicians who love power, buying it with gifts given with other people's money. Harsh to say, but this is reality."
She's right.
According to Gallup, only 19% of Americans are satisfied with the country's direction.
Most Americans feel something is wrong. We need leadership to take us back to freedom and God.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.