The Daily Signal - Christian-Based Credit Union Offers Alternative to Big Banks

Episode Date: February 22, 2022

In this age of cancel culture, nothing is off limits for the woke left. Christians and conservatives increasingly find themselves on the defensive. Deplatforming and censorship are the norm on social media. In fact, it happened to The Daily Signal just last week for allegedly violating YouTube’s COVID-19 “misinformation” policy. And while having a video removed or a Twitter account suspended is deeply problematic, it’s not nearly as insurmountable as when your financial institution decides to cancel you. That happened earlier this month in Canada when Toronto-Dominion Bank froze two personal accounts with $1.1 million over support for the “Freedom Convoy” protest against the country’s vaccine mandates. Unfortunately, that’s now a reality in the United States, too. Last November, JPMorgan Chase subsidiary WePay—an online payment processor—canceled the account of a conservative PAC in Missouri after it scheduled an event with Donald Trump Jr. While big banks and financial institutions cave to the woke left, there are fortunately alternatives in the marketplace. America’s Christian Credit Union, founded in 1958, is one. On today’s episode of “The Daily Signal Podcast,” Frank Clement, the credit union’s director of strategic partnerships, explains how things have changed in recent years and why America’s Christian Credit Union remains true to its mission. Clement also shares how the COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped the education landscape and created an unprecedented opportunity for school choice. America’s Christian Credit Union is attempting to do its part by helping the formation of new schools and providing financial assistance to parents. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, February 22nd. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Rob Blewey. On today's show, I speak with Frank Clement of America's Christian Credit Union about how they're helping families with education needs. We also read your letters to the editor and share a good news story about a fun way you can teach the kids in your life what it means to be a patriot. But before we get to today's show, I want to tell you about the most reliable source for global economic data, the newly released, 2022 Heritage Index of Economic Freedom. The Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom ranks nearly every nation in the world, according to its level of economic freedom. Whether for personal or professional research, the index is a wealth of information.

And this year's new index provides so many unique insights on more than 170 countries across the world. Visit heritage.org slash index to explore the 2022 Index of Economic Forensons. Freedom, which features interactive maps, country rankings, graphs of data, and much more. Now stay tuned for today's show. Coming up next. We are joined on the Daily Signal podcast today by Frank Clement, Director of Strategic Partnerships in America's Christian Credit Union. Frank, thanks for joining us. Thanks so much, Rob. It's great to be here. What is America's Christian Credit Union? And how did your financial institution begin?

Sure. Well, to take a step back, I should probably tell your listeners what a credit union is. Hopefully a lot of them know, but in case they don't. We're a bit like a bank, but importantly, we are owned by our members. So we are a nonprofit cooperative of our members, and they come together and they pool their resources. So technically, I as a staff member am just a steward of their resources, and they're not my customers. And so America's Christian Credit Union got started back in 1958 by five pastors out here in California, and they were having trouble getting decent loans for cars, for homes. And it was because they were pastors. And I'm not going to say it was religious persecution,

but the fact of the matter is that pastors are often not paid well. And sometimes their salary can be inconsistent. So banks saw them as inherently risky. And so they decided that they would solve their problem themselves. And so they came together and they pooled $135 and they started a credit union and they started inviting other pastors to join as well. And today we now have about 100,000 members all across the country. And we're managing $650 million in assets on behalf of those folks. That's remarkable, Frank. Thank you for sharing that history. And you serve such an important group of members, as you described. What are the types of members who do belong to your credit union? I imagine still pastors are a key part of it, but do you aim to serve others as well? Definitely. So we've expanded, but we still keep it pretty tight. And so we like to say that we're serving ministries and the folks within their community. And so we're still serving pastors. We can serve churches. We can serve Christian schools. And then we're we like to say that we're serving ministries and the folks within their community. And so we're still serving pastors. We can serve churches. We can serve Christian schools. And then we're we can serve the families and the individuals who are part of those organizations as well.

And so anybody who would want to join our credit union qualifies by being attached to a Christian ministry of some kind. And why is it important to have a faith-focused credit union in a world that is becoming increasingly secular? Sure. Well, I'll give you the answer I would have given two years ago first. I would have said that we just understand ministries in a way that a typical bank or lender doesn't, and we assess risk differently. And so generally, we're able to offer lower interest rates on

loans, which can make a huge difference if you're a ministry. So for instance, if you're a church that wants to purchase a property for $3 million, you know, a 1% difference on that loan could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars. And so that's money that you are not able to use toward your ministry and towards serving the community that you feel called to serve. And so we look at these organizations and we understand how they work. And we understand, you know, I'd say the psychology and the spirituality of the people who support them. And we know that the people who are coming every week and putting money in that little basket,

we understand where their heart is. And so we don't see that as a risk. We actually see that as a benefit and an asset. And the great thing is that despite taking what a typical bank might see as, you know, a risky bet on some of these organizations, our delinquency ratio, you know, so the number of loans that defaults on us

is actually lower than the industry standard. So it just shows that people of faith are great, great people to serve. Now, you started your answer by saying that was the answer you would give two years ago. Is there more to the story that you want to update us on today? Well, you know, it's really disheartening to see what's happened just in the last two years, just the number of cancellations that are happening really all across the board. And, you know, it started with people getting kicked off Twitter or Facebook.

But then, I don't know if you saw this, but Mike Lindell from My Pillow has now officially been debanked by his financial institution. And the sad thing there is one of Mike Lindell's organizations is the Lindell Recovery Network, which serves people all across the country, helping them get out of substance abuse addiction. And so to think that that organization now has to spend some of their resources finding a new financial institution, instead of helping people who are trapped in the cycle of addiction, it's heartbreaking. And so we want to be that trusted partner for whatever impact your ministry is having. And so we would invite anybody who's starting to have questions about,

their financial partner, you know, whether that partner is going to be there for them for the long term, come on over to us because we're not going to drop you just because you maintain certain values or you hold to religious principles. And tell us, Frank, why are some other financial institutions caving to this pressure from the woke mob or whomever it may be? And how do you make sure that America's Christian Credit Union stays firm in its belief and principles? Well, right now it's being couched in terms of reputational risk. And so I suppose Mike Lindell's bank, for instance, would say that whatever money they were making off of Mike Lindell wasn't enough to cover what they might lose in potential business or if they got bad press. And so that's how they,

that's how they pose it. And I suppose that's their decision to make. But for us, and again, and this is the benefit of a credit union, unless you are breaking the law, we can't cancel your membership. You are a member for life. And we, work for you. And so just in that sense, we're not going to drop somebody because we see them as a reputational risk, because in reality, it's their reputation, not ours. So, you know, the truth is, we are a federally regulated financial institution. And so in looking at what's happening in Canada, there's a part of me that worries about what might come down the road, but I can promise you this. We're not going to voluntarily start canceling people, and we will do everything we can to fight

on behalf of our members to keep them safe and able to access their funds. Well, another group of people that you serve and institutions are Christian schools. And we know for the last two years, many of them have faced inordinate challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic. How has your credit union addressed the pandemic and the students who are suffering the consequences of the public school changes and other societal changes that have really dramatically transformed the education landscape? Yeah. Well, it's interesting. We didn't used to serve schools in any kind of specific way. Usually we were serving churches, and there are a lot of churches that have schools, and so occasionally a school would come to us just because the church they were attached to was already working with us. But the pandemic really opened our eyes to the way in which students are suffering. I mean, I would say that young people have born a disproportionate brunt of this pandemic. They've suffered so much, and a lot of that has been happening inside of public schools. And so we have taken seriously our charge to support Christian ministries. And right now, the Christian ministries that have needed the most help are these private Christian schools across the country. So one exciting thing that we got to jump in on was the PPP program.

So when the CARES Act got passed by Congress, there were these funds set aside to help organizations that had to close due to pandemic measures. And usually SBA only lends to for-profit organizations. organizations, but in this instance, churches and private schools qualified. So we were able to do over a thousand of these PPP loans. And we'd never even done SBA lending before, but we decided that it was worth learning how to do it in order to serve our members. And so we were able to get about $82 million out the door to these ministries. And so quite a few of the schools that we helped, they told us, you know, we were this close to bankruptcy. We were this close to closing our doors and having to send our students, you know, wherever they could find a seat somewhere else.

But because of these PPP funds and because of your willingness maybe to give us a few skips on our loan payments, we were able to get through this and continue to serve the folks that we are sworn to serve. Tell us some of those schools that were facing those challenges. What were some of the circumstances that they encountered, maybe at the early stage of the pandemic? And how did the credit union step in to help them overcome that? Well, first I got to say, private Christian schools, their teachers and their administrators, administrators deserve so much credit here. And unfortunately, they along with just about everyone else, has taken a beating. And so I would just, I want to call that out and say that, you know, they're walking

such a fine line. They're trying to, you know, adhere to these governmental dictates in order to keep serving students, you know. So if masks are required, they're trying their best to require masks and social distancing and plexiglass and all that. So they're trying to walk that line. When on the other hand, some of the enrollment bump that these schools have experienced have been families that have come and said, you know, I only want to send my kid here if he won't have to wear a mask. And so these schools are trying to stay open so they can serve families, but also trying to serve families in a way that, you know, those families can appreciate it. And so they've had to, they've had to, you know, expend significant resources on buying plexiglass, on, you know, converting outdoor spaces to

make-shift learning areas. And in some cases, schools are seeing as much as a 25% increase in enrollment as families flood out of public schools and look for a better choice. And so them having, you know, in some cases, just bringing trailers onto their campus and having classes in trailers because that's what they can scrowns. And so we've done everything in our power to help them manage the finances associated with ramping up those makeshift measures. But what we're looking at now is how do we help them going forward? Because what's interesting is, you know, a lot of these school leaders were, they were, you know, optimistic, but only cautiously because they were worried that maybe enrollment would fall back down again once public

schools returned to in-person learning. But so far, that hasn't panned out. A lot of the enrollment gains have stuck. And so now these school leaders are saying, well, we can't keep cramming students into trailers. So what do we do to actually make a permanent change to our campus or do we need to add a campus to our complex? And so we're there to offer them, you know, low interest loans so that they can add on to their campuses accordingly so that they can be serving more of these who really need a good alternative for their education. Frank, what you're describing really is the benefits of having school choice in America and giving parents and students the opportunity and the power to decide on their own,

not based by zip code, but on their own choices where they want to go to school. What are some of the biggest challenges now facing this movement, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic? Yeah. You know, I've been thinking a lot about this idea of school choice, And just anecdotally, it seems like usually conversations about school choice revolve around this idea of whether or not families can afford tuition. But that to me is not the central issue. There's really three issues I see.

You know, one, a school has to exist that you would want to send your kid to. Two, that school has to have capacity to accept your student. And then three, you have to be able to afford to pay the tuition for that school. So I'll give you an example of a school we're working with right now. They are hoping to launch this coming fall. so brand new school, they'll be serving the Hemet Valley area of California. There's about 160,000 people in that region. There's not a single Christian high school serving 160,000 people, no Christian high school.

And so at that point, you know, you could, if California, you know, handed out vouchers tomorrow, it wouldn't matter because there's no school for those Hemet Valley families to send their kids to. And so it's important that more schools start. And so I really want to give a shout out to the Association of Classical Christian School. schools, they have a package that helps families and groups of families launch schools. And right now they have about 90 schools currently in that startup phase. And they told me they get about half a dozen requests every week from families that want to start a new Christian classical school in their region. And so we have to, you know, folks in our world need to band around those kinds of people and support them every way we can to make sure that what they're doing succeeds because now there's more capacity.

and that choice exists. And then making sure that existing good schools can grow their capacity as well. And honestly, it's easier to grow a successful school than it would be to start one. And so if a school is doing well and they're maintaining a waiting list, you know, getting them to shift their thinking a little bit and say, why don't you start a new campus on the other side of town? Clearly, there's enough families to support it. You just need to build it and they'll come.

And so, you know, we're obviously happy to help with that, but we can't decide that for them. And so, you know, hopefully more of our successful schools in the Christian school world will wake up and see kind of what they're being called to do. And then, of course, there's the question of cost. And, you know, schools as they operate more efficiently, they can lower their tuition. And that's great. And that's something, you know, we can help them bring their costs down, like I said, with low cost lending. But there will always be some families who want to send their kid there.

They can't afford it. And if they happen to live in a state that doesn't currently offer, let's say, an education savings account, then, you know, that's where we might be able to come in and offer a low interest tuition loan. And we're not trying to drive anybody into debt, but we also understand how important K-12 education is in forming these young minds and souls. And in some ways, you know, the K-12 education is more important than college. And people take on all kinds of debt for college, but, you know, aren't necessarily thinking about that for the younger years. And I would say, maybe we need to flip that script and understand how important those formative years are.

Oh, as a father myself, I wholeheartedly concur with you. Go ahead. Continue. Yeah, sorry. I was just going to say, but let's take heart. Let's look at what happened in Virginia, right? Glenn Yonkin wasn't supposed to win, and he basically won for making the outlandish claim that parents should have some kind of a say in their children's education. And just yesterday, I was reading that three of the school board members in San Francisco just got the boot. And so parents, through the pandemic, became aware of what was being taught in their kids' school, and that's good. And they took action, and that's good. But we have to keep that momentum going. We can't, you know, let's not get tired of doing this good work. And so I'm hoping that families will continue to lobby, continue to lobby to, you know, make public schools better. It's, you know, it's better to improve the public schools if we can. Let's lobby for some kind of school choice in all 50 states.

and then at some point you might have to be willing then to make the hard decision to pull your kid out of a public school and just say, you know, I don't get the free school anymore. I have to pay for my kids' education. But ultimately, parents are responsible for their kids' education. And so I just want to impress upon folks, like, that's a, it's a huge burden, obviously. It's a, it's a mighty task, but it's so worth it. And if our country is going to see some kind of revival in the coming years, it's going to be because more students are going to be. through Christian schools and are growing up with a deep sense of virtue and morals. And Frank, I know you're headquartered in California, but you serve customers across the United States, correct? That's right. So we currently have members in 49 states and the District of Columbia. We are missing North Dakota. So if anybody listening right now lives in North Dakota, please join our credit union so that we can

say that we have all 50 states represented. Well, that's fantastic. As you look ahead in the years to come, you shared that great example of the new school. that will be starting in California, where do you see opportunities for the credit union to step in and help schools overcome some of the challenges? Are there other parts of the country where you think it's real, you know, fertile opportunity right now in light of what's happened in the last couple of years? You know, I can't speak too much to the regions. You know, it's interesting. You look at the hotspots of California, Texas, Florida, where lots of people live there, and especially

in Texas and Florida, lots of great charter schools exist. lots of Christian schools are starting because there's so many people to serve. And in some sense, I would say, well, then good, they've kind of got things under control. But where are the states where there are no Christian schools starting? And is it possible that those are the states that actually need that the most? You know, one little thing that we've been doing with our startup schools is most families can't pay tuition by day one. And so they need a payment plan. But payment plans are difficult for schools to manage, especially if they're pre-revenue.

and it means that they have to devote administrative staff to collecting those payments, and it means they have to wait for the tuition to come in, you know, month after month after month. And so we are allowing them to refer people to us for these low-interest 12-month tuition loans, and the idea being that the school gets the full amount of tuition by day one, and then the family still gets to experience that monthly payment plan throughout the year. And so it's good for the family because they don't have to pay up front, but it's also good for the school because they have more of their revenue on hand at the beginning of the year, of the year so they can pay their teachers so they can pay their, you know, facility costs.

In fact, I just learned that apparently across the Catholic school spectrum, Catholic school teachers are getting paid 20% less than what their public school counterparts would be paid in the same region. And I just think, you know, this is an opportunity to do better because these, these teachers, you know, they deserve it. And just practically speaking, we want them to stick around. So what does it look like for a school to become financially strong so that it can pay its teachers There's more, you know, engender that kind of loyalty so that they're there for the long term, and the whole community thrives as a result of it. Frank, this is fantastic work that you're doing.

Thank you for stepping into this right now, particularly at a time, as you've talked about the cancel culture, you've talked about the challenges of the pandemic, and the future opportunity that I think exists. Tell our listeners how they can learn more if they want to themselves become a member, or maybe you're talking right now to some future educator who wants to start a his or her own school. Where can they get started? Yeah, well, you know, I refer them to our website, America's ChristianCU.com. I'll say that again, America's ChristianCU.com, and individuals can join, churches can join, schools can join. And I would say, we are here to serve you. And so if you're

looking at our website and you realize that you have a need that isn't reflected among our products and offerings, let us know because we're always interested in serving our community better. And sometimes it just takes someone coming and saying, I really need this. And then, you know, we can deliver on it. Well, we'll make sure to include a link to America's Christian Credit Union with the Daily Signal story. Frank, thanks so much for joining us today. It's a real pleasure to talk to you and learn more. And I hope we can have a follow-up conversation, particularly as these new schools get started.

And we can hear about the success that they're having. Definitely. Thank you so much, Rob. God bless you. Thanks for sending us your letters to the editor. Each Monday, we feature our favorites on this show. Virginia, you're up first. In response to Kevin Mooney's piece, Salvation Army is silent on impact of race-based training on fundraising.

Jim Morrissey of Massachusetts writes, As a donor to the Salvation Army of over 30 years, I returned their latest fundraising plea last week. My suggestion was that they not waste postage, sending me quarterly fundraising mail. I explained that their recent political activism regarding race was my reason. And in response to Doug Blair's commentary, eight college professors canceled by left, Suzanne Patria of Augusta, Georgia writes, I almost cried when I saw the first name on the list was Mike Adams, an amazing criminology professor at the University of North Carolina.

Adams was courageous, funny, honest, and most of all, competent. But those qualities are no longer wanted and certainly are not respected by students who run to their safe spaces whenever their fragile feelings are hurt. The gutless left-wing cowards who run our colleges and universities allow one unfounded complaint to end the careers of our best educators. It is a tragedy that such excellent professors were the victims of cancel culture because they enriched and enlightened many lives. Our society is plummeting, and I pray every day that this insanity will be stopped,

that the few will cease to control the many. Your letter could be featured on next week's show, so send us an email at letters at daily signal.com. conservative women, conservative feminist. It's true. We do exist. I'm Virginia Allen and every Thursday morning on problematic women, Lauren Evans and I sort through the news to bring you stories and interviews that are particular interests to conservative leaning or problematic women. That is women whose views and opinions are often excluded or mocked by those on the so-called feminist left. We talk about everything from pop culture to policy and, politics. Search for problematic women wherever you get your podcast. Virginia, you have a good news story to share with us today. Over to you. Thank you so much, Rob. Fallen Marine veteran, Sergeant Meecott Camera, loved kids. So years after his death, his little sister, Alyssa, decided she wanted to keep the memory of her brother alive through children's books. The series is called Patriot Pup

and follows the adventures of Uncle Meecott, a young boy named Hank, and of course a very ornery dog named Patriot Pup. The books are fun and engaging for kids and filled with colorful pictures. Each story aims to teach children what it means to be a patriot. I had the chance to talk with Alyssa about her brother and why she chose to write the book series in his honor. Alyssa's brother, Marine Sergeant Mekot Camera, was killed in the Beirut bomb. in 1983. Alyssa was only 17 at the time. As an adult and a mom today,

Alyssa wanted to write the Patriot Pup Kids series as a way to both honor her brother and instilling kids the values that he carried with him as a Marine. Alyssa just released the third book in the series this year called Patriot Pup Off to School. Alyssa hopes that the books will also create a sense of honor and respect for the military in the hearts and minds of all young Americans. Patriot Pup is teaching kids to love America.

And if you want to order all three of the books in the series, you can do so by visiting patriotpup.us. Thanks for the recommendation, Virginia. Make sure to check it out. Absolutely. Well, we're going to leave it there for today. I'd like to thank our intern, Julia Dandoy, for helping with today's interview. You can find the Daily Signal podcast on the Rurkishay Audio Network.

All of our shows are available at DailySignal.com slash podcasts. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or your favorite podcast app. If you like what you hear, please leave us a review and a five-star rating. It means a lot to us and helps us spread the word to other listeners. Be sure to follow us on Twitter at DailySignal and Facebook.com slash the DailySignal News. Have a great week. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members of the Heritage Foundation.

It is executive produced by Rob Blewey and Virginia Allen. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geinney, and John Pop. For more information, visit DailySignal.com.