The Daily Signal - EXCLUSIVE: Fortune 500 Company Fires Christian for Not Aligning With 'Core Values' on LGBTQ Issues

Episode Date: January 4, 2025

Russ Salerno lost his job at a Fortune 500 financial institution after several years because his employer concluded that his conservative Christian convictions "don't line up" with the company's "core values" on LGBTQ issues. Now, Salerno serves as the CEO of ProLifeFinTech, an online banking company that launched in November.  Salerno tells his story in an exclusive interview with "The Daily Signal Podcast." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk, business. From the stories of everyday Americans to detailed policy conversations, we are going beyond the headlines to discuss the issues and events that have and are shaping this nation. Welcome to the Daily Signal podcast Weekend Edition. I'm Tyler O'Neill, your host today. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll be right back with today's conversation. Pro-life, pro-women conservative and feminist? That's right, we're problematic women. The radical left does not know what to do with strong independent women who believe in traditional values and love America.

So you might say we're problematic to the left narrative of what a woman should be. Here on problematic women, we sort through the news to find the stories that you care about. Join Problematic Women on the Daily Signal's YouTube. or Rumble every Wednesday or catch the show wherever you get your podcast on Thursday morning. And be sure to follow Problematic Women on Instagram. This is Tyler O'Neill, managing editor at The Daily Signal. I'm honored to be joined by Russ Salerno, who is the CEO of Pro-Life FinTech. Russ, it's so great to have you with us.

Great to talk with you. So, Russ, I'm really excited to talk to you for a few reasons. One, just about Pro-Life FinTech, can you share? a little bit about it. A lot of Americans know what a bank is, but a fintech is slightly different. So why pro-life fintech and what do you guys do? Sure. So what's a what is a fintech? A fintech is a financial technology company. We are not a bank. We are sponsored by a bank in in Oklahoma, Regent Bank. And we offer, consider us the banking as a service journey that our customers use to do their financial

banking through region. So the journey includes a digital experience. So we have the digital app, just like any other bank. Banking is for the most part of commodity. So the journey itself is pretty much the same when you go across platforms. And so we look and feel like a bank. We're not a bank. We're a financial technology company. But our customers have passed through FDIC insurance through Regent Bank, who's a Christian bank located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Wonderful. So I want to know more about your story. I don't believe you've shared this with the news before. And of course, there are specific things you can't share because of stuff we'll get to. But you used to work at a Fortune 500 company, one of the big banks in America. And can you tell me briefly your story of why that didn't work out? I believe you are essentially forced out because of your faith. Absolutely, yeah. I was with a couple of major banks, and this one in particular, I had received a phone call from Human Resources. I had an issue. There was an issue that they needed to address with me, and it took me by surprise because I'm not sure what that issue was. I found myself in a boardroom with some folks, and they were asking me about whether I earned money outside of my current role outside of this particular bank. And in my role at that time, I had to disclose every other ancillary type of income that I was making

because they needed to know that for fear of probably insider trading and things like that. So, and I totally understandable. So once they got past that, then they got a little more granular with me and asked me if I had a podcast. And me and my wife did, in fact, have a hobby podcast that we do or did. And it's called The Winding Road Home. It's still out there. We're not as active as we used to be, but essentially what we would do is take topics out of the news and just run them through the, through scripture. It was like, what does God's words say about this particular story or this particular incident and things like that?

And so, as it turns out, they were asking me about what my podcast is all about. And I challenged them to tell me what my podcast was all about because obviously they knew they had me in a room asking me about it. But they just kind of pressed, pressed me and made me make the statement, right? So tell us about your podcast, Russ. And so I did that. I did just that. I told them, it was a Christian show, and

it's a hobby, and so what's the problem? And they let me know that the views expressed on my show do not line up with the core values of this particular bank. And I was, I just really did, that didn't matter to me because last I checked, I had to write the free speech, it's like you're rather American.

And so they asked me, me to basically shut my show down. So at that point, I stood up and told them they're infringing on my constitutional right of free speech and I'm not going to stop doing my show. So what's so wrong about my show? And as it turns out, there's a particular moral value that God puts out, puts out there in the Ten Commandments. And the Bible talks explicitly around staying away from fleshly desires and sexual behavior, right? I mean, God designed us. This man and woman, two genders. He wants us to procreate and do it in the right way, right?

I mean, we were discussing a topic that was on the rise about five or six years ago, and it didn't bode well with them. So they just proceeded to just tell me that they want me to stop doing my show. I basically said, I'm not going to do it. I'm going to continue to doing my show because I don't represent this bank when I do it. And so what else you got for me? Because you guys are out of bounds right now. And then they asked me to just, they scaled it down a little bit because I asked them to rewind the tape that they were recording.

And they didn't want to do that because they knew what they asked me to do. But they did ask me to take all references to this particular bank off of my social media feeds, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all that. And I gladly did that because I was not really proud at that point working for this institution that I used to be so proud of. And so immediately I went to HR and I had asked them to make sure to give me some sort of assurance that there are no ticklers on my file. Hey, watch out for this guy, anything like that. I did nothing wrong. I did not hear from HR. They never got back with me. I mean, to this day, never ever did they ever get back with me or try to support me in any way. And it is a testament to large institutions. If you think that the HR department, are necessarily for the employee, you're wrong. I mean, they are protecting the institution.

And so at that point, I knew that I was in trouble as a Christian in this lion's den, if you call it, if you want to call it that. What sort of values did you see that led, that kind of tipped you off to say that this is a lion's den for Christians like yourself? What specifically were they referring to in my show? Is that what you're saying? Yeah, and you described to me previously how this particular institution seemed to promote LGBT issues, a lot of rainbow sort of in signage. Yeah, so although people can do what they want, right?

As a Christian, I don't hate anybody. If you make a decision to live a certain way, that's really between you and the Lord. And so Christians are, we are, we're bound by love. I mean, the Christ in us compels us to love other people. And so my discussion, that particular show was around drag queens reading stories to kids in public libraries and setting up drag queen's story hour. And I mean, I don't know. To me, it doesn't really matter who you are and what you believe. It just isn't proper for anyone to read sex stories or kids.

cartoons that are sex always masked in cartoons or anything like that to little kids. I mean, that's between parents and their kids. And that's really the gist of what we said on the show. It's like, look, this is what God's word says about sexual immorality. And this is how we feel. And even if you weren't a Christian, you probably don't want, probably not a good idea to have someone else feeding into the mind of a young child. And that's what was going on. So we commented on that during the show. And that was what that particular show is what sparked this, this whole thing. And then I believe you later talked, your supervisor called you in for a meeting that really revealed more things. How much of that can you share? Well, so my review was about six or seven months,

my performance review was about six or seven months after this HR meeting. And I asked her after my review, which was really well, really good from a performance standpoint, what I could do to continue to advance my career at this institution. And a lot of companies have affinity networks within their organization. So there may be a disability affinity group. There's military. There's Hispanic. There's all kinds, right? There's LGBTQ and all these things, right? And I was a part of None of them. I, because I didn't, I wasn't in the military. I'm not disabled. I'm not, I don't have a group. You're not Hispanic? What? I'm not Hispanic. There's no Italian groups. Come on. What's going on? So, so I never joined a group and didn't really think to. But at the end of my review, after asking the

question, is there any way or any, is there any way? What can I do to continue to advance my career at this bank? My manager informed me that if I joined the ally network, I could learn more about people that are not like me. And what she was referring to, the ally network is just like allies. It's LGBTQ. And so the suggestion was that I expand my horizons, right? Learn more about people that are not like me. And I know what people are that are not like me, and not necessarily just this particular community, but any center, because the Bible spells that out for us. As Christians were set apart to live Christian lifestyle, We fight the flesh all the time, but it's God, it's a spirit inside of us that helps us understand what other people are like, right? And we're totally capable, even as Christians, of committing vile acts and vile sins.

And so, praise God, we have the Holy Spirit that guides and directs us and keeps us from making those decisions. Now, does that mean every Christian's perfect? No. And every Christian makes mistakes. As I do, I have my own faults, right? And so at that point, I had, I pretty much knew that this was not, this was going in the wrong direction. So I challenged my manager about three, three weeks later, three or four weeks later. And I asked for a one-on-one with her. And I basically told her that I felt like that the organization did not have a place for Christians in their D&I program.

And I felt like the place was toxic. And I asked her to never speak to me in that tone or a manner again. because I should be treated fairly just like everyone else. And as Christians, the Bible even tells us if they hated, Jesus said, if they hated me, they're going to hate you, right? So it's expected, right? And that's what I mean by the Lions Den. You just got to know it's coming, right?

And when it comes, you've got to balance the serving, being in the Lions Den and serving in an organization that's paying you, right? They're paying you good money to do a job and you want to do that well. And that was my way of showing that Christ lives in me, that I could, no matter what we could disagree, but I could still work hard for you and work hard for the customer. And so as it turns out about 30 days after that conversation, I got a knock on the door. And basically, they told me my role was eliminated. And it was kind of funny because, I mean, I just took on more responsibility. It was in charge of the entire, the entire firm, all their ATM strategy. I mean, I was in charge

of the operational risk for all their ATMs and about half of their digital platform. So I don't know how that role gets eliminated. So they basically gave me three weeks to find a new job. I had been looking around talking to people, but I knew within about 48 hours that I was blackballed because people, people I know that normally talk to me wouldn't talk to me. So I had a feeling and I knew something was going on. So I just started gathering as much evidence that I could with the means that I had to find Now, my being, what's going on here?

And so I did find an email that stated that they haven't found a replacement for me yet. Now, I thought there was interesting because if they were limited in my role, why are they trying to replace me? And so that ultimately led me, that was solid evidence that I'd been discriminated against. And it all stemmed from standing firm on God's word in my own space, in my own time, in my own hobby podcast. and whether you are posting something on social media or whatever, it's kind of interesting. We have to be careful because what we post is, you know, and what we say online can be used against you.

And I'm not saying don't say things as a Christian. We have to stand firm. But that one got me. And sovereignly, I was wondering, like, I was wondering, what's God got, what's he in heaven's store for me in all this? Because this was all crazy to me. And as it turns out, through this, I was basically going back and forth with my good friends, Jason and David Benham, as they were guiding me through this as brothers in Christ. And they said, man, you're in the Lionsden. They always told me I was in the Lionsden, but now it's like really like the lines are loose and they're attacking you. And so in that, the Jason and David Benham introduced me to Nick Boychich and Betsy Gray, who had this idea of starting a Christian bank. And I mean, if you were to say to me, what's the perfect scenario for you? It would be like, hey, I'd let the work for a Christian bank.

It has the same values that I do and all this other stuff. And there it is. But the timing was wrong. When I met him, it was like, hey, we're not there yet, but it's on a napkin and we're thinking about doing this. And we'd like you to run our bank or our fintech if you're still around. So I went to work for another financial institution. And I got the call earlier this year in February that they're getting very close. So that's like three or three and a half years removed from this fiasco. And then here we are today. In July, I accepted the role as CEO of Prolifintech. And it's been going well. We just launched November the 30th. And we're already taken on customers and we're seeing good traction with actually at this point very little marketing.

Nick's going to get the word out and start next year. It really sort of presses his social media. But right now we're just blocking and tackling with consumer accounts, deposit accounts. So checking, savings and money market accounts. And we're going to mature our product offering next year and get into consumer customers and all that. So it's very exciting. It's a dream that, you know, that God's sovereignly did this, right? I mean, I look back four and a half years ago, it was like four and a half years ago in total when I was in that boardroom.

And I would tell a Christian, like, if you're in this fight, like you're in the moment of the fight and you're like, why me, why me? I would say, why not me? ask God what he's what is he going to show me in this how can you show me who you are in all this and how faithful you are and you might be in a moment i didn't know i didn't know what god was doing and when i lost my job i was like man this is nuts i when it has almost seemed unfair right but then that put the focus on me and thank goodness for the benham brothers when you have brothers and sisters in christ to keep you kind of those guys were like i said they let me go they said good and it's

I have a family. What are you talking about? They're like, good. And then another thing they did for me, I love these guys. Jason and David are the best. I started sharing about all these things. I've been in all aspects of finance, but, you know, this is my first role as CEO. And I was sort of doubting myself when I was talking to these guys, Jason and David. And they say, shut up, Moses. Shut up, Moses. They kept telling me to shut up, because I'm doubting what God had put before me. So I lean back, a trust on the Lord, work hard. and I'm thankful for a great board and a great opportunity. And we're moving forward.

This is happening. It's actually, the plane is lifted. And so it's very exciting. So is there any more you can say about resolving that issue? You talk about being in the lion's den. It almost sounds to me like this is a Joseph story. Like they ripped your shirt off and said that you were doing something you shouldn't have. And then you ultimately were vindicated.

or at least you were able to move on to a better position. Yeah, so I reported this incident to our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom, and they connected me with an attorney in North Carolina, a Christian attorney in North Carolina, and we were down the track of kind of going down, going to federal court. I mean, it was that way, and we had, I felt like we had sufficient evidence to really take it really far. But just after praying about it and listening to Wise Counsel on this, and considering my family and just the time that we were in, I basically just asked for a runway to help me transition to another role.

I didn't hit him hard and didn't punch him in the gut and go out for the knockout punch because for me it wasn't about money. I just wanted to share my story. In fact, doing this today was something they wanted to take off the table at all. I couldn't even share a version of it. And so I said, well, I tried to gag you. Yeah, completely 100%. You can't even mention that you even had the experience in any way.

They wanted to silence my parents and all my friends and my family and whatever. And we came back with like, look, I don't control the mouths of all these people. So I'm sorry, but we got to go back to the, go back to the drawing board on that because no. Well, and then I couldn't share my story. And I'm like, look, it's my testimony. You can't take my testimony. And I got to the point where I was like, the more that they kept trying to take and negotiate with me, the more I was like, let's just go all the way to federal court.

But they ultimately gave me a version of my story. I understand they wanted to kind of, I'm not able to tell you who the bank is and all that stuff. But I think in general, you got to know, and I just know from being in the industry, all these major banks, they don't love the Lord. They just don't. And that's the affinity play at Pro Life Intech. We love the Lord. We love life from cradle to grave.

And we'll honor, we're going to honor. we're going to honor God by serving our customers and treating them like God would want them to be treated fairly, give them good rates of return, take care of them, just like, just really just shepherd those people. And so we're going to provide the same blocking and tackle that every other bank would do. But the difference is we're fintech. We're not a bank. We've got to be sure about that. We cannot say we're a bank. It's just general rules, right? Oh, yeah. But no, Bob's representation. But I will say, this, the affinity piece is where, you know, where people will run to us, right?

If they love life and they love pro-life, they love everything about God's, God giving us life in all aspects, they'll run the pro-life fintech because we're going to support that. We're going to, we're going to give back to that. We're in the future. Financially, once we get our legs underneath this, financially, we're going to support those efforts. So it's an exciting time. And I can't even believe this has even happened.

but as God would have it, here I am. I'm just going to do the best job that I can and serve the Lord Rot Ram at. Are there any particular pregnancy centers or organizations that Pro-Life and Tech is already supporting or partnering with? Not at the moment. We haven't like, we're not calling any specific organization out,

but I can certainly tell you this. We won't be giving anybody to plan parenthood. So you part already. So, yeah, we have not. And we've made a commitment to do that. But I don't know if even we're going to get in the business of announcing that that step piece of it, our board of directors is still discussing. But we have made a commitment to do it and we will.

Well, how do you feel at this moment? I feel like there are a lot of positive signs in our culture, but we also just saw with the overturning of Roe, we saw these pregnancy centers attacked across the country. We saw the DOJ sitting on their butt, actually going after some of the pro-life protesters in abortion clinics instead of finding the people who've been vandalizing and in some cases firebombing pro-life centers.

And then you have your own testimony. Where do you feel the country is spiritually? Well, I think the country needs the Lord. We need revival. That's number one. And it only comes through Christ. It doesn't come. through a new president, even though that stuff helps. And I think God uses an imperfect man like Trump

to do his perfect will, right? I don't understand people who just hate a certain person because of personality or whatever, because I don't, last I checked, there was never a perfect man other than Jesus Christ that walk this earth. And so, although Trump is not perfect, I think he's very likely, in my opinion, the perfect, imperfect guy for the right time. And we'll see what he can do. But ultimately, as far as America's concerned, I just hope and pray that we're not like Israel used to be looking for a king, right? And we're just looking for a king and we're not focusing on the real king, Jesus Christ. So I think we need revival. We're getting there where the tide's turning a little bit.

But I think we all need to look in the mirror and stare at ourselves and test our own faiths and run to Christ because that's the only solution. Christ is the only solution to our problems. Everything negative that happens is a result of sin. And we can't deal with sin if we can't look in the mirror. And that's mankind's biggest problem is pride without being able to look in the mirror and admit that I'm a failure in many regards morally and I'm morally bankrupt and I need Jesus. You can't, you can't appreciate them. I was recently diagnosed with bladder cancer actually. And I'm over.

And I'm good now, but I found as God. And I caught it early. And I've been a perfect bill of health my entire life. But the only reason I say this is because I'm going to have a parallel Christ is that the when I found out when the doctor came in and looked at me and gave me that look like in me and my wife were there. And it was that look like, yeah, it's this, we got to do something to go get it. I wanted surgery that day.

I mean, I didn't get it now, right? And he said it's going to be a week and a half until you get this tumor removed, a very small tumor. And it was totally, we caught it early. So let's go get it. It was a week and a half. I didn't want to wait a week ago. I didn't want to wait a week.

Yeah. Well, you want to keep it from spreading, right, as fast as possible. Exactly. So spiritually, I think if people knew that they had a problem, if they really knew that it was actually like an issue, they would run to Christ out. They wouldn't wait a week and a half to go get Christ. They'd be like, well, where do I get to Jesus now?

That's the point where we need to get to. That's the place where America needs to get to individually. Nobody pointing fingers at anybody else, but looking at themselves and knowing that Christ is the only way and the only solution to mankind's biggest problem is pride and sin. Well, Russ, thank you so much for joining us. I didn't know that you were also a cancer survivor as well as everything. I mean, your story is just so powerful.

Is there anything else you'd like to add? You just, you know, praise the Lord. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 8, I believe, tells us that we're pressed on all sides, but we're not crushed. And so with Jesus Christ, if you're out there and you're struggling and everyone has their struggles, just know that if Christ is in you, you will not be crushed. God will guide you and protect you through the challenges. And although they might seem overbearing at the moment, you'll find out later at some point.

And you'll go, ah, that's why God did that. And those are the most awesome moments when you go, I know why God did that and I'm better for it. So I just pray for revival. And I thank you for the time today. And anybody who's interested, I mean, prolifefinTech.com is our website and it's up and running. And it's such an exciting time. And we're seeing new accounts open. And we haven't even started advertising or doing any marketing at all. So people are excited about it. And I'm glad to be a part of it and honored. So would you say that getting fired essentially for your faith has ended up ultimately being a blessing in disguise, kind of like the Joseph's story? No doubt. Absolutely. There's,

it's, I mean, all you go do is rewind the tape four years, four and a half years, and you go, why, and then you go, here's why. I mean, and God, there's no sense thing as an accident. I mean, I've been friends with the Benams for a while. They happened to run into somebody, Nick, they knew Nick, who wanted to start a bank and Christian Bank and, oh, good luck, and, oh, that was just luck. No, it wasn't luck. It was God sovereignly putting people in the right places at the right time. And fortunately, it got it, it's God of it have it. So when I saw this as an opportunity, I left the bank that I was with prior to this, right? I walked away from it. And I had vesting in some other things that I walked away from. And I had some people at that

particular bank telling me that I was crazy to do this because the pro-life thing and you're walking into a startup. Oh my gosh, what are you thinking? You're committing corporate suicide. And I remember saying that one of my colleagues said like, well, I don't care about corporate America, I would not, then let it be me dying to myself, right? I'll die to my corporate, my corporate life, right, and all the comforts that go along with it. And I'll take a chance. I feel like if I didn't do this, that I would be doubting God. And this opportunity was just a step in faith for me. So I'll step faithfully. And I think we should all do that. If God's prompting you to share the gospel, maybe even that's something that could be simple as that.

stretch yourself. Go out there and go out there and do it. God does a saving. We don't save anybody. So when you're out sharing the gospel, you don't have to be gifted with the gift of evangelism or be a smooth talker. Go out there and just love on people and share Jesus because that's the way the ground forces, that's the way the Acts Church worked, right? We would go out and share the gospel. It wasn't about programs at church and we'll just teach people at church. No, it's every day, wherever you're at, that's where your mission field is, whether it's at, work, whether it's with your kids, your grandkids, whomever. Share Christ, and share Christ Christ often with actions and also words, because it's important to share with words as well. That's what I would leave everybody with, because that's what this country needs and this world

needs is Jesus. And no one's going to find out unless we tell them. Well, thank you again so much, Russ, for taking time out of your extremely busy schedule. We've been going back and forth, but I'm so glad we could finally make this work. Absolutely. We are going to leave it there today. Don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss out on shows from The Daily Signal. Every weekday catch top news in 10 right here in this podcast feed.

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