15 Aug 2005 07:55 pm
Chase Bank chooses gay films over church clients
Taking a cue from other nationally recognized homosexual themed film festibals, a gay group intends to bring a similar event to Baton Rouge Louisianna. “The Q Film Fest” will show seven films at the Manship Theater including “Adam and Steve,” “Sexy,” “The Ski Trip,” “Stonewall,” “Paragraph 175,” “Masha Mom,” and “The Rape of Ganymede.”
The Advocate newspaper interviewed the coordinators who acknowledged the controversial nature of the event. (See: Baton Rouge hosts gay, lesbian film festival.) An opinion poll conducted by the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report indicated that over 1/3 of the city would be offended by the homosexual happening. Sponsors, including Chase Bank, provided funding for the film festival at the risk of alienating one out of three people living in the capitol city.
Tony Davis, pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church in Greenwell Springs, demonstrated the churches disapproval by closing their Chase Bank account. He sent me a preview of the letter he plans to send to the local newspaper. It reads:
Desiring to do God’s will, and remain obedient to the Scripture, our church has decided to close our account with Chase Bank. This decision was made after we became aware that Chase used profits made through the bank to support a gay, lesbian film festival held here in Baton Rouge at the Manship Theater. We realize that Chase Bank is actively involved in community efforts and for that we are grateful. However, we cannot turn our heads and ignore that the bank is supporting an agenda the Bible clearly condemns.
It’s one thing not to discriminate against homosexuals. We don’t do that, and we wouldn’t ask our bank to do so. But we feel that Chase Bank crossed the line of propriety when they chose to promote the homosexual agenda with profits earned from account holders like Fellowship Baptist Church. We therefore have chosen to take our banking business elsewhere.
Scripture teaches us to love all people, homosexuals included, and we will hold true to that teaching of Scripture. But we must also side with the Bible in its condemnation of the homosexual lifestyle. We cannot, and indeed must not support a corporation that supports the gay, lesbian agenda. While that may not be popular in secular society, we must remain firm in our commitment to God’s Word. With Jesus Christ as our Lord and Supreme Authority, we can do no other.
Respectfully Submitted,
Tony D. Davis
Pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church
14512 Greenwell Springs Rd.
Greenwell Springs, LA
August 16th, 2005 at 10:32 am
That’s a great letter.
August 28th, 2005 at 9:32 pm
I admire your stand. We need more people who are willing to stand for God and what is right according to the bible.
God Bless
September 1st, 2005 at 12:29 am
That’s a very nice letter, and tactfully worded, too. Now, how many of the members cancelled their accounts with Chase, also, and sent the same letter? Chase knows that most Christians will not put their money where there mouth is. They may not like what Chase does, but the trouble of changing banks is too much for them to actually do anything about it.
But, in terms of putting your money where your mouth is: How welcome are homosexuals into that congregation? If some guy walked into the church wearing a purple T-shirt with pink triangles on it, tight-fitting jeans, and walking like a girl, would he be greeted with disdain and contempt, love and respect, anger and vilificiation, or would he be ignored?
September 7th, 2005 at 4:09 pm
Roger-
It is a nice letter and tactfully worded, but I would also assume that Fellowship is also able to put their money where their mouth is, if the church felt strongly enough to move their account elsewhere, and then to mention it on another’s website.
As a Christian, you should know that there are none who come in their own righteousness to Jesus Christ - all are guilty. The sexual lust of a homosexual is no different than the sexual lusts that you or I fight against every day, and foolish is the person who would deny that fact.
September 13th, 2005 at 4:10 pm
You are right Jay C. Sin is sin.
October 12th, 2005 at 11:19 am
Roger,
I have just now visited the website since the original post was made. I do not know for sure how many people from our church closed their account with Chasase, but I do know that it was a significant number; some with significant bank accounts. Rather than take their own letter though, I think most just took a copy of the newspaper or the letter that I typed up. I only had one negative response from the people within my church and only positive (and there were many) responses from people within the community. But, you are right when you say: “Chase knows that ‘most’ Christians will not put their money where there mouth is. They may not like what Chase does, but the trouble of changing banks is too much for them to actually do anything about it.”
I would not have agreed with that before and it really saddens me to do so now, but it seems true. There are literally thousands of Southern Baptist members within the Greater Metropolitan area of Baton Rouge and in the surrounding region, yet, as a large corporate body (associational that is), we chose to sit back and do nothing. I know of only a couple other churches that had anything to say about the issue. The result; the gay fest was a success. The event this year was to simply “test the water.”
How welcome are homosexuals into our congregation? Well, there are couples (plural) who have homosexual children that are members of our church. The parents do not feel uncomfortable here (they are very much involved) and I have not seen their children mistreated. I have actually spent time with them and have not treated them as second class citizens. We do not, however, affirm their homosexual lifestyle in any way.
After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, we set up a shelter in our church—as did many other churches in the area. We did not discriminate against anyone who came in. I am of the opinion that at least one person that came here was homosexual, but this is the first time that I have mentioned that and no one (church members) asked me about it. This person did attend church services and I didn’t rail at him from the pulpit. We treated that person the same as all the rest. We worked hard to make sure everyone was cared for and relocated.
Jay C. wrote: “The sexual lust of a homosexual is no different than the sexual lusts that you or I fight against every day, and foolish is the person who would deny that fact.” You are right: sin is sin—I think that is what you mean. But, the reason the sin of homosexuality is so vile is because most homosexuals will not admit they have a sin problem. I could also point out that the sin of homosexuality is a perverted action of the heart, mind and body rebelling against God’s created design of marriage (one man and one woman) revealing the depth of depravity humanity is capable of when given over to degrading passions. Is homosexuality different than other sins? No, homosexuality is not in the sense that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But, it is different in its agenda and homosexuals do have an agenda forcing themselves and their lifestyle into the mainstream society as an accepted God designed practice. That cannot be accepted by Christian people.
Is this the only sin we preach against? No, this is just the one that has been publicized. We preach against sin (all sin), we love the sinner, and point all people to Christ who can and does forgive sin and changes a sinner into a saint.
August 22nd, 2006 at 10:05 pm
Divorce, adultery, and fornication are also STRICTLY prohibited by the Bible and Ten Commandents. They are just as serious sins, according to Sacred Scripture, as homosexuality. If you have ever had premarital sex, extramarital sex, or divorced, yTreating these sins as lesser sins than homosexuality is hypocrisy and means that you do not understand Christian theology. If you are going to withdraw from Chase for supporting this film festival, then you need to ensure that you are not supporting these aforementioned sins in any shape, form, or fashion. God is the judge, not you or any other human being. JUDGE NOT LESS YE BE JUDGED!
November 21st, 2006 at 9:01 pm
You’re all a bunch of loons. Proclaim your righteousness all you want, you’ll burn in hell for spurning those you JUDGE to be sinners. Judgment is not your prerogative. Your interpretation of scripture becomes a judgment of others, thus ye take on the mantle of the Lord, yet ye are not the Lord. Feel shame, and soon feel the fires of hell.
December 3rd, 2006 at 1:22 pm
I’m closing my Chase credit card account and bank checking account. They increased my APR from a low rate to almost 30% on their takeover of BankOne, and were unreasonable in a few cases regarding my late fee - I wasn’t able to pay my monthly minimum in time, and ended up getting a fine, though I paid a few hours after the deadline. Well, they are going strictly by the book, let me go strictly by my book too! Other banks where I had the same problem were more considerate and gave me a few days grace period.
In any case, had I known that Chase were active in the gay/lesbian agenda, I would have closed my account long ago!
January 24th, 2007 at 1:31 pm
I did a Chase Bank search on Google so that could find a bank because I just relocated back home to Louisiana and the “Chase Bank Chooses Gay Film over Church” article sprang up.
One can be gay and a Christian, regardless of what you people say, so, in your attempt to spread hatred, you’ve helped me decide on which bank to bank with. I’m an attorney, a Christian and a homosexual….I’m also grateful for your help. So thanks!
March 9th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
Pastor Tony, You know that your heart is right–it’s obvious–and you are simply doing something about what you’ve seen, rather than just saying tsk, tsk, like most of us. I totally agree with you about not discriminating but neither intentionally supporting and promoting… Sounds like you are a good example of one who is fighting “the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience”, being an example in truth and love.
Another one who is grateful to be loved and accepted by our Maker,
Marcia
Lyons, Illinois
August 8th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Kevin above has it exactly right. I would bet that all of you do business every day with companies that have contributed money to the Republican Party and/or President Bush. Bush’s policy of pre-emptive war in Iraq strikes me as the most un-Christian policy imaginable. In fact, many of you voted for Bush. Come to think of it, most of the prominent Democrats supported the war too, at least at first. And waging an unecessary war is obviously a much more serious sin than homosexuality. Innocent people get killed in a war. Lots of them.
You see where I’m going with this. If you try to avoid people or businesses that may be involved in un-Christian activity, you may as well never leave the house. My advice would be to live your life and worry about your own soul.
P.S. The headline to this article (all the way at the top) is dishonest and inflammatory. It would likely be more accurate to say that Chase doesn’t let random account holders micromanage the bank’s community activities.