FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—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.”
He recalls getting called in to human resources, where staff pressed him about a podcast episode he had recorded with his wife.
“They just pressed me and made me make the statement,” he says. “‘So, tell us about your podcast, Russ.’ And so, I did that.”
In the podcast, titled “The Winding Road Home,” Salerno and his wife discuss news of the day through a biblical lens.
“They let me know that the views expressed on my show do not line up with the core values of this particular bank,” he recalls.
“They asked me to basically shut my show down,” he adds. “At that point, I stood up and told them they’re infringing on my constitutional right of free speech.”
“So, what’s wrong about my show? As it turns out, there’s a particular moral value that God puts out there in the Ten Commandments,” Salerno explains. The particular show that got him in trouble involved “drag queens reading stories to kids in public libraries and setting up ‘Drag Queen Story Hour.'”
“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 cartoons that are sex stories masked in cartoons to little kids,” he says. “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.'”
About six or seven months after this meeting, Salerno had a performance review with his boss, he recalls. The review went well from a performance standpoint, and he asked “what I could do to advance my career at this institution.”
This particular bank had affinity groups: one for military veterans, another for the disabled, another for Hispanics, and one for those who identify as LGBTQ. He wasn’t in any of them because in his words, “I don’t have a group.”
“My manager informed me that if I joined the Ally Network, I could learn about more people who are not like me,” Salerno recalls. The Ally Network referred to a group of people who describe themselves as “allies” of the LGBTQ movement.
“And so, the suggestion was that I expand my horizons, right?” he says.
Salerno went back and challenged his manager. “I basically told her that I felt like the organization did not have a place for Christians in their [diversity] program,” he recalls. “I felt like the place was toxic and I asked her never to speak to me in that tone or manner again because I should be treated fairly, just like everyone else.”
“As Christians, the Bible even tells us … Jesus said, ‘If they hated me, they’re going to hate you,’ right?” Salerno explains. He describes working at that bank as being “in the lion’s den,” a reference to the prophet Daniel who survived a night in a den with lions after he refused to worship the Persian emperor.
“About 30 days after that conversation, I got a knock on the door and basically they told me my role was eliminated,” he recalls. The situation was ironic because he had just taken on more responsibility—as the company’s head of ATM strategy.
“They basically gave me three weeks to find a new job,” Salerno recalls. “I knew within about 48 hours that I was blackballed because people I know that would normally talk to me wouldn’t talk to me.”
Then, he found an email stating that the bank hadn’t found “a replacement” for him.
“And I thought that was interesting because if they eliminated my role, why are they trying to replace replace me?” he asks.
Salerno found more evidence that the bank had discriminated against him, and he brought a legal case, after the Christian law firm Alliance Defending Freedom connected him with an attorney. The bank ultimately settled, and as part of the settlement, Salerno agreed not to disclose the identity of the bank. His former employer tried to silence him on the issue entirely, but he refused to sign what amounted to a gag order.
“You can’t take my testimony,” he says.
In the midst of his ordeal, however, he met his future business partners.
Salerno had been friends with David and Jason Benham, identical twin Christian speakers and writers known as the “Benham brothers.” They introduced him to Nick Vujicic, a Christian evangelist who has neither arms nor legs, and Betsy Gray, who both wanted to start a pro-life banking company. Vujicic lost his bank account in 2019.
“It’s a dream that God sovereignly did this,” he says. He encourages Christians to trust God and remain faithful when they face trials like this.
“You got to know, and I just know from being in the industry, all these major banks, they don’t love the Lord,” Salerno warns. “That’s the affinity play at ProLifeFinTech. We love the Lord. We love life from cradle to grave, and we’re going to honor God by serving our customers and treating them like God would want them to be treated: fairly, give give them good rates of return.”
Contrary to popular belief, Christian disagreement with the LGBTQ movement isn’t rooted in judgement or self-righteousness, Salerno says.
“As a Christian, I don’t hate anybody,” he explains. “The Christ in us compels us to love other people.”
Yet he insists that “the Bible talks explicitly about staying away from fleshly desires and sexual behavior. God designed us as man and woman, two genders. He wants us to procreate, but do it in the right way.”
“As Christians, we’re set apart to live a Christian lifestyle,” Salerno notes. “We’re totally capable, even as Christians, of committing vile acts and vile sins. So, praise God we have the Holy Spirit that guides and directs us.”
Listen to the full interview below.
