Hobby Lobby Case:
Does God Hate Obamacare?
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The Green family prayed on the morning of March 25, as they do every morning. Then they entered the Supreme Court through a side door and took seats in the second row of the public section to hear arguments in Case No. 13-354: Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores. Barbara and David Green, along with their three children, own Hobby Lobby, a national chain of 609 craft stores. Actually, the Greens believe that God owns Hobby Lobby. They are evangelical Christians who say they run their $3.3 billion company based on the teachings of the Bible. Their mission is to honor God with their work.
For the past year and a half, Hobby Lobby has sought a religious exemption from the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that employers providing health insurance cover all 20 federally approved methods of birth control. The company’s plan provides some birth control; the Greens object to Hobby Lobby having to cover four kinds they say are tantamount to abortion. The family and its supporters hope the Supreme Court will rule that for-profit corporations have the same religious rights as individuals or actual churches. Such a decision could potentially give companies sweeping powers to opt out of laws they find immoral, perhaps those concerning discrimination, the minimum wage, family leave, maybe even taxation.
The Greens may not have such ambitions. “We want to continue to live out our faith in the way we do business,” Barbara said to reporters on the marble plaza of the Supreme Court after the 90-minute hearing concluded. “We believe no American should lose their religious freedom just because they open a family business.” Green, surrounded by other female members of the family, took no questions. It was snowing heavily, but hundreds of demonstrators remained on the sidewalk. They held posters: “Stand Up for Religious Freedom” and “#TeamLife” on one side, and on the other “No Bosses in My Bedroom” and “This Is Not a Healthcare Plan” written above a picture of the Bible. Men knelt in prayer. A woman was dressed as a pack of birth control pills. Someone played a bagpipe. Members of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, whose lawyers had recruited the Greens to take a legal stand, posed for photos. They had brought the case of the year.
Hobby Lobby, started in Oklahoma City and very much a product of the suburban Sunbelt, is one of many companies run by religious families who believe their faith has to inform their economic life and vice versa. Chick-fil-A used to be the best known among them. “They think making a buck is a religious mission,” says Darren Grem, a historian at the University of Mississippi who researches businesses in born-again America. “This isn’t backwoods evangelicalism, it’s business-class evangelicalism.”
Hobby Lobby, started in Oklahoma City and very much a product of the suburban Sunbelt, is one of many companies run by religious families who believe their faith has to inform their economic life and vice versa. Chick-fil-A used to be the best known among them. “They think making a buck is a religious mission,” says Darren Grem, a historian at the University of Mississippi who researches businesses in born-again America. “This isn’t backwoods evangelicalism, it’s business-class evangelicalism.”
David Green is worth $3.6 billion, according to Bloomberg data. The family spends more than one-third of the company’s annual profits on evangelical causes. Most publicly, they bailed out the indebted and scandal-plagued Oral Roberts University in 2007. There is a business advantage to their giving at tax time. “It’s just a way to expand on what we do in ministry without costing us a lot of money,” Green toldCharisma, a Pentecostal magazine, in 2005. “I could live the way I do with 10 stores. So why do we want 500 stores? So we can tell more people about Christ.”
Hobby Lobby plans to open dozens more stores this year. It will soon have at least one store in 47 of the lower 48 states. All five of the Greens have signed a covenant declaring their religious faith and committing to run the business accordingly. The company is set up so that no one in the family will profit from its sale; 90 percent of the proceeds would be set aside for their favored ministries. David Green says he had a revelation while praying in his backyard. As he explained it in 2012 to the High Calling website, he put up a note afterward at the headquarters for everyone to see: “Hobby Lobby belongs to me—God.”
The company’s stores average 55,000 square feet and carry almost 70,000 items, including frames, silk flowers, potted plants, posters, wicker baskets, ribbon, cloth, yarn, birdhouses, wind chimes, stationery, soap-making kits, candle-making kits, wreath-making kits, crosses of every size, prints of the Last Supper, and “Open Your Door to Jesus” cards that hang on doorknobs. A decorative wooden sign that says “I Can Do All Things Through Christ” might be near one that says “Life is better by the pool.” There are shelves for “men’s metal and wood décor” and others for antler décor. The music in the stores is a custom-made instrumental mix of Christian songs.
With Greg Stohr
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