Tuesday, December 4, 2012

A Letter from Hobby Lobby Stores CEO


A Letter from Hobby Lobby Stores CEO
By David Green, the founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

When my family and I started our company 40 years ago, we were working out of a garage on a $600 bank loan, assembling miniature picture frames. Our first retail store wasn't much bigger than most people's living rooms, but we had faith that we would succeed if we lived and worked according to God's word. From there,Hobby Lobby has become one of the nation's largest arts and crafts retailers, with more than 500 locations in 41 states. Our children grew up into fine business leaders, and today we run Hobby Lobby together, as a family.

We're Christians, and we run our business on Christian principles. I've always said that the first two goals of our business are (1) to run our business in harmony with God's laws, and (2) to focus on people more than money. And that's what we've tried to do. We close early so our employees can see their families at night. We keep our stores closed on Sundays, one of the week's biggest shopping days, so that our workers and their families can enjoy a day of rest. We believe that it is by God's grace that Hobby Lobby has endured, and he has blessed us and our employees. We've not only added jobs in a weak economy, we've raised wages for the past four years in a row. Our full-time employees start at 80% above minimum wage.

But now, our government threatens to change all of that. A new government health care mandate says that our family business MUST provide what I believe are abortion-causing drugs as part of our health insurance. Being Christians, we don't pay for drugs that might cause abortions, which means that we don't cover emergency contraception, the morning-after pill or the week-after pill. We believe doing so might end a life after the moment of conception, something that is contrary to our most important beliefs. It goes against the Biblical principles on which we have run this company since day one. If we refuse to comply, we could face $1.3 million PER DAY in government fines.

Our government threatens to fine job creators in a bad economy. Our government threatens to fine a company that's raised wages four years running. Our government threatens to fine a family for running its business according to its beliefs. It's not right. I know people will say we ought to follow the rules; that it's the same for everybody. But that's not true. The government has exempted thousands of companies from this mandate, for reasons of convenience or cost. But it won't exempt them for reasons of religious belief.

So, Hobby Lobby
 and my family are forced to make a choice. With great reluctance, we filed a lawsuit today, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, asking a federal court to stop this mandate before it hurts our business. We don't like to go running into court, but we no longer have a choice. We believe people are more important than the bottom line and that honoring God is more important than turning a profit.

My family has lived the American dream. We want to continue growing our company and providing great jobs for thousands of employees, but the government is going to make that much more difficult. The government is forcing us to choose between following our faith and following the law. I say that's a choice no American and no American business  should have to make.
The government cannot force you to follow laws that go against your fundamental religious belief. They have exempted thousands of companies but will not except Christian organizations including the Catholic church.

Since you will not see this covered in any of the liberal media, pass this on to all your contacts.
Sincerely,
David Green, CEO and Founder of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rock on David! Your faith brought you this far, the government can't take that from you. They can try but God works in mysterious ways, so have strength in knowing your law suite maybe one of those ways. I have love and respect for your family and company. Stay strong in your faith.

Anonymous said...

What a Pickle David Green.
You have beliefs and the people you hire have beliefs.
To open a business you have to agree to not discriminate against anyone based on A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and other.
I guess this falls under Other.

Freedom of religion may say to you, don't pay for these things, don't support these things.

Freedom of religion for someone else says, I am judged by my Creator for the things I do in my Life, but I have a right to make the decisions that cause me great judgment in this life and the after life. To have that right stopped by someone who is a peer, is to have them as my God, and even their belief is there can be no other God before their God, so how can they be a God to me (kind of people).

Suing will not give you the right to 'stop someone from living their life according to their will' when you are engaged in a business that cannot discriminate against people for what they choose to do in their life.

I like soda.
I sometimes wonder if someone could say it's against their religion to pay money that could be used to purchase soda because it's not water and not as good for the body as water, and they believe the body is a temple and only things for life should be placed in the body.

If they wanted to go to court to sue to not pay money for things that go into the body that they don't agree with, it would be interesting to say the least, if that level of discrimination would be allowed.

Going in, coming out.

The suit to control either, without giving precedence to one over the other, is a judgement that the Creator of all can make without creating a man to tell the rest of the Creations what they can and cannot do to avoid judgment.

That's my two cents, and I'm communicating from a level of 'All Rights Reserved' and all men are endowed with their own Creator.

All men have a right to suffer the judgement of their Creator for the life decisions made.

Considering that creation is not all one side, there there is a wholeness to it, these choices (for or against) would not be here if they weren't part of Creation.

Death is not eternal.
If a soul is prevented from arriving via incarnation in one woman's body, it will arrive here via incarnation in another.

Who knows, what that woman's judgment will be.
Not for us to decide.

Anonymous said...

Tell them you have converted to Islam and they will exempt you.(just kidding but true) STAND UP AND YOU WILL WIN. PRAISE GOD SOMEONE AS FAR AS BIG BUSINESS IS DOING THE RIGHT THING!

I WILL PASS THIS ON. GOD SPEED.

Anonymous said...

"following our faith and following the law"

He should have said "following our faith and following THEIR law"

This law is NOT a law of, for, and by the people. A select people voted for this law
and most didn't even read it. Many signed it only because they were promised gifts.