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.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment