Here's 5 good reasons not to shop at Salem's Hobby Lobby

Even if you love Hobby Lobby for its craft supplies, here's some very good reasons not to shop at the Hobby Lobby store that just opened in the Willamette Town Center mall (which used to be called Lancaster Mall). 

The biggest reason was given in a Slate podcast interview with Candida Moss, a Professor of Theology who wrote a book about the company's efforts to Christianize this country, "Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby." 

After hearing Moss talk about some Hobby Lobby horror stories that I'll summarize below, at about the 21:14 mark Mike Pesca, the interviewer, says that the engine of all that Hobby Lobby sets out to do is their stores.

So, he said, "When you shop there, you're giving directly to their efforts." Moss agreed, saying that the company's evangelical owners are the religious equivalent of the Koch brothers. 

Here's what Hobby Lobby shoppers are supporting. 

(1) Denying contraception coverage to women employed by corporations owned by religious zealots. This is the best-known Hobby Lobby "accomplishment." In 2014 the Green family, which owns Hobby Lobby, won a 5-4 Supreme Court decision that allows them to deny some forms of contraception to their employees because of their religious beliefs.

In a deeply divisive case pitting advocates of religious liberty against women’s right’s groups, the Supreme Court said today that two for profit corporations with sincerely held religious beliefs do not have to provide a full range of contraceptives at no cost to their employees pursuant to the Affordable Care Act.

...The decision is a victory for the Green family that owns Hobby Lobby, an arts and crafts chain, and the Hahns who own Conestoga, a cabinet making company, who had challenged the so called contraceptive mandate saying it forced them to either violate their faith or pay ruinous fines.

(2) Teaching the Bible in public schools as "true" and "good." Steve Green, the Hobby Lobby president, has a goal of introducing a Bible curriculum in public schools that goes far beyond a secular treatment of Christianity.

If successful, Green, whose family’s wealth is estimated at upward of $3 billion, would galvanize the movement to teach the Bible academically in public schools, a movement born after the Supreme Court banned school-sanctioned devotion in the 1960s but whose steady progress in the last decades has been somewhat hampered.

...In an award acceptance speech last April before the National Bible Association, Green explained that his goals for a high school curriculum were to show that the Bible is true, that it’s good and that its impact, “whether (upon) our government, education, science, art, literature, family ... when we apply it to our lives in all aspects of our life, that it has been good.”

(3) Smuggling artifacts from Iraq, an act that supports terrorism. Hobby Lobby agreed to forfeit 5,500 artifacts that were smuggled out of Iraq. In the above-mentioned podcast, Moss said that this is a big deal, because selling artifacts has been used by terrorist groups to fund their activities. 

In 2010, as a deal for the tablets was being struck, an expert on cultural property law who had been hired by Hobby Lobby warned company executives that the artifacts might have been looted from historical sites in Iraq, and that failing to determine their heritage could break the law.

Despite these words of caution, the prosecutors said, Hobby Lobby bought more than 5,500 artifacts — the tablets and clay talismans and so-called cylinder seals — from an unnamed dealer for $1.6 million in December 2010.

In addition to the complaint, the prosecutors on Wednesday filed a stipulation of settlement with Hobby Lobby that requires the company to return all of the pieces, and to forfeit to the government an additional $3 million, resolving the civil action.

(4) Supporting the election of Trump. In September 2016 David Green, the founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby, endorsed Donald Trump for president, after failing to do so during the GOP primaries. His reason was scary (at least, to those who don't believe the United States should become a Christian nation).

Now, with election day only 67 days out, Green is talking politics again, and he's endorsing Trump. He says he's doing it because he doesn't trust Hillary Clinton to choose judges who will preserve America's religious liberty.

...Like Trump, Green is a billionaire, and he built an empire with his Hobby Lobby business. The founder and CEO is a leader among social conservatives, an area where Trump struggles to gain support.

According to a Gallup poll, at 53%, the majority of Republicans are social conservatives. So having as big of a voice as Green behind him could give Trump an edge he's been needing all along.

(5) Helping fund a $500 million Museum of the Bible. Half a billion dollars of Hobby Lobby money has paid for a museum dedicated to a decidedly slanted view of the Bible. I heard Moss say that even other evangelicals are disturbed by how the Green family is pushing a one-sided Biblical perspective. And a Newsweek piece gives more reasons to be concerned about the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.

Scholars also have a larger concern: the truth. They know too well that “biblical archaeology” is rife with amateurs desperate to prove the people and stories in the Bible are historically accurate, with many grand claims but little proof. Academics are also troubled by the résumé of the man hired to run the Bible museum; he used to head the Creation Museum, which states as fact that the Earth was created just 6,000 years ago and that humans were around when dinosaurs ruled the planet.

Also troubling is how the museum handles much more recent history. A fundraising video for the museum shared with Newsweek declares that the Founding Fathers intended the Bible to be the center of American government and culture and opens with a spurious quote from George Washington: “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.” The nation’s first president never said that, but Green insists the Bible was central to the creation of the United States and is now imperiled. In an interview at the Vatican in 2014, he declared, “The fact of the matter is, the book is under assault today.”

So please think twice, or even five times, once for each of the 5 reasons I've given here, before you shop at Hobby Lobby in Salem. Or anywhere. 

I liked this letter to the editor in the Salem Statesman Journal, "Store owners have rights; shoppers have rights to take their business elsewhere."

When I was a girl walking home from school with friends, we liked to stop in the one local drugstore, sit at the counter, and order a soda pop. We hurried to be first because there was a sign in the window that read, “Only four kids at the counter at a time.”The owners could make whatever rules they chose.

 Things are very different today. It seems to me that, right or wrong, business owners might be within their rights to put up signs that read, “We have the right to refuse service to anyone.”

And I have the right not to do business with them if I am offended by their choice.

A new craft store (Hobby Lobby) is opening in town. I once happened by another branch of that store in a nearby town. It looked very nice. However, I noticed a prominent sign in one of those windows. “In order to allow our employees and customers more time for worship and family, we are closed on Sundays.”

This gave me pause. In fact, it offended me on several levels. Do they only hire people who have families and whose holy day is Sunday? It is their business and it’s none of my business. Nevertheless, I will take my business elsewhere.

Jean Urbanski
Salem

Comments

[Alice Berntson]

Thank you for the detailed info. I already knew that I would not shop, ever, at Hobby Lobby. I do a lot of crafts, but there are other places in Salem where I can find the supplies I need.

[Betty Shier]

If you base your shopping on the store owner's religious beliefs, where do you get your groceries, who's your Dr. or Dentist, where do you buy your clothes? Do you scrutinize all the businesses you patronize to insure their religious beliefs match yours? If you do, YOU are causing the divisiveness in this country. Why can't we accept people for what and who they are instead of trying to force everyone to submit to ONE belief? After all, that belief may be wrong.

[Brian Hines]

Betty, the owners of Hobby Lobby are doing a lot more than simply having religious beliefs. As noted in my blog post, they're trying to force those beliefs on other people via the money they make from their stores. Naturally I don't care about the religious beliefs, or lack thereof, of business owners generally. It's only when the owners enter the political sphere, as the owners of Hobby Lobby have done, that I feel the need to push back.

As the woman who wrote the letter to the editor in the Statesman Journal said, both business owners and customers have their own rights. My right is to encourage people not to shop at Hobby Lobby.

[diane]

Everything is controlled by the people who have all the money! Think it's going to get any better, if you do, you better think again. You end up boycotting everything. Hippies had it right in the day, live off the grid, own your own piece of land, grow and make all your own stuff and not be materialistic, only way to survive. Can see more unrest, revolution, anarchy in the future. Look at what happened in Russia and France, revolutions. History tends to repeat itself and the general public will only take so much and then all hell breaks loose. Corporate greed and their wrong doings are the cause of the downfall of the country. They are making all the money, taking over everything and ruling the country, to heck with everyone else.

[Donald]

Those are the reasons I do shop at Hobby Lobby. Support a good Christian family, that takes great care of their employees.

[Renee]

I love Hobby Lobby, am thrilled they're are finally here and support them completely!

[Pauline]

Dear People: If you only knew Jesus and His great love for you and that He died for you so that you could have eternal life, you would not even think of entering into such petty arguments. In the end, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Obviously men can distort the truth, but in the end the truth will prevail and conquer. Living a good life and not harming others is so important. There has been so much indoctrination and misinformation regarding Christians that it makes my heart sad. I love each women and her rights, but I also know that every life is precious in God's sight and no human has the right to harm another. Many life after death experiences prove that God and angels and Jesus are more real than our life here on earth. Blessings to all of you.

[Ruth]

Everyone has a religious belief system, even an atheist. Are you only going to shop at stores that adhere to agnostic or atheist belief systems? In the classic movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey is shown what happens to his town, if he had never been born. He runs through the town and bars, peep shows, pawn shops and shabby shacks dominate. Once he realizes he wants to live, he returns and a healthy downtown shows modest homes, a five and dime, clothing stores and regular commerce. Real Christianity has positively impacted history-the abolitionist movement in the civil war era was started by Christians, the civil rights movement was championed by Christians, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, pregnancy care centers, prison ministries are largely done by Christians. Apparently you dislike Christians, but they have consistently been a voice for the forgotten and under-represented in our world. For years, Pew research has done surveys as to who gives the most to charities of all kinds. Consistently, Evangelical Christians give the most. I volunteered at a prison for years-Christians, by far were the ones who visited those without family or friends. Articles like the above sadden me, as I know the great good Christians have done in this country and in the world. Are we perfect? Absolutely not-but true Christianity has been a movement for great good. I will be shopping at Hobby Lobby and may many more join me!

[NotEvenWrong]

George Bailey wouldn't have shopped at Hobby Lobby because they take their profits out of Bedford Falls despite receiving massive tax breaks and incentives to build there. They also purchased and consolidated 4 blocks of old downtown, razed multiple historic landmark-designated buildings with the approval of Bedford Falls City Council (after making generous donations to the Greater Bedford Falls Area Chamber of Commerce PAC), cut down all the Bedford Falls Black Oak trees along the street, and paved over 3 of the blocks for a surface parking lot. Then they built a 200,000 square foot warehouse store abutting The Bailey Brothers Building & Loan.

Mr. Potter would have loved Hobby Lobby.

[Dave Peterson]

Ooh! Do one on a Muslim-owned business now!

[julianna]

I totally support Hobby Lobby for their support of Christianity.

[Michael Hamer]

Thank you for convincing me to shop at Hobby Lobby.

[Karin]

I am thrilled to shop at Hobby Lobby as they have amazing products and excellent customer service. There support of Christian Morals is a plus in my book! Get over yourselves. There are millions Christians out there and frankly I'm sick and tired of people trying to shame me for having morals and higher expectations of myself and others.

I googled Hobby Lobby because I needed some craft supplies and saw this. I'm surprised but not shocked. Just another venue for people to bash a faith that spreads the message of the bible AND supports EVERY PERSONS (babies included) right to life!

[Juanita weigel]

Who cares what an owner of a store believes. They have good service and lots of craft ideas. I think it is great that they are closed on Sundays so their employees can be with their families, I can arrange my shopping around that day. We can not all believe the same as it would be a boring world.

[Bonnie]

Supporting terrorists is Christian morals? You all must have read about a different Christ than I did.
Jesus would have nothing to do with the rich scummy owners of hobby lobby. I won't give them my money, either.

[Steve]

The reasons you give for not shopping at Hobby Lobby are actually great reasons for shopping there.

[Luke Christepher Stovall]

I'm so glad Hobby Lobby has strong family and Christian values I will definitely continue to support them

[Laura]

Thank you for the post. I will now be a loyal shopper at Hobby Lobby. It’s great to see strong moral values promoted by business.

[J.]

I WILL CERTAINLY CONTINUE TO SHOP AT HOBBY LOBBY AND SUPPORT THEIR RESPECT FOR GOD AND THE TRUTH OF GOD'S WORD AND HIS WILL. CAN'T UNDERSTAND HOW SOME PEOPLE CAN BE SO BLIND AND WARPED THAT THEY CAN'T SEE WHAT IS TRUE AND RIGHT. NEVER EVER WILL GOD GIVE ANYONE THE RIGHT AND CHOICE TO TAKE INNOCENT HUMAN LIFE MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD! HOW CAN ANYONE THINK THIS IS ACCEPTABLE WITH GOD! IT IS'NT AND WILL BE
DEALT WITH ONE DAY BY HIM AND IT WILL BE SO SOBERING .

[Sam]

Read A Handmaids Tail and then you will have your answer as to whether or not to shop at Hobby Lobby.

[William Sandvig]

I think you are an IGNORANT moron.....personally belief is if you don’t believe the same things, maybe YOU shouldn’t shop there...and keep your fascism to your self! God is great and Go Hobby Lobby!!!! Have a blessed day all and God Bless!!

[Gina D Hayes]

Wow what a backwoods, unenlightened, biased, thwarted article. I'm sure thankful I wasn't besieged by such a twisted view go keep me from patronizing the many diversified options availed to me in this country. I'd have missed out on a vast opportunity for multi cultural exposure.
I was exposed to and shopped Hobby Lobby and grew to greatly appreciate the wonderful products and prices found therein.
Only reason I even happened upon this sad (as in twarted/negative) article is boredom after discovering Hobby Lobby is now closed due to the pandemic sweeping across our nation.
I guess Hobby Lobby owners care far more about the hea,th and well being of their employees than they do the "almighty" dollar, unlike some of their competitors.
Hmm....

[Dianne]

I love shopping at Hobby Lobby and for the very reasons you gave that you won't shop there. Thank you God for bringing such a wonderful Christian Company to Salem Oregon.

[Dotis]

Those are the reasons I support Hobby Lobby! The part about them smuggling v goods ftom a foreign country is a liberal lie! This state is so messed up by liberals and your communist governor that it needs all of God’s work it can get!

[Heather]

Ugh. So many people not at all understanding the point of the article. The writer has no problem with them being Christian or Catholic - no issues with whatever religion they may be. This problems are 1)they are pushing their beliefs on others by protesting having to include birth control in their health insurance - based solely on their beliefs. 2) There is a reason for separation of church and state. How would you feel if a wealthy influential scientist started pushing to have science taught in your Sunday schools? You wouldn't like it. Same for public schools - Bible should not be taught there as that is a *belief* and not a fact. And yes, while many facts have been buried over the years and haven't been taught (thinking primarily whitewashing of history but other areas too), they have never pushed beliefs which, by definition, are NOT facts. 3) Buying cultural property knowingly and potentially supporting terrorists? If they knew it, they shouldn't have done it. 4) Well, while I don't like Trump and I won't support a business who does, that one is absolutely personal preference and I don't think this is a good part of the article. On a side note - Green's reason to support Trump, to make sure the Supreme Court protects religious liberties, is not what the SC is supposed to do - they are supposed to be an unbiased regulator of the law - not beliefs. But again, that's a side note and #4 in the original post is a reason for ME not to shop HL, but not in the same grain as the others. And, 5) Similar to #4. While I don't feel the Bible is essential to running the country (heck, lots of hypocracy from those who are "religious" anyway - running the country or not - makes those sorts of sentiments pretty moot in my book. But again, while I don't like it, it is not an ethical or moral concern as far as I can see. So, just an opposing view to the majority of those who commented on this article. Have a good one!

[Denise Thurber]

Not a good company to work for. Do not treat employees very good. No raise in 3 yrs, few hard workers, will not call out the dead beats, others work hard to pick the dead beats with no rewards. Spent 10 yrs with this company, love my job but not the company.

[Jon]

I read all of this and only too out of five is a legit reason refusal to serves to people based on religion that's wrong and smuggling is illigal so only two reasons are legit the others is just tells me your a petty jurk that thinks that if people don't agree with your political views they should be punished

[JPO]

Trump 2020 🇺🇸