A candid interview with David Green of Hobby Lobby

Last updated on: August 19, 2014 at 2:03 pm by Mission:Work

A candid interview with David Green of Hobby Lobby 2014-08-19T14:03:02-05:00 Mission:Work

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Today, as the media has been reporting at length, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby in a highly watched court case about whether the company was required by the Affordable Care Act to provide certain forms of contraception for their employees:

Washington (CNN) — Some corporations have religious rights, a deeply divided Supreme Court decided Monday in ruling that certain for-profit companies cannot be required to pay for specific types of contraceptives for their employees.

The 5-4 decision on ideological lines ended the high court’s term with a legal and political setback for a controversial part of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law.

It also set off a frenzied partisan debate over religious and reproductive rights that will continue through the November congressional elections and beyond.

All five conservative justices appointed by Republican presidents ruled in favor of closely held for-profit businesses — those with at least 50% of stock held by five or fewer people, such as family-owned businesses — in which the owners have clear religious beliefs.

Several years ago, long before the Green family and Hobby Lobby became known for this court case, our friends at The High Calling conducted a candid interview with David Green. You may find it interesting to check it out in light of today’s decision. The interview ranges from Green’s personal vocational journey, to troubled times in the company’s history, to his attempts to balance work and family–with some exchanges that definitely have a bearing on today’s ruling and the decision of the family to sign on with the case.

Your employees have different religious beliefs and backgrounds. Do you have a strategy for expressing your Christian faith?

Our strategy is to be very bold. We tell people about the Good News of Jesus. We have five chaplains. We are very, very bold. We don’t ask people about their belief system. We hire them on what they can contribute to the business. I can’t help but tell people of the greatest story ever told—God’s love and our eternal life. We do that with our five chaplains. We’re very busy telling people about Christ.

Do you ever have employees who are disgruntled with that approach?

We’ve had a couple situations in which people have resigned. At this point no one has given us any legal issues. We would fight it.

We have more rights than most people think we have. We have a legal right to speak about what God has done for us.

We’ve never had any lawsuits. It wouldn’t stop us, though. At Easter and Christmas, we put out full page ads on the death of Christ and the resurrection, and on the birth of Jesus.

Our signs say that we’re closed on Sunday so our employees can worship and be with their families. We have a tremendous amount of product that’s inspirational. And we have the Hobby Lobby Statement of Purpose.

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