Subject: Hobby Lobby To Close All Stores -- please read the open letter


With over 500 locations in 41 states, Hobby Lobby is one of the most popular stores in America. However, the brand has become controversial in the last few years since it refuses to back down from its strong Christian beliefs.

Liberals have been trying to shut down Hobby Lobby for years, but the chain has always remained strong: until now. According to American News< http://americannews.com/ 17996-2/>, Hobby Lobby founder and CEO David Green just released an open letter explaining that he may need to close all of his stores. Here’s the full letter:
Hobby Lobby Announces Plans To Close All Stores… Here’s ...americannews.com

Unfortunately, Hobby Lobby founder and CEO David Green has just released an open letter revealing that he may need to close all of his stores.


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 healthcare 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 in the liberal media, please pass this on to all your contacts.

Sincerely,
David Green
CEO and Founder of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

SHARE this story if you stand with Hobby Lobby!

_________________
Mike

Brothers I just did some checking from other sources. It seems that Hobby Lobby has come to an agreement with the US government that they do not have to provide the health benefits and question.

Can more documentation be provided of a recent nature?

-bbs-

Close Call
The recirculation of a several-year-old, misleadingly headlined news story has spread the mistaken belief that the Hobby Lobby chain is closing.
David Mikkelson
Updated: Aug 20, 2016
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CLAIM: The Hobby Lobby chain is closing all its stores in protest over a federal contraceptives mandate.

FALSE
WHAT'S TRUE: In 2012, Hobby Lobby filed a lawsuit over a federal mandate requiring employers to provide insurance coverage for contraceptives and hinted he might close the chain.

WHAT'S FALSE: Hobby Lobby has announced plans to close the chain in protest over the federal contraceptive mandate.

EXAMPLE: [Collected via Green, September 2012]

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 also 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.

[Rest of article here.]

ORIGIN:The example text excerpted above is the opening to a 12 September 2012 USA Today op-ed piece by David Green, the CEO and founder of the Hobby Lobby chain of arts-and-crafts stores, expressing his family's opposition on religious grounds to a new government health mandate that required employers to provide insurance coverage to their employees for contraceptives. Hobby Lobby filed a federal lawsuit challenging that mandate because it included such contraceptives as the morning-after pill and IUDs, which the plaintiffs considered to be forms of abortion:

The lawsuit by the Oklahoma City-based chain claims the government mandate is forcing the company's owners "to violate their deeply held religious beliefs under threat of heavy fines, penalties and lawsuits." Failure to provide the drugs in the company's health insurance plan could lead to fines of up to $1.3 million a day, the company said.

"By being required to make a choice between sacrificing our faith or paying millions of dollars in fines, we essentially must choose which poison pill to swallow," David Green, Hobby Lobby CEO and founder, said in a statement. "We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate."

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City, alleges the Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate is unconstitutional and requests an injunction to prohibit it from being enforced. Hobby Lobby is self-insured and will be required to comply with the mandate by Jan. 1 [2013], the start of its health insurance plan year.

Hobby Lobby is the largest and only non-Catholic-owned business to file a lawsuit against the Health and Human Services mandate that forces all companies, regardless of religious conviction, to provide coverage of drugs the lawsuit alleges are abortion-inducing, including the morning-after pill and week-after pill.

"The Green family's religious beliefs forbid them from participating in, providing access to, paying for, training others to engage in, or otherwise supporting abortion-causing drugs and devices," the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit says the family also has "a sincere religious objection" to providing coverage for certain kinds of intrauterine devices and alleges they can cause the death of an embryo by preventing it from implanting in the wall of a woman's uterus.

The morning-after pill works by preventing ovulation or fertilization. In medical terms, pregnancy begins when a fertilized egg attaches itself to the wall of the uterus. If taken within 72 hours of unprotected sex, it can reduce a woman's chances of pregnancy by as much as 89 percent.

But critics of the contraceptive say it is the equivalent of an abortion pill because it can prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus.
The text of that piece was widely referenced online under misleading headlines such as "Hobby Lobby May Close All 500+ Stores in 41 States," based on the notion that David Green would shutter the entire chain rather than comply with the federal mandate (even though he neither announced nor threatened such a course of action).

The lawsuit finally played its way out in court in June 2014, when the Supreme Court ruled that closely held, for-profit companies (such as Hobby Lobby) can claim a religious exemption to the Affordable Care Act requirement that they provide health insurance coverage for contraceptives:

The Supreme Court ruled that requiring family-owned corporations to pay for insurance coverage for contraception under the Affordable Care Act violated a federal law protecting religious freedom.

The 5-to-4 decision, which applied to two companies owned by Christian families, opened the door to challenges from other corporations to many laws that may be said to violate their religious liberty.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for the court's five more conservative justices, said a federal religious-freedom law applied to for-profit corporations controlled by religious families. He added that the requirement that the companies provide contraception coverage imposed a substantial burden on the companies' religious liberty. He said the government could provide the coverage in other ways.
LAST UPDATED: 20 August 2016

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 30 September 2012


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David Mikkelson
David Mikkelson
founded snopes.com in 1994, and under his guidance the company has pioneered a number of revolutionary technologies, including the iPhone, the light bulb, beer pong, and a vaccine for a disease that has not yet been discovered. He is currently seeking political asylum in the Duchy of Grand Fenwick.
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Brethren various sources say that this letter from HL has been circulating around social media for about 2 years. Based on the article previously posted. The Supreme Court granted an exception that Hobby Lobby and Conestoga that tgey would not have to oay for birth control in their health benefits to their employees.

Both companies were granted exemptions on religious grounds. Not saying that today the ruling might be different.

I respect Hobby Lobby and there stand they took two years ago. But we also need to be wise and discerning when we see things floating around in social media.

I have sent out information about persecution issues. Only to find that either the story was old or not true. And then had to go back and print a retraction.

For sure these are evil times. And not saying that the United States government will not at some point require companies like Hobby Lobby to provide not only birth control. But probably will have to hire same-sex people to work in their stores. But again. The letter posted is 2 years old.

Hope this clarifies. But if somebody can provide recent information I will stand corrected.

-bbs-

They recently just opened a new store in my area...

_________________
~ Forrest

Hobby Lobby just opened a new store in Oak Ridge TN as well.

Praise God that's an old story!!

_________________
Lisa

Oak Ridge? Wonder if the HL emolyees wear radiation badges?

-bbs-

I apologize for posting this article from
what I thought was a reliable source,
But praise God that they are still in
business, after taking a courageous
stand against a hostile Obama
administration.

_________________
Mike

They just opened a huge store near us.

I'm a big fan.

_________________
Todd