In my August 2, 2013 blog posting – A
Godly Victory for Religious Conscience – I briefly shared about Hobby Lobby and their battle waged
against the Affordable Care Act
(a.k.a., Obamacare). But this war for religious liberty is far
from over. Read these words from 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 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.”
If you are
truly a Christian, you may not be faced (like David Green) with choosing to buy into the health care mandate or pay a hefty fine as
a business owner; but you may be faced with purchasing the individual health
insurance mandate. How will you avoid
contributing to the American holocaust?
How will you avert the blood of the innocent from being on your hands?
Rev.
Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain
(Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor,
Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
No comments:
Post a Comment