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Tuesday, July 30, 2013
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Hobby Lobby Founder-May Close ALL Stores
Hobby
Lobby Founder-May Close ALL Stores
David
Sloan “The wisdom that comes from above is, first, pure, then
peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits,
without uncertainty or insincerity.” – James 3:17
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.
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.
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 Christianorganizations including the
Catholic church.
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