The Hobby Lobby founders' mission is far bigger than a single court case. Hobby Lobby aims for Obamacare win

The evangelical owners of Hobby Lobby made a fortune selling crafts supplies and made headlines fighting government-mandated birth control coverage. They’re also using their billions to sell the American public on the literal truth of Scripture — through a public school Bible curriculum, a huge museum around the corner from the Smithsonian and public forums on the faith of the Founding Fathers.

The Green family may be best known in secular circles for their lawsuit against Obamacare, a high-stakes — and highly political — case that could undercut the administration’s goal of setting minimum standards for health care coverage. By the end of this month, the Supreme Court will decide if the federal government can force the Greens to include methods of contraception they deem sinful as part of employees’ health insurance.


The pending Hobby Lobby ruling has thrust the Greens into the national spotlight, but the family’s mission is far bigger than a single court case. The Greens are spending hundreds of millions on a quiet but audacious bid to teach a wayward nation to trust, cherish — and heed — the Bible.

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They’re building a huge museum dedicated to the Bible a few blocks from the Mall in Washington , with as much public space as the National Museum of American History. They’ve financed a lavish traveling exhibit as well, complete with a re-created Holy Land cave, a “Noah’s Ark experience” for kids and animatronic characters such as William Tyndale, who was burned at the stake for daring to translate the New Testament into English.

The Greens are sponsoring scholarly study of the Bible and hosting forums such as a recent panel on faith’s role in shaping early America, which they hope to package for national broadcast.

Most provocatively, they’ve funded a multimillion-dollar effort to write a Bible curriculum they hope to place in public schools nationwide. It will debut next fall as an elective in Mustang High School, a few miles from Hobby Lobby’s Oklahoma City headquarters.

A draft of the textbook for the first of four planned yearlong courses presents Adam and Eve as historical figures and introduces God as “faithful and good,” “gracious and compassionate” and “an ever-present help in times of trouble.” A list of “curses for disobeying the Lord” warns of defeat, fever and “disaster and panic in everything you do.”

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Hobby Lobby founders David and Barbara Green and their three adult children — sons Steve and Mart and daughter Darsee Lett — have donated generously to Christian institutions over the years, but these projects are on another scale entirely. A source close to the family estimates the museum alone will end up costing as much as $800 million, including the acquisition of thousands of ancient artifacts.

The family, with a net worth that Forbes estimates at $5 billion, has not flinched from the price or scaled back its vision.

“Our goal … [is to] reintroduce this book to the nation,” Steve Green, president of Hobby Lobby, said last spring before the National Bible Association. “This nation is in danger because of its ignorance of what God has taught. We need to know it. And if we don’t know it, our future is going to be very scary.”

The family’s vision is beginning to stir concern, not just among the American Civil Liberties Union and atheist groups such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation, but even from some Bible scholars.

The plans that have been made public so far — including the high school curriculum — seem aimed at portraying Scripture as historically accurate and an unequivocal force for good, said John Kutsko, executive director of the international Society of Biblical Literature, the oldest and largest organization dedicated to biblical scholarship.

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That approach fails to incorporate the latest scholarship, acknowledge that the Bible has also played a role as a tool of oppression or recognize different religious viewpoints, Kutsko said.

“It’s a simple, superficial, literal reading of the Bible,” Kutsko said.

In his view, that’s inappropriate both in a public high school and in a private museum that “by virtue of being adjacent to the Mall gives the impression that it’s almost a national museum,” he said.

Supporters, however, say they are confident the Greens will focus on scholarship rather than salvation in their public outreach.

The family does proselytize quite publicly three times a year, taking out full-page ads in newspapers across the country every Christmas, Easter and Independence Day. The ads celebrate the power of faith and direct readers to a toll-free number for Need Him Ministry, a global initiative to bring nonbelievers to Jesus.

If the goal of the museum were evangelizing, “I can assure you, I would not be involved,” said Harry Stout, a professor at Yale Divinity School who has consulted on the museum. “They’re really interested in getting it right.”

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Stout sees one motive above all in the family’s work. The Greens, he said, “are really smitten with the Bible.”

NOT TYPICAL BILLIONAIRES

The Greens are not your typical tycoons.

David Green, the son of a pastor, launched the company that would become Hobby Lobby in a garage in 1970, backed by a $600 loan. The arts-and-crafts chain now has more than 600 stores and some 16,000 full-time employees and brings in more than $3 billion a year in sales. David Green remains the CEO.

Faith is at the foundation of the business. Stores play Christian music and are closed on Sundays. The Greens have steadily raised their starting wage, to $15 an hour for full-time workers, to reflect their belief, centered in their faith, of the dignity of all people. The company’s first principle, posted on its website, is “honoring the Lord in all we do …”

Given that credo, Steve Green has said he felt he had no choice but to sue over the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that health insurance cover a full range of contraceptives. The Hobby Lobby plan covers most birth control, but Green has said he cannot in good conscience help employees pay for IUDs or emergency contraceptives because he believes them to be tantamount to abortion.

Mother Jones magazine has reported that Hobby Lobby covered some of the disputed methods of contraception in its health insurance plan until 2012, when the family began considering a lawsuit. The magazine also reported that Hobby Lobby contributes to an employee 401(k) plan with investments in pharmaceutical companies that make the IUD, emergency contraceptives and drugs used during abortions.

The Greens declined an interview request; a spokeswoman said their attorney had advised them not to talk publicly until after the Supreme Court ruling.

In a video interview posted online by The Heritage Foundation, Steve Green said the family sued to uphold religious freedom. “We just felt like our hands were tied and that the only option we had was to sue the government, saying that this isn’t fair, that you require us to do something that violates our conscience,” he said.

The Supreme Court has heard one other challenge to the ACA. In 2012, on a 5-4 vote, the justices upheld the “individual mandate” — the requirement that most Americans obtain insurance or pay a penalty.

Friends describe the Greens as reluctant plaintiffs who shun the spotlight. They shun most of the perks of wealth, too. They’re not major political donors. Aside from the lawsuit, they generally don’t weigh in on national debates. Those who know them unfailingly describe them as humble, gracious and reserved. Even their corporate headquarters is exceedingly modest.

Family members “genuinely see themselves as servants,” said Wes Lane, who runs a faith-based civic organization in Oklahoma City.

The Greens have not been splashy in their philanthropy, either.

The family has quietly given away tens of millions of dollars to Christian colleges and churches. They saved a faltering Oral Roberts University after a scandal with a gift of more than $70 million, gave a 170-acre ranch to pastor Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church and have donated land and money to countless other Christian ministries, without fanfare.

HIGHER PROFILE BRINGS CONTROVERSY

In recent years, however, the Greens have begun to take on a more high-profile role.

Mart Green, who runs the Mardel chain of Christian bookstores, financed a controversial documentary in 2010, “ Little Town of Bethlehem.” A sympathetic portrayal of the Palestinian cause, the film has been shown on hundreds of college campuses, to the dismay of pro-Israel activists.

The documentary, and others like it, “have persuaded well-meaning young people that Israel is the greatest evil of our time,” said David Brog, executive director of Christians United for Israel. “It’s really quite sad.”

Steve Green, meanwhile, has led efforts to develop the as-yet-unnamed Bible museum and the high school curriculum.

The family has purchased tens of thousands of biblical artifacts for the museum, including ancient papyrus scraps, Dead Sea scrolls, one of Martin Luther’s personal annotated Bibles and the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, which contains portions of Scripture dating to the 5th century. To house the collection, the family bought the Washington Design Center, a huge building two blocks from the Capitol, for $50 million. The museum is due to open in 2017.

The original mission statement for the Museum of the Bible Inc. — the foundation leading work on both the museum and the curriculum — said the project aimed “to inspire confidence in the absolute authority and reliability of the Bible.”

A recent Gallup poll found just 28 percent of American adults believe the Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally. That means there are plenty of possible converts out there.

Steve Green emphasized the potential for that evangelism in his speech to the National Bible Association. Both the museum and the curriculum, he said, would showcase the “overwhelming” evidence that the Bible is a “reliable historical document” and that “when we apply it to our lives, in all aspects of life, it has been good.”

In the past year, however, board members have rewritten the mission so it’s less provocative — and, board member Mark DeMoss said, more reflective of the project’s true goals. The new statement of purpose: “to invite people to engage with the Bible.”

DeMoss said the Greens don’t feel the need to preach because the Bible “speaks for itself” and will draw people to it if they encounter it with an open mind. “They might say,” DeMoss said, “that the book itself doesn’t need our help.”

Some religious scholars, however, are dubious about that promise of objectivity.

When the foundation released its draft of the Bible curriculum, it boasted that it was the product of “10 rounds of scholarly writing, scrutiny and editing,” supervised by “a team of more than 70 international Biblical scholars.”

But some scholars who were asked to submit articles to the curriculum writers said they never reviewed the draft presented to Mustang schools and have no idea whether their work was incorporated.

BIBLE AS RELIABLE HISTORICAL SOURCE

Even after 10 rounds of editing, the curriculum had clear problems, DeMoss acknowledged.

The draft textbook presented to the Mustang school board presents the Bible as a “reliable historical source.” It showcases several archaeological findings as proof of the Bible’s veracity, without mentioning scholarly debate on that subject. At one point, it implies the Bible is as indisputable as documents showing Martin Luther King Jr. spent time in the Birmingham jail and suggests it’s just a matter of time before archaeologists find Noah’s Ark.

The textbook also credits the Bible with inspiring Western notions of equality, feminism and freedom of the press, without any acknowledgment that the Bible has also been used to justify slavery and other evils.

As presented, the curriculum is “startlingly irresponsible” — and likely unconstitutional, as well, since public schools are allowed to teach about religion but can’t promote any particular theology, said Mark

“They don’t seem to realize that their claims about the Bible’s reliability are statements of faith, not statements of fact,” said Chancey, a professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University who has reviewed the text.

Revisions are already underway. Mustang Superintendent Sean McDaniel said he is confident the new version will “strip out all the Christian bias that people are so worked up about.”

That’s what he expected from the start, he said: “My goal was never to put a course before kids that came from a particular persuasion.”

McDaniel said he approached Steve Green about the curriculum — not the other way around — and was impressed by all the interactive online material built into the course. Students can explore the ancient texts in the Green family collection, take a virtual tour of the Nile, watch an archaeological dig and listen to scholarly lectures. All that makes for an exciting elective, he said.

More than 200 students have signed up to take the Bible elective in Mustang next year, though enrollment will be capped at 140.

The foundation developing the curriculum hopes eventually to sell it to districts across the nation. Steve Green has said he dreams of it one day becoming a mandatory course for all high school students.

“If we can encourage a skeptical world to reconsider a book that can change our world,” he said, “that is an exciting journey that we’re on.”

Those who have watched the Greens in action fully expect them to succeed.

“They’re deeply committed to their faith, but they’re also cosmopolitan, they’re savvy. There’s a degree of pragmatism,” said D. Michael Lindsay, president of Gordon College and a sociologist who has written extensively on evangelicals. “One way or another, they figure out a way to be true to their convictions and also get things done.”

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Nick Gass @ 06/16/2014 01:56 PM CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of David Green's daughter. She is Darsee Lett.