Hobby Lobby president: 'Christians must fight for religious freedom in America'

The president of Hobby Lobby has urged Christians to stand up for religious freedom, insisting that "there are struggles that have never been faced before."

Steve Green, son of the craft shop's founder David Green, said Christians now face greater adversity from the US government than ever before, Raw Story reports.

"There are struggles for religious freedom in America," he said on a video at an event held by First Baptist Church of Charlotte, North Carolina. "Just a few years ago we never would have imagined we would have filed suit against our own government, the government that we love.

"But there are challenges. There are struggles that people of faith are facing today that have never been faced before."

Green urged Christians to "stand up and let their voice be heard through the ballot box, and if need be, to file suit".

"If we don't stand up and fight for the freedoms that our founders fought for then we very well may lose some of those," he warned.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Green family who had refused to offer employees the morning after and week after pills as part of Hobby Lobby's health insurance plans.

In a landmark decision, justices ruled by a 5-4 majority that closely-held businesses can uphold religious objections which allow them to opt out of contraceptive health law requirements as set out in Obamacare legislation.

A committed evangelical Christian, owner David Green has willingly provided other contraceptives under his healthcare plan, but has refused to be complicit in what his family sees as potential abortion.

"These abortion-causing drugs go against our faith, and our family is now being forced to choose between following the laws of the land that we love or maintaining the religious beliefs that have made our business successful and have supported our family and thousands of our employees and their families," Green said in a statement last year.

"We simply cannot abandon our religious beliefs to comply with this mandate."

On Sunday, Steve Green added: "The bottom line is we believe that life begins at conception, and for us to be a part of taking that life violates what are deeply held beliefs are, and so we just said we didn't want to freely provide those or pay for them for employees.

"That doesn't prevent them from having access to them, but for the government to tell us that we had to provide those to our employees for free was a problem for us and why we decided that we had to file suit.

"We cannot be part of taking life, whether it [the court case] was a win or a loss, we just felt like we were in God's hands and whatever cost he would of have asked us is what we would be willing to pay."

Watch Green's speech below: