Hobby Lobby’s secret agenda: How it’s quietly funding a vast right-wing movement
Outside of the Supreme Court case, little has been reported about Hobby Lobby’s political ties. The company is owned privately by the Green family and generates more than $3 billion per year in revenue from its 602 stores. The family proudly promotes its philanthropy to churches, ministries and Christian community centers, dedicating half of the company’s pretax earnings to Christian ministries. In 2007, Hobby Lobby’s founder and CEO, billionaire David Green, pledged $70 million to Oral Roberts University, bailing out the debt-ridden evangelical university. In 2012, Forbes reported, “Hobby Lobby’s cash spigot currently makes [Green] the largest individual donor to evangelical causes in America."
But until now, its political connections have been obscure.
Hobby Lobby-related entities are some of the biggest sources of funding to the National Christian Charitable Foundation, which backed groups that collaborated in promoting the anti-gay legislation in Arizona – recently vetoed by Gov. Jan Brewer – that critics say would have legalized discrimination against gays and lesbians by businesses.
The path of SB 1062 to the Arizona statehouse was built by two groups, the Center for Arizona Policy and the Alliance Defending Freedom. Center for Arizona Policy employees regularly spoke in favor of the legislation, appearing as the grass-roots face of a bill that the center’s president, Cathi Herrod, characterized as “[making] certain that governmental laws cannot force people to violate their faith unless it has a compelling governmental interest–a balancing of interests that has been in federal law since 1993," according to a statement on the group’s website. (One hundred and twenty-three Center for Arizona Policy-supported measures have been signed into law; its legislative agenda ranges from requiring intrusive ultrasounds for women seeking abortions to HB 2281, a bill that, if passed by the Arizona Senate, would exempt religious institutions from paying property taxes on leased or rented property.)
For its part, the Alliance Defending Freedom, a national Christian organization based in Arizona, works toward the “spread of the Gospel by transforming the legal system and advocating for religious liberty, the sanctity of life, and marriage and family," according to the group’s website. Both groups are heavily funded by the National Christian Charitable Foundation, “the largest Christian grant-making foundation in the world," as described on the group’s website. And who is the largest funder of National Christian Charitable? That would be a Hobby Lobby executive.
Here’s how it works: At the end of the 2012 tax year, the National Christian Charitable Foundation had more than $1.22 billion in assets under management in donor-advised funds that offer “innovative, tax-smart solutions [to] help you simplify your giving, multiply your impact, and glorify God." Outgoing grants – totaling $4.3 billion since 1982, according to the Foundation — go to a range of causes including climate science denial, charter schools, free market and pro-life advocacy. But buried in their voluminous tax filings (at times totaling more than 600 pages) are a number of sizable grants to the Center for Arizona Policy and the Alliance Defending Freedom, issued between 2002 and 2011, the last year that complete tax data is available for all three organizations…
info: Christian Dominionists
Dominion Theology or Dominionism is the idea that Christians should work toward either a nation governed by Christians or one governed by a conservative Christian understanding of biblical law. … It is a form of theocracy and is related to theonomy …
I view it as one big power struggle more than anything. It’s an attempt to stymie progress…if you get one exemption, soon there will be so many exemptions, the entire reform will be for naught.
Here’s a list of products produced by Koch Bros. Some are hard to avoid or even detect, but it’s good to know what to avoid when you can. http://kstreet607.com/…
Koch Industry Gasoline:
Chevron
Union
Union 76
Conoco
Koch Industry/Invista Products:
COMFOREL® fiberfill
COOLMAX® fabric
CORDURA® fabric
DACRON® fiber
POLYSHIELD® resin
SOLARMAX® fabric
SOMERELLE® bedding products
STAINMASTER® carpet
SUPPLEX® fabric
TACTEL® fiber
TACTESSE® carpet fiber
TERATE® polyols
TERATHANE® polyether glycol
THERMOLITE® fabric
PHENREZ® resin
POLARGUARD® fiber and
LYCRA® fiber
Koch Industry/Georgia-Pacific Products:
Angel Soft toilet paper
Brawny paper towels
Dixie plates, bowls, napkins and cups
Mardi Gras napkins and towels
Quilted Northern toilet paper
Soft ‘n Gentle toilet paper
Sparkle napkins
Vanity fair napkins
Zee napkins
Georgia Pacific Building products:
Dense Armor Drywall and Decking
ToughArmor Gypsum board
Georgia pacific Plytanium Plywood
Flexrock
Densglass sheathing
G/P Industrial plasters (some products used by a lot of crafters)-
Agricultural Plaster
Arts & Crafts Plaster
Dental Plaster
General Purpose Plaster
Glass-reinforced Gypsum (GRG),etc.
Lois, as you said, that list is difficult because a lot of the items are components in the manufacturing process of products, so we as consumers aren’t even aware of all the origins of the end-product. However, we have a concrete name-brand/company to avoid, it’s much easier.
Here’s a kicker, if true, I just heard that Hobby Lobby’s medical insurance, has heretofore, covered the “Plan B” birth control. It is only since Obamacare requires such coverage, that their religious convictions, apparently, began. Also their retirement plan, purportedly, had investments that included companies that produce Plan B.
Re: the Koch’s, in an op-ed, one of the Koch bros, recently, called his opponents “collectivists”. Look for this to be a new totem word that the right wingers are so good at using to influence the political thinking of the masses. Persons such as many of us will be labeled “collectivists” (with the underlying assumption of associated evil). While the Koch’s and tea-party types will be referred to as “individualists” (implied as heroes of a “free and most functional society”). Of course this is all ideological claptrap. None of us, on either side, fit neatly into such ideological categories. But still, this tactic can be wielded effectively in a largely naïve population.
I will counter by suggesting that the Koch brothers represent the return of the mentality of a long dormant John Birch Society.
Check out Claire Conner: http://claireconner.com/2013/11/13/koch-john-birch-society-a-love-story/
Interesting that Hobby Lobby has offered health insurance to its employees for quite a while and never had any concerns about contraceptives, etc. Apparently, the conservative establishment and the H/L owners decided this would be a good attack on the Obama Health Care Plan so they brought it to the court. In other words the S.O.B.s are lying about it being a religious issue.
Occam
Interesting that Hobby Lobby has offered health insurance to its employees for quite a while and never had any concerns about contraceptives, etc. Apparently, the conservative establishment and the H/L owners decided this would be a good attack on the Obama Health Care Plan so they brought it to the court. In other words the S.O.B.s are lying about it being a religious issue. :snake:
Occam
In fact most of the employers now up in arms about contraceptive products being included in the ACA policies had previously offered health care plans that covered contraceptives and we never heard a word about them infringing on their religious rights until
the ACA came along. Then they were suddenly horrified. I wonder why.
Lois
Interesting that Hobby Lobby has offered health insurance to its employees for quite a while and never had any concerns about contraceptives, etc. Apparently, the conservative establishment and the H/L owners decided this would be a good attack on the Obama Health Care Plan so they brought it to the court. In other words the S.O.B.s are lying about it being a religious issue. :snake:
Occam
In fact most of the employers now up in arms about contraceptive products being included in the ACA policies had previously offered health care plans that covered contraceptives and we never heard a word about them infringing on their religious rights until
the ACA came along. Then they were suddenly horrified. I wonder why.
Lois
Probably because they are motivated by subconscious racism that they aren't even aware of. (IOW they subconsciously can't tolerate a black man leading the country.) But don't try to tell them that.
Probably because they are motivated by subconscious racism that they aren't even aware of. (IOW they subconsciously can't tolerate a black man leading the country.) But don't try to tell them that.
Poignant. Alot of it isn't subconscious I'll reckon.
Here's a kicker, if true, I just heard that Hobby Lobby's medical insurance, has heretofore, covered the "Plan B" birth control. It is only since Obamacare requires such coverage, that their religious convictions, apparently, began. Also their retirement plan, purportedly, had investments that included companies that produce Plan B./
Not only had...has. And it is not only Plan B. They invest a huge chunk of their retirement in most of the companies producing various forms of birth control.
Here's a kicker, if true, I just heard that Hobby Lobby's medical insurance, has heretofore, covered the "Plan B" birth control. It is only since Obamacare requires such coverage, that their religious convictions, apparently, began. Also their retirement plan, purportedly, had investments that included companies that produce Plan B./
Not only had...has. And it is not only Plan B. They invest a huge chunk of their retirement in most of the companies producing various forms of birth control.
They should change their name to Hypocrite Lobby.
Here's a kicker, if true, I just heard that Hobby Lobby's medical insurance, has heretofore, covered the "Plan B" birth control. It is only since Obamacare requires such coverage, that their religious convictions, apparently, began. Also their retirement plan, purportedly, had investments that included companies that produce Plan B./
Not only had...has. And it is not only Plan B. They invest a huge chunk of their retirement in most of the companies producing various forms of birth control.
They should change their name to Hypocrite Lobby.
They are such hypocrites they would wear the label proudly.
Lois
Here's a kicker, if true, I just heard that Hobby Lobby's medical insurance, has heretofore, covered the "Plan B" birth control. It is only since Obamacare requires such coverage, that their religious convictions, apparently, began. Also their retirement plan, purportedly, had investments that included companies that produce Plan B./
Not only had...has. And it is not only Plan B. They invest a huge chunk of their retirement in most of the companies producing various forms of birth control.
They should change their name to Hypocrite Lobby.
They are such hypocrites they would wear the label proudly.
Lois
Even so, the rest of society should know them for what they are. I will, henceforth, refer to them as Hypocrite Lobby.
Here's a kicker, if true, I just heard that Hobby Lobby's medical insurance, has heretofore, covered the "Plan B" birth control. It is only since Obamacare requires such coverage, that their religious convictions, apparently, began. Also their retirement plan, purportedly, had investments that included companies that produce Plan B./
Not only had...has. And it is not only Plan B. They invest a huge chunk of their retirement in most of the companies producing various forms of birth control.
They should change their name to Hypocrite Lobby.
They are such hypocrites they would wear the label proudly.
Lois
Even so, the rest of society should know them for what they are. I will, henceforth, refer to them as Hypocrite Lobby.
Good. It's a perfect name for them.
Lois
