Is Hobby Lobby Still a “Christian” Business?

I’ll let you decide after reading this...

Editor’s Note: We’ve just added the Unconditional Conference (September 28-29), to our 2023 Christian Conference Buyer’s Guide. Be sure to check it out.

Over the past year or two, I have detailed how Chick-fil-A masquerades as a so-called Christian business but seems to be straying far from it. (See those posts here and here.)

In today’s post, we’ll look at Hobby Lobby in the same light. Hobby Lobby has long worked to position itself as a Christian business, offering Christian-themed merchandise, books, and gifts along with their regular inventory... all while playing Christian music in their stores.

But things may not always be what they seem on the surface...

First, some background. If you watched this year’s Super Bowl, you probably saw the commercial “He Gets Us-Jesus Was a Refugee” and another one like it. These ads use the Bible and Jesus to promote the chaos at our southern border along with the Social Gospel. Sadly, this year’s Super Bowl was the third most-watched TV show of all time, averaging 113 million viewers. (Rihanna’s vulgar halftime show averaged even more… 118.7 million viewers.)

Is that a problem? Consider that “He Gets Us-Jesus Was a Refugee” relies on the premise that Jesus Christ was a refugee like those from Central America. Jesus is characterized as someone who was unfairly judged like other marginalized members of our society. It features a slideshow of pictures depicting Central American migrants fleeing their homes to avoid persecution. In the end, it’s revealed that the story being told is that of Mary and Joseph, His parents.

Our country is near its breaking point; we are deeply in debt, our southern border is being overrun, thousands are dying from illegal drugs coming across that border, and LGBTQ elites are grooming children as young as five. Why would any so-called “Christians” endorse this type of messaging?

Millions of illegal aliens and fake refugees are expected to flood across the U.S. southern border in 2023. Many people who undertake the journey use a smuggler known as a “coyote” that promises a safe and successful journey… for a huge price. From Central America northward to the U.S. border, every step of the way is controlled by cartels/coyotes. As migrant caravans come north, they tax the immigrants as the caravans move through their area. Coyotes resort to extortion, kidnapping, and worse, to squeeze as much money as possible out of the people passing through their territories.

When some illegals run out of money or won’t pay, they dump them in a remote part of the desert. In the 110-degree heat of the summer in the desert, it is a death sentence. Other illegals who have no money are expected to carry illegal drugs in backpacks or are forced to swallow drug-filled balloons as the price of crossing the border. Sadly, some die when the balloons accidentally burst. Others are sold to sex traffickers.

Those pushing this part of the “social gospel” seem content in ignoring these sad realities. A Fusion investigation revealed that 80% of Central American women and young girls are raped crossing Mexico into the United States. At the same time, hundreds of unaccompanied children are crossing the U.S. border every day. The question the wokesters never seem to ask is… how many of these young children are being sexually trafficked along the way?

Not all immigrants come because they “are fleeing from soldiers”. Some are just passing through, and others come for freedom from socialist regimes. Still more come to participate in our society and add value to our economy. But many more come to grab free government benefits or, worse yet, come to deal drugs and expand murderous cartels. This brain-dead open border policy is allowing MS-13 and other violent gang members to easily enter and prey upon both other illegals and citizens in communities across our country.

Hobby Lobby founder and CEO David Green and the Signatry Group are part of an extensive Servant Foundation. This group is behind these expensive ad campaigns using Jesus to promote illegal migrants and the LGBTQ+ agenda… In other words, they are unwittingly promoting the left’s godless agenda to people who consider themselves Christian.

By promoting foolish notions like critical race theory, climate change, social justice, unconditional acceptance of homosexuality, open borders, abortion, and gender fluidity, the ads appeal to people’s feelings of narcissistic self-entitlement as well as their misplaced “love of others”. It’s all about what God can do for them and how others must take the blame for their victimhood. Essentially, they teach the world’s values rather than the absolute truth of Scripture. It is not the Gospel according to Jesus but is a counterfeit version that reeks of socialism.

The branding firm for the campaign said the plan included investing $1 billion in such ads over the next three years, a budget comparable to that of a major brand like Clorox.

As writer J.D. Rucker put it... “Unfortunately, this is not a win for the Christian faith. The messages being promoted by the group are about diversity, equity, and inclusivity, and unless they have made a drastic course correction from everything else they’ve put out prior to the Super Bowl, the messages promoted on the biggest commercial stage of the year will show the group’s flawed interpretation of Jesus Christ as nothing more than a good example of kindness”. Rucker goes on to write, “These commercials offer the vaguest and most inoffensive and uncontroversial picture of Jesus possible, even to people who already have a distaste for Christianity.”

These ads want you to see Jesus as a moral example for all of us. But changing the Gospel does not change hearts. It never has... only God’s true word can do that. We can never be moral enough or good enough on our own. These ads parrot the left’s social justice agenda to win over the world by diluting the Gospel to fit our culture’s flagging standards. It does not work that way.

Being loving is only one part of God’s character, but not the whole of it. And that is where many people get it wrong. They want to recreate a God in their own image. They want a “God of love” who will never send anyone to hell. They want a God who does not demand justice, who loves them no matter what sin, perversion, or unrepentant evil they repeatedly engage in. Yes, Jesus was fully human, but He is also fully God... a God who, by His nature, demands justice for unrepentant sinners, not “social justice”.

Please note I am not suggesting a boycott of Hobby Lobby. We don’t affect true change by trying to hurt others. Typically, when sales drop in any business, the lower-level employees are the first to be laid off while the top executives continue to prosper. I will leave the matter to your individual conscience.

How, then, should we respond? In the Book of Romans, Paul sums it up this way...

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)