I read today where the Supreme Court denied Hobby Lobby’s request to be excluded from the Obama Health Care mandates for contraceptives. It would appear that at the heart of the matter is that the CEO of Hobby Lobby and his family would have to violate their beliefs or be fined.
As a Christian Businessman I can sympathize with the viewpoint of the Hobby Lobby owners. I can’t justify getting into some business ventures because of my beliefs. However there’s a little more going on here than initially meets the eye.
Businesses pay taxes all the time and those taxes go to support things we don’t believe in. Yet we don’t stop paying taxes because we don’t like how they’re being spent or what they’re being spent for. The Supreme Court has basically identified ObamaCare as a government tax. Nothing more, nothing less.
Business people pay employees all the time but they don’t stop paying employees because their employees might spend that money on things that don’t support the company belief system.
When you stop to think about it businesses interact with other businesses that may or may not support things that don’t go along with their beliefs. Why? Because that’s part of what makes civilization civilized!
The separatist mentality is antisocial because it seeks to separate from any society that doesn’t agree with it. I’m not saying that there are no limits that a company can place on it’s corporate vision or belief system. I’m saying that the reality that even Jesus recognized is that we’re in the world but not of the world.
We have to function in a world that by it’s very nature is dominated by evil. It’s a reality. Live with it. If you seek to create a purely Christian society where does it end?
Most Americans reject the idea of Sharia Law being enforced in our courts. Yet, we seem to have no problem with Christian Law being enforced in those same courts. There was a time in our country’s infancy, before the establishment of a country where laws like this promoted the forced wearing of a scarlet letter on clothing, shunning, and even the Salem witch trials where people were put to death for their “crimes”.
As mature Christians we need to step forth and put an end to the madness that sometimes is called Christianity. Christianity isn’t about controlling what other people do. It’s a philosophy that celebrates the personal relationship between you and God. Nothing else.
When we attempt to force our beliefs on others we violate the basic tenets of our faith. It’s not love. It’s not our relationship with our God. It’s control. Controlling others is abuse. Abusive Christianity is a massive mistake that doesn’t glorify God.
Even Hobby Lobby seems to recognize that we live in a real world that has real problems that are sometimes influenced by sin. They must believe that at least one of their employees somewhere in the corporation would find a need to utilize these objectionable contraceptives or they wouldn’t fight carrying this benefit all the way to the Supreme Court.
Yet, they seem to be massively concerned that they control this one employee (or more) by restricting them from utilizing that contraceptive. This is a question of control of that (or those) employees rights.
So which right should be observed as the priority here. The right of the corporation or the right of the individual? The corporation clearly expresses that what they’re seeking to protect is the right of the corporate officers belief system. Their belief system is being forced upon the beliefs of their employees.
Isn’t this America? Don’t we have the freedom to believe or not believe in this country? If we support any corporations personal belief system to dominate our own we’re giving up the freedom this country was built upon.
Christians wouldn’t sit still for one second if an employer issued fines or fired people for bringing a bible to work to read on their own lunch break yet I’ve heard many Christians support Hobby Lobby’s pursuit of restricting the belief systems of their employess.
It’s time to wake up, Christians, and start thinking about what you’re saying, doing and supporting!
Tim on 
Roy Proctor on 
Rhoda Edwards on 
I don’t know what Bible some people read but if we take a close look at the scripture for example, Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus speaking “ALL POWER IS GIVEN TO ME IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH. GO YE THEREFORE AND TEACH ALL NATIONS BAPTIZING THEM IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER, SON, AND HOLY SPIRIT: TEACHING THEM TO OBSERVE ALL THINGS WHATSOEVER I HAVE COMMANDED YOU…” no mention here of controlling anyone or restricting anybody. people need to understand that it is the word of God that is going to change bad situations and bring people to Christ nothing else. I strongly support your views on this matter and I am looking forward to 2013. Grace, mercy and peace to you and your family in the new year. You are on the right road keep teaching the people Bro Tim.