The Gospel According To Hobby Lobby
Every billionaire eventually takes advantage of their wealth.
Even Warren Buffet — famously more frugal than his peers and critical of superfluous spending — eventually bought a private jet.
Absurd money enables absurd purchases. Jeff Bezos bought a superyacht. Elon Musk bought Twitter and rebranded it X. Mark Zuckerberg bought a seven-foot statue of his wife.
But as for the Greens, the family behind the arts and crafts superstore empire Hobby Lobby, they bought tens of thousands of ancient Biblical artifacts and manuscripts.
The Green family began collecting stone tablets, scraps of old scrolls and other Biblical relics back in 2009. They hired historian Dr. Scott Carroll to lead the project and have since used the lion’s share of their collection to create the Museum of the Bible, which opened in 2017.
However, before the museum could even open, the family’s collection was investigated. Countless items were discovered to be products of looting or forgery, and many had to be returned to their countries of origin.
Hobby Lobby was started by David Green in 1972 in Oklahoma City. With over 1,000 stores and 46,000 employees, Hobby Lobby did $8 billion in revenue last year.
When he was a young man, Green’s mother was never content with his early professional success and instead always asked David what he was doing for God. David credits her frequent reminders as a major driver in his patterns of giving.
Hobby Lobby famously donates half of their profits to a variety of charities every year—most of which have to do with advancing worldwide Bible access and education.
But along their quest to fund global Biblical literacy, the Greens have engaged with politics in a way that leads some to call them Christian nationalists.
On this week’s podcast, we talk with Michael Blanding, author of “The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby.” The book details the family’s business, influence, surprising archeological scandal and how their faith helped shape it all.
Matthew Peterson is Religion Unplugged’s podcast editor and audience development coordinator. He took part in this past summer’s European Journalism Institute held in Prague, an annual program co-sponsored by The Media Project.