Hobby Lobby

In November of 2012, Hobby Lobby filed a lawsuit requesting the right to withhold contraceptives from employees, arguing that this should be the company’s protected right on grounds of religious freedom. Employees and activists responded by protesting outside the Supreme Court, many with signs stating: “Bosses control the BOARDROOM, not the BEDROOM.”

On June 30, 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Hobby Lobby in a 5-to-4 ruling in the case of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby. Activists immediately took to social media and the hashtag #GetAnotherHobby began trending on Twitter.

On July 2, 2014, the Secular Coalition for America launched the #KnitABrick campaign in response to the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby ruling, in which “craftivists” contributed more than 1,200 knitted bricks which were sewn together. The bricks, a symbol of the separation of church and state, were deposited outside the Supreme Court in September 2014.

In July of 2014, Hobby Lobby founders signed a letter backed by numerous conservative nonprofits, including Catholic Charities USA and World Relief, requesting that the federal government allow them religious exemption from anti-discrimination LGBTQ laws, presenting the issue as one of religious freedom. 

In the letter, they argued that “an executive order that does not include a religious exemption will significantly and substantively hamper the work of some religious organizations that are best equipped to serve in common purpose with the federal government. When the capacity of religious organizations is limited, the common good suffers.”

As of January 2021, Executive Order 11246 has gone into effect, which allows for religious exemption from anti-discrimination laws “with respect to the employment of individuals of a particular religion to perform work connected with the carrying on” of those religious organizations’ activities.

The Green family opened the Museum of the Bible in November 2017 with the goal of “[inviting] all people to engage with … the Bible.” However, in July 2017 federal prosecutors seized more than 5,500 illegally imported Iraqi artifacts in the museum inventory. In March 2020, alleged Dead Sea Scroll fragments on display were confirmed to be fake. 

Activists responded to these discoveries on Twitter.

In March of 2020, Hobby Lobby refused to close its stores during the state-mandated Shelter-in-Place orders. On March 21, 2020, healthcare advocate Kendall Brown tweeted a copy of a letter Hobby Lobby founder David Green had allegedly sent to all executive offices, which stated that Green intended to keep his stores open during the pandemic because of a message his wife Barbara had received in prayer.  

Brown sent a follow-up tweet on March 25, 2020 inviting Hobby Lobby employees to share any additional information on the company’s coronavirus response.

Over the following week, Brown tweeted a series of photos of company communications, including an email instructing managers to use the pandemic as a selling technique and instructions on how to create a barrier curtain for cashiers using a shower rod, vinyl fabric, and a stapler. 

Hobby Lobby critics retweeted Brown’s original post, many pointing out the disparity between the billionaire CEO keeping stores open while refusing to provide sick leave for the majority of his employees.

Though Hobby Lobby agreed to close its stores in deference to the Shelter-in-Place mandate, at least 36 stores in Ohio and Wisconsin quietly opened on March 30, 2020. Business Insider reported that at least 17 of the stores that opened in Wisconsin were still listed as "temporarily closed" on Google.

In a statement released through the company website, Hobby Lobby announced that all of its stores would be closed as of April 3, 2020 and that it would “furlough nearly all store employees and a large portion of corporate and distribution employees.” 

As of July 7, 2020, all Hobby Lobby stores have reopened.

On April 13, 2020, the satire news site American Buffoon published a fake article with the headline, “Hobby Lobby CEO Claims Not Being Able To Own Slaves Violates His Religious Freedom.” Although American Buffoon openly admits that its content is mainly satire, many critics responded on Twitter as though the article were factual.

On September 6, 2020, just months before the United States presidential election, @norsknewfbabe posted a photo on Twitter of a display she had allegedly found at her local Hobby Lobby, though it was not confirmed whether this display was set up by a Hobby Lobby employee or by a customer. The display was an arrangement of individual block letters that stated, “USA VOTE TRUMP.”

Critics began retweeting the photo, many calling for customers to boycott Hobby Lobby.