Hobby Lobby Appreciation Day

Since HHS issued the mandate requiring colleges & businesses to pay for artificial birth control & abortion pills like ella, many of the Catholic, as well as protestant colleges & businesses have gone to court to stop the enforcement of that mandate on 1 January 2013 (or later in some cases). While some have gotten the stay, others haven't.

 

1 of those that didn't get the stay was Hobby Lobby. The owners filed their lawsuit because they were opposed to having to pay for drugs that could cause abortions.* Their request for a stay was denied by the lower court, they made an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court. The justice who was responsible for the appeal was Obama appointee Sonia Sotomayor. She refused to issue an emergeny stay saying that Hobby Lobby did not show it met the legal standard for blocking enforcement on an emergency basis. She did say that the company can continue with its lawsuit in lower court.

Hobby Lobby responded by saying that rather than comply on 1 January 2013 to the mandate, it would refuse & risk the fines of $1.3 million a day.

As a result of their brave stand, Joe Grabowski has organized a Hobby Lobby Appreciation Day inspired by the “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” promoted this past August by Governor Mike Huckabee.

 

The Facebook page states the plan as follows: "On Saturday, January 5th, all Americans who value freedom of religion and oppose the HHS Mandate's unfair impositions upon religious individuals and corporate entities are called upon to show their support for Hobby Lobby by shopping either at their local retail Hobby Lobby store or online."

It is important that we support businesses like this so they know that they are not alone. It will also make those businesses that are owned by those who claim to be faithful Catholics or Christians of any faith who have not had the courage to stand up know that they are risking alienating their customers. Additionally, it will remind them that their putting profits before God is not the way they are suppoed to live out their faith.

 

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* The Greens do not oppose artificial birth control. Sadly they do not understand that the pill & other forms of birth control like the IUD also cause abortions. But the fact that they understand the dangers in drugs like ella that the FDA calls a contraceptive means that they are open to the truth. We need to pray that they come to a fuller understanding of the Christian faith so that they realize that from the start any form of artificial birth control was considered wrong by the Church. In the meantime, we should show our support as I say above in order to witness to them that they are heading in the right direction, even if not totally there yet.