On March 19, founder and owner of Hobby Lobby and Mardel stores David Green sent around a letter explaining executives’ decision to keep their store open. It turns out, God, speaking through David Green’s wife, Barbara, told him that the stores should stay open and that all employees should expect to have to “tighten our belts” in the coming days and weeks. Green also promoted that everyone should be praying a lot.
In the letter that you can read below, Green explains that Barbara is the “prayer warrior” of the Green clan. It seems that Barbara has been deep in prayer and according to Mr. Green, “the Lord put on Barbara’s heart three profound words to remind us that He’s in control.” These three profound words are “Guide, Guard and Groom.” The long and short of the message is, like most rich people messages about God, is that there is no need to talk about how rich and powerful the Green family is, and instead we should look to God to protect us during this very trying time.
If you were looking for something about paid sick leave in this letter from on high, you ain’t gonna find it. According to the Hobby Lobby website, they will send employees into self-isolation and contact the CDC if someone appears to have symptoms or has come into “direct or indirect” exposure to the disease. Paid sick leave? Who is to say? Maybe you can ask Barbara Green to ask God about that.
Green is reportedly worth well over $6 billion, and is famously a Christian who fought all the way up to the Supreme Court to make sure that women not living the way David Green wants women to live, would not get the full gamut of medical insurance coverage.