Hobby Lobby gets it wrong.
An
American Company called Hobby Lobby placed a full page advertisement in our
local Sarasota Herald-Tribune newspaper today.
I am certain that the same advertisement appeared in many other American
newspapers.
You
can read it here:
http://www.hobbylobby.com/assets/images/holiday_messages/current_message.jpg
In my
opinion the advertisement is a bit of “cherry-picking” in which Hobby
Lobby ( a privately held Company whose
owners are Evangelical Christians)
strives to assert that the United States of America is a Christian
nation.
Notwithstanding
that that there is no such thing as a “Christian nation” (see this from an
evangelical scholar)…..
“Jonathan Merritt, an evangelical Christian writer and blogger for the
Religion News Service, “……… arguing that conservative evangelicals shouldn’t
call businesses “Christian” in the first place.
“The New Testament never—not one time—applies the ‘Christian’ label
to a business or even a government,” he writes. “The tag is applied only to
individuals. If the Bible is your ultimate guide, the only organization one
might rightly term ‘Christian’ is a church. And this is only because a church
in the New Testament is not a building or a business, but a collection of
Christian individuals who have repented, believed on Christ, and are pursuing a
life of holiness”…
With
gratitude to Jonathan Merritt for his wisdom and clarity I turn your attention
to the following assertion in the Hobby Lobby ad. This is what Hobby Lobby
posted.
SUPREME COURT
RULINGS “There is no dissonance in these [legal] declarations…These are not
individual sayings, declarations of private persons: they are organic [legal,
governmental] utterances; they speak the voice of the entire people…These, and
many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial
declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian
nation.” Church of the Holy Trinity v. U.S., 1892” Unanimous Decision Declaring America a
Christian Nation.
The
Hobby Lobby folks do not acknowledge that the author of this opinion, Justice
Harry Brewer wrote the following in 1905
But in what sense can
it be called a Christian nation? Not in the sense that Christianity is the
established religion or that people are in any matter compelled to support it.
On the contrary, the Constitution specifically provides that 'Congress shall
make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof.' Neither is it Christian in the sense that all of its citizens
are either in fact or name Christian. On the contrary, all religions have free
scope within our borders. Numbers of our people profess other religions, and
many reject all. Nor is it Christian in the sense that a profession of
Christianity is a condition of holding office or otherwise engaging in public
service, or essential to recognition either politically or socially. In fact,
the government as a legal organization is independent of all religions.
Nevertheless, we constantly speak of this republic as a Christian Nation--in
fact, as the leading Christian Nation of the world. This popular use of the
term certainly has significance. It is not a mere creation of the imagination.
It is not a term of derision but has substantial basis--one which justifies its
use. (Justice Brewer 1905 explanation)
In other words his comments of 1892 reflected that the USA
was a Christian Nation “de facto”, but not “de jure”.
Hobby Lobby is guilty of gross negligence
in its advertisement and reportage of what this Associate Justice of the
Supreme Court said.
Of course I have a decent respect
for Evangelical Christians. Some of my family
members are beloved Christians in this honorable Evangelical traction.
But I get ancy when businesses
such as Hobby Lobby hi-jack the words of
the founding fathers and Supreme Court Justices etc to buttress their ideological convictions that America is a Christian
(read Evangelical Christian) nation.
Hobby Lobby are also guilty of serious double standards. The reason they brought the case, they say, was to prevent their employees having access to birth control through their health insurance policies (because birth control is not Christian).
ReplyDeleteTurns out that a large part of the employer co-funding for the insurance policy (is it a 401? can't get my head round US bureaucracy) is invested in - you guessed - companies that may contraceptives...