The Most Egregious Examples of Hobby Lobby’s Religious Hypocrisy

Yesterday, we learned that Hobby Lobby, which is challenging the federal government over Obamacare’s mandatory contraception coverage, offers its employees a 401(k) retirement plan that happens to invest $73 million in pharmaceutical companies that develop and produce various forms of contraception.

Whoops.

According to Mother Jones, the companies include Bayer, Pfizer and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, and the contraceptives include pills, emergency contraception, IUDs and, yes, abortion drugs.

These companies include Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, which makes Plan B and ParaGard, a copper IUD, and Actavis, which makes a generic version of Plan B and distributes Ella. Other holdings in the mutual funds selected by Hobby Lobby include Pfizer, the maker of Cytotec and Prostin E2, which are used to induce abortions; Bayer, which manufactures the hormonal IUDs Skyla and Mirena; AstraZeneca, which has an Indian subsidiary that manufactures Prostodin, Cerviprime, and Partocin, three drugs commonly used in abortions; and Forest Laboratories, which makes Cervidil, a drug used to induce abortions. Several funds in the Hobby Lobby retirement plan also invested in Aetna and Humana, two health insurance companies that cover surgical abortions, abortion drugs, and emergency contraception in many of the health care policies they sell.

That’s not all. You’ve probably also heard that Hobby Lobby’s merchandise is almost entirely manufactured in China, an authoritarian nation that offers universal, state-financed abortions, which not only help to control China’s population but are also available for a variety of other reasons. Surely Hobby Lobby is aware of what the Chinese government is up to, given the corporation’s very outspoken opposition to abortion and contraception.

On the lighter side of Hobby Lobby’s obvious hypocrisy, meanwhile, I scanned through the official Hobby Lobby website and online store and discovered several other glaring trespasses against the Lord.

Clicking over to the “Our Company” page, we find the following mission statement from founder and CEO David Green: “Honoring the Lord in all we do by operating the company in a manner consistent with biblical principles.” Well, based on the 401(k) news and the China news, that’s not entirely accurate. What else?

Leviticus 19:27 – “Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard.”

Smack in the middle of the front page, we see a photo of three Hobby Lobby employees. The white guy on the right not only sports a haircut that’s very short on the sides, but the edges of his beard are clipped off.

Another translation of this verse forbids us to “round off the side-growth” of our hair. Uh-oh. David Green’s hair is super-roundy.

Judgment: Abomination!… READ MORE

By: Bob Cesca

Bob Cesca is the managing editor at The Daily Banter (www.thedailybanter.com) and a Huffington Post contributor since 2005. He's worked in journalism since 1988 as a print writer/editor, a radio news anchor, a digital media columnist/editor, a book author and blogger. He's the co-host of the Bubble Genius Bob & Chez Show podcast and a Thursday regular on the syndicated Stephanie Miller Show. He's appeared on numerous other radio shows including the John Phillips Show and Geraldo Rivera Show in Los Angeles. Bob has been a commentator/analyst on the BBC (TV and radio), MSNBC, Current TV, CNN and Sky News. Following him on Twitter: @bobcesca_go