We’ve done plenty of abstract shows on American Christian nationalism. But this one is about a single family: the Greens of Oklahoma City, owners of the Hobby Lobby retail empire, and probably the wealthiest Christian nationalist family you’ve never heard of.
According to investigative writer Michael Blanding, the Greens have amassed a $14 billion fortune from selling glitter glue and popsicle sticks. In his new book The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby, Blanding reveals what he insists is this billionaire family’s quest to craft a Christian nation.
Hobby Lobby is an all-American story — especially in its ridiculous ironies. A fundamentalist fortune built on bead-buying hippy consumers. The business came out of the Sixties counterculture. That said, the Greens have built the closest thing to a Christian corporate behemoth. Hobby Lobby has no corporate debt, is closed on Sundays, pays above average wages, and has a founder, David, who still flies coach. And yet this is the same Trump-loving corporation that forced its warehouse laborers to work during COVID and denies them birth control coverage.
And then there is the Museum of the Bible, blocks from the Capitol — God’s base camp, as it’s known — stocked with 40,000 shady artifacts including a $1.7 million Gilgamesh Dream Tablet, and forged Dead Sea Scrolls. Such are the absurdities of life in Christian MAGAland. Render unto Trump what is Trump’s. Then deduct, forge or steal the rest.
Five Takeaways
• The Most Influential Family You've Never Heard Of. An $8 billion craft empire and a $14 billion family — launched, by David Green's own account, by hippies buying beads. The family credits God rather than themselves.
• True Believers, Not Hypocrites. No debt, above-minimum wages, closed Sundays, a founder who flies coach — and warehouse workers unmasked in hundred-degree COVID heat after a vision from God. The 2014 Supreme Court case made it a national flashpoint.
• Seven Mountains and the Attack on Pluralism. Steve Green is on record: one true worldview, incompatible with all others — pluralism should not exist. Not guilt by association, Blanding argues; it's what the family says in its own books.
• Trump as Cyrus. Green opposed Trump in 2016, then fell in line: the Supreme Court was the prize, and Trump the imperfect vessel — the pagan king who delivers for the faithful without being one of them.
• God's Base Camp. The Museum of the Bible: 40,000 artifacts from shady dealers, a looted Gilgamesh tablet seized by the feds, forged Dead Sea Scrolls, and a reappraisal tax scheme so ingenious the artifacts paid for themselves.
About Keen On America
Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.
Website: https://keenon.tv/ Substack: https://keenon.substack.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@KeenOnShow
Buy The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby: hachettebookgroup.com/titles/michael-blanding/the-gospel-according-to-hobby-lobby/9781541703940
Chapters:
00:00:31 Introduction: drilling down on Christian nationalism
00:02:12 The most influential family you've never heard of
00:03:33 An $8 billion business built on glitter glue
00:04:50 Chosen by God: running Hobby Lobby by biblical principles
00:05:59 From TG&Y to the garage: how David Green started
00:06:30 Crediting the hippies: beads, macramé, and Haight-Ashbury
00:08:00 Not hypocrites: true believers who fly coach
00:08:40 COVID, masks, and a vision from God
00:09:50 A full-on attack on pluralistic society?
00:11:21 Devil's advocate: why is this against democracy?
00:12:15 Was America founded as a Christian nation?
00:13:43 Seven Mountains dominionism
00:14:39 What surprised the researcher: one family's influence
00:16:20 Trump as Cyrus: the imperfect vessel
00:18:33 The Museum of the Bible: God's base camp
00:19:38 What's wrong with faith? Playing devil's advocate
00:21:50 A Handmaid's Tale scenario?
00:23:17 Guilt by association — or on the record?
00:23:27 Steve Green: one worldview, incompatible with pluralism
00:25:21 The Gilgamesh Dream Tablet and 40,000 artifacts
00:26:50 Forged Dead Sea Scrolls and the tax deduction machine
00:27:50 As American as Coca-Cola?
00:28:49 The 2014 Supreme Court case: love it or hate it
00:29:45 Policy: what should be done?
00:32:07 A third of America: where this is heading
00:33:20 Thanks and goodbye