On Monday, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the controversial Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. case, ruling for the first time that for-profit businesses can hold religious views and that they can use said views to get out of providing birth control coverage to their employees. Depending on which team you play for in the culture wars, the ruling was either a tragic affront to democracy, healthcare, and civil rights, or a rare win for freedom and religious liberty. For the Green family, the billionaire evangelicals who ‘closely hold” the Hobby Lobby corporation, it was obviously the latter. But it was also an auspicious beginning, an early victory in a larger fight to persuade America that it is a Christian nation bound by the literal truths of the Bible.

Although relatively unknown among unbelievers until the Supreme Court case, Hobby Lobby and its devout owners have long been a powerful force on the Christian right. The Green family is basically to American Christendom what George Soros is to progressive causes, or, perhaps more appropriately, what the Koch brothers are for the Tea Party. David Green, Hobby Lobby’s self-made founder, is worth roughly $5.1 billion, according to Forbes, which […]