A $14 Billion Glitter Glue Gospel: Michael Blanding on the Wealthiest Christian Nationalist Family You've Never Heard Of

**Andrew Keen** (0:00)
Hello, my name is Andrew Keen. Welcome to Keen On America, the daily interview show about the United States.
Hello, everybody, we've done lots of shows about the threat of Christian nationalism. Some people even suggest it's somehow un-American, a threat to democracy. Certainly challenging many of the liberal principles of modernity, but we haven't actually drilled down and talked a little bit more specifically about a family or a business or a group of people who reflect this kind of evangelical fundamentalism. Today, we are doing exactly that with Michael Blanding, an old friend of the show. He was back on in 2022 talking about whether or not Shakespeare was a forger. This time, he's looking very differently at Hobby Lobby. His new book is The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby. And it's a book about the Greens, David Green in particular, the founding entrepreneur of Hobby Lobby, and what exactly they're doing and their impact perhaps on American civil life and democracy. David is joining us from Boston. David, that Michael, that was terrible to call you David Green. Michael Blanding is joining us from Boston. The book is just out. Got a rave review in the New York Times. Congratulations, Michael.
Is that a fair introduction? Should we be thinking about Hobby Lobby and the Greens as somehow a threat to everything that America or liberal America at least cherishes? Is that why you have written this book?

**Michael Blanding** (2:09)
I think that's fair. I think that's one interpretation. I don't come quite down as judgmentally. I sort of let the reader decide how they feel about the family. But the way I put it is that it's the most influential family that you've never heard of in terms of American politics and culture. And as you say, they're an evangelical Pentecostal fundamentalist family that has gotten hugely wealthy sort of, you know, accidentally through this business they run called Hobby Lobby, which is this craft store business.
And they've chosen to use that money, not on jets or yachts or fancy, you know, mansions, but by contributing to these religious causes. And they've been very successful in that regard.

**Andrew Keen** (2:59)
Yeah. I mean, if they were on the left and they were contributing to liberal causes of one kind or another, we might be admiring them. Before we get to that, before we try to be judgmental, or at least I encourage you to be judgmental, Michael, tell us about Hobby Lobby.
I know that the Greens are worth many billions of dollars. I, like many of our viewers and listeners, certainly wasn't familiar with the Greens or with Hobby Lobby itself. Tell me about them and how these, this Green family has become so wealth.

**Michael Blanding** (3:31)
Yeah. Hobby Lobby, it's a huge company in the United States. It's an $8 billion business. The Greens themselves are worth $14 billion. Last time I checked, they're some of the richest people in America. They got rich by selling crafts, by glitter glue and popsicle sticks, the star beads and fabric and that thing.
They stumbled upon this business in the 70s, that it's the perfect recession proof business. Because when times are good, people are buying crafts and when times are bad, people are tightening their belts and making things rather than buying them. So, just little by little, they just accumulated this vast wealth. And you see these stores, there's about a thousand of them now. They're all over America. These big, big box craft stores called Hobby Lobby.

**Andrew Keen** (4:20)
Well, shouldn't we admire them? You said they stumbled upon the business. I mean, in Silicon Valley, we would describe it quite differently and business schools would describe it quite differently. Shouldn't we at least credit the Greens and David Green in particular? To borrow some language from you, stumbling upon a very lucrative business. Most startup entrepreneurs fail and very few of them turn out to be billionaires. Clearly, they're doing something right, these people.

**Michael Blanding** (4:48)
Yeah. They're good business people. They're savvy in terms of the way that they've spread across the country. Of course, the Green family themselves would say that they have been chosen by God and anointed by God and that they don't bear any responsibility for their wealth, that this is all just the Lord's doing.
According to the Greens, they run their business according to biblical principles. They don't carry any debt, they pride themselves on the way they treat their employees and their fair dealing with suppliers. Some might question some of their principles, but according to them anyway, they run their business according to Christian law.

**Andrew Keen** (5:30)
Again, it strikes me in some ways is rather admirable. Brings to mind Max Weber's book about the origins of capitalism lying in a, maybe not evangelical Puritanism, but certainly the American Puritan tradition. Also brings to mind Walgreens. We've done lots of shows on Walgreens. Are there similarities between Hobby Lobby and Walgreens?