Hobby Lobby and China

Most of you who know me realize I'm not a confrontational person. I grew up hating conflict, and avoided it with a passion.

Listening to the debate team practice in high school was nauseating.

You can imagine what the ongoing bickering in Congress does.

So the latest saga in our country's history brought me back to my blog today. (Facebook wouldn't allow me enough room to post the commentary I found regarding someone's opinion of Hobby Lobby and the fact that most of their inventory is Made in China.)


This interesting position comes from the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission on the subject of Hobby Lobby and their inventory from China (below the break). If I were to scrutinize all the purchases of China-manufactured products from MY voting wallet, the house would be pretty stark, particularly in the electronics arena. I wouldn't even be able to make this Facebook post, as it's on my computer which I'm sure was manufactured in China for Lenovo/IBM.

What billfold votes are cast when Apple products are purchased? A Hoover vacuum cleaner? A Xerox copier? A Volvo S40? Do those purchases (and the companies that sell those products) cast a resounding vote for China's government practices and a smack the face of American Liberties?

It reminds me of a photo that came out a while back of the protesters of the Occupy movements ... speaking out against the evil corporations of the American economy and how they were "fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process."

Yep ... fighting back. On their iPhone. Wearing Nike shoes. Drinking their Starbucks.

The following is an opinion of one man, who may represent many. For me, I keep reading. Toughest thing these days is understanding who is telling the truth.

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The line of questioning here is a red herring. There is no question that the Chinese government is brutal, repressive, and dismissive of even the most basic human rights. This is seen in the murderous one-child policy, the crackdown on freedom of worship, the abuse of political prisoners, and the smothering of dissent. That’s why the ERLC and other evangelical groups have highlighted the human rights violations in China, and called the church to stand in solidarity with the persecuted church there and elsewhere.

That said, the question isn’t whether the Chinese government is awful, but how do Americans help to bring about change there. Very few would argue that evacuation from the global economy would do so.

The stance of the American government, under both Democratic and Republican Administrations, has been that a China disengaged from the free world is a China in which human rights are even more imperiled. History would suggest that open trade, in most cases, tends to help the development of political rights rather than hinder them. Trade with companies in China is hardly an endorsement of the government’s policies. If that were the case, every American who has purchased anything “Made in China” is automatically and directly morally implicated in China’s immoral government policies, and I don’t think that’s so.

If the Green family believed that a boycott of all Chinese businesses would bring the Chinese government around on human rights, I’m quite certain they would do so. And so would many of us. But that’s hardly the case.

The Greens cannot control the decisions made by the Chinese government. They can, however, direct their own actions. And, as Americans, they can participate in a democratic republic in which the people are ultimately accountable for the decisions of their government. Buying products from companies that operate in a country that aborts children is not the same as being forced by the United States government to purchase directly insurance that does the same.

Someone with a conscientious objection to the death penalty isn’t implicated in capital punishment because she buys oranges from Florida, where capital punishment is practiced. She would reasonably, though, protest if she were forced to sell lethal drugs to the state for that purpose or if she were compelled to pull the switch on the electric chair.

The Christian moral tradition has always held a distinction between direct, personal involvement in sin and living in a world in which sin exists. Jesus and John the Baptist do not ask their followers to boycott the Roman Empire by refusing to serve as soldiers or tax collectors. They do tell them they must stop extorting and cheating (Lk. 3:12-14; 19:8-9). The Apostle Paul doesn’t call Corinthian Christians to stop all economic activity in Corinth simply because there is idolatry and culture-sponsored prostitution there. But they are forbidden from, for instance, doing “commerce” with the temple prostitutes (1 Cor. 6:15).

Whether one thinks one ought to do business with companies in China, this is obviously a very different question from whether the government ought to force employers to pay for drugs that cause abortions. The Greens have put their entire business on the line for their convictions about freedom of conscience and religious liberty for all.

Russell Moore,
President, The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission