Re: A Tale of Two American Businesses -- Bancroft Mills v. Hobby Lobby

[Greg Ashcroft]

In article <XnsA38374567D9...@78.46.70.116>
Joe Cooper <drag...@unseen.is> wrote:
>
> America was a different country in the 1800s.
>
> It was a country in which Joseph, Samuel, and William Bancroft of
> Wilmington, Delaware, were free to put their Quaker faith into practice;
> not just by worshipping in their churches, but by shaping their
> businesses and their philanthropies according to the principles of their
> faith. They were devout Christian men who did good things. Their faith
> was intertwined inextricably with every aspect of their lives.
>
> The Bancrofts� faith became a legacy.
>
> Today, joggers and dog walkers at Wilmington�s Rockford Park, with its
> ancient oak trees and winding roads, go by the plaque commemorating the
> Bancroft who gave his farm to the city for public use. William Bancroft
> called on William Law Olmstead, who planned New York City�s Central Park,
> to design picturesque parks. Guided by the principle of the brotherhood
> of mankind, Bancroft provided city dwellers from all stations of life
> scenic open spaces to enjoy.
>
> The now abandoned Bancroft Mills was by 1930 one of the biggest cotton
> finishing mills in the world and a model of good employer/employee
> relations. Manager Samuel Bancroft regarded employees as extended family
> and treated them accordingly.
>
> As time goes by, most legacies prove written in water.
>
> So it is with the Bancroft legacy, which has quietly faded into the
> background of Delaware�s history. But the Bancroft family would have
> wanted it that way, as modesty was a virtue prized by their Quaker faith,
> as were Christian family and civic virtues.
>
> One of the Quakers� staunchest beliefs was that the authority of the
> state never took precedence over the authority of the individual
> conscience before God. The Quaker belief in the inner guiding light of
> Christ was so strong that they would not take any oath of allegiance to
> the state, nor would they bow to any demand of the state that interfered
> with their religious practices.
>
> At the time, the U.S. government generally respected Quakers and others�
> religious convictions, leaving believers of all faiths the freedom to
> follow their God and their consciences. There was a strong belief in
> freedom of religion as a right transcending the dictates of the state.
>
> We live in a different America today.
>
> We now live in a country in which the Bancroft family would be excoriated
> for their faith and viewed suspiciously for their Christian principles
> and virtues. Seldom in the history of the United States have Christians
> and others of faith been under more pressure to bend to the power of the
> almighty state, not just in business practices, but in their personal
> walk with God.
>
> One need only think of the confusion and dismay Samuel Bancroft would
> feel were he Hobby Lobby�s CEO David Green, whose objections of
> conscience to the Affordable Care Act caused a legal firestorm that
> eventually landed in the Supreme Court.
>
> Over decades of hard work, Green achieved the American Dream, seeing his
> company grow from an enterprise begun in his living room in 1972 to a
> nationwide chain of some 575 stores today. All the while, Green has
> remained true to the dictates of his conscience -- much like the Bancroft
> family before him.
>
> A devout Pentecostal, Green attributes the growth of his company to the
> fact he based Hobby Lobby�s operations on biblical principles. Hobby
> Lobby stores are closed on Sundays in order families have time to rest
> and worship. Green has stated, �We�re Christians, and we run our
> business on Christian principles.�
>
> Those principles include paying the business�s 22,000 workers fairly --
> twice the minimum wage for full time workers. "As a family-owned
> business, we want our employees to feel like they are part of a family,"
> said Green, echoing the sentiments of Samuel Bancroft.
>
> According to an interview with Forbes magazine author Brian Solomon,
> Green also believes that faith is not really faith unless it�s put into
> practice in his business and in everyday life. "I don�t care if you�re in
> business or out of business, God owns it. How do I separate it? Well,
> it's God's in church and it's mine here? I have purpose in church, but I
> don't have purpose over here? You can't have a belief system on Sunday
> and not live it the other six days."
>
> In the above statement lies the reason Green filed suit against an
> overweening federal government which told him, his inner light of
> Christian conscience or no, that Hobby Lobby had to provide its employees
> with insurance that included the abortifacient, �the morning after pill.�
>
> Green balked, taking a public stance against the Patient Protection and
> Affordable Care Act and filing a lawsuit against the United States that
> stated, "The Green family's religious beliefs forbid them from
> participating in, providing access to, paying for, training others to
> engage in, or otherwise supporting abortion-causing drugs and devices."
>
> Hobby Lobby argued that the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment
> to the United States Constitution and the Religious Freedom Restoration
> Act were safeguards allowing the protection of their religious beliefs.
>
> The fierce controversy that rose because of Green�s refusal to capitulate
> to the demands of the Left saw Green and Hobby Lobby vilified and
> castigated in ways the humble Bancrofts never could have imagined.
>
> Even the decision of SCOTUS concerning the ACA�s insurance mandate has
> not stopped the Left from targeting Hobby Lobby.
>
> The latest suit against the company concerns the �rights� of a biological
> male transgender going by the name of Meggan Sommerville. Sommerville
> wants to use the women's restroom at work. Hobby Lobby requires that
> he/she use the men's restroom until completing sex reassignment surgery.
> Sommerville has sued, citing discrimination, as his/her inner light has
> determined he/she is female.
>
> As the new case reveals, the Quaker concept of the inner light has for
> radical liberals come to mean that only those on the extreme Left have an
> inner light that is infallible. It follows the State is to be the
> enforcer of that infallible knowledge of the rightness of the latest
> tenets of the liberal agenda, Christian or other consciences be damned.
>
> For the Left, if Hobby Lobby or any other business run according to
> religious principles -- Chick Fil-A comes to mind -- opposes liberal
> dictates, it does not deserve the right to exist. It has no right to
> practice a faith diametrically opposed to current Leftist doctrines.
> Therefore, it should be trampled into the dust.
>
> One cannot help but suspect the reason the Left continues to attempt
> Green�s and Hobby Lobby�s destruction is because of Green�s financial
> support of evangelical Christian institutions. Take down Green, and the
> entire evangelical community would feel the repercussions.
>
> The vast majority of Christians, along with believers in other faiths,
> believe the state must accede to a transcendent moral order that
> overarches and informs the state -- not vice versa. The U.S Constitution
> acknowledges and reinforces the divinely given right to live out life in
> every sphere as one�s faith dictates.
>
> Christians and others must demand their civic rights to run their
> businesses, train and educate their children, and to live out and
> practice their faith in the home, church and society at large without
> interference by what is an increasingly persecutory state.
>
> Otherwise, they and others of differing faith traditions will find
> themselves having the �freedom� to practice their faith within church
> walls only -- not within society at large. Liberals increasingly insist
> that once people of faith are outside sanctuary walls or the privacy of
> their homes, liberals should dictate how their lives are to be lived.
>
> Such religious �freedom� is readily available even in authoritarian
> countries such as Saudi Arabia.
>
> It certainly is not the freedom liberty loving Americans would want or
> choose.
>
> Source: http://bit.ly/1ojzDn9
> Remember in November

Homosexuals and atheists combined don't even constitute 5% of
the world population, yet they are responsible for 90% of the
noise.

Just killl them off.

Put them down.

One at a time, ten at a time, it doesn't matter. Just start
putting them down along with the mentally confused who support
them.

After a few thousand or so, they'll get the message.

Where else could one get such a positive return on a cheap
message?

���