The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby: Inside a Billionaire Family's Quest to Craft a Christian Nation

by Michael Blanding

A revelatory account of how the family behind Hobby Lobby rose to political prominence and used their influence—and fortune—to push a radical religious agenda

Hobby Lobby is a multibillion-dollar craft store chain with more than a thousand US locations, founded and owned by the Greens—an evangelical Christian family committed to establishing the Bible as the ultimate authority behind our laws and society.

In The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby, Michael Blanding reveals how the Greens have quietly yet effectively used their vast wealth to spread their beliefs throughout the US and beyond. They’ve run expensive, wide-reaching ad campaigns to inculcate biblical values and have propped up evangelical education through donations of money and land. They successfully fought a Supreme Court case to deny their employees insurance coverage for contraception and funneled millions of dollars to organizations working to overturn Roe v. Wade and to undermine LGBTQ rights. And, for their multimillion-dollar Museum of the Bible just blocks from the US Capitol building, they’ve acquired looted, stolen, and forged biblical antiquities from the Middle East. In a riveting exposé, Blanding traces the Greens’ efforts to sell their evangelical mission.

Captivating and disturbing, The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby exposes the pivotal role the Green family has played in funding and empowering America’s dangerous, ascendant Christian nationalist movement.

Genres: Nonfiction

384 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication July 14, 2026

About the author

Michael Blanding is a Boston-based investigative journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, WIRED, Slate, Smithsonian, The Boston Globe Magazine, and Boston magazine. His newest book, The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby: A Billionaire Family's Quest to Craft a Christian Nation, is due out from PublicAffairs in July 2026. It is a revelatory account of how the family behind Hobby Lobby rose to political prominence and used their influence—and fortune—to push a radical religious agenda.

Blanding is also author of In Shakespeare's Shadow: A Rogue Scholar's Quest to Reveal the True Source Behind the World's Greatest Plays (2021), which won the International Book Award for Narrative Non-fiction; and The Map Thief: The Gripping Story of an Esteemed Rare-Map Dealer Who Made Millions Stealing Priceless Maps (2014), which was a New York Times bestseller and an NPR Book of the Year. A former journalism fellow at Brandeis University and Harvard Law School, he has taught feature writing at Tufts University, Emerson College, and GrubStreet Writers.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Net Galley and Publix Affairs for this ARC.

I found this book absolutely fascinating. It’s covers both the history of the Green family and the founding of Hobby Lobby. The book starts by covering the early life of David Green and his parents and how he ultimately got into the retail business. It continues to follow the growth of Hobby Lobby and the trials and tribulations the store and family faced.

The parts I found really interesting covered the history of Christian evangelicalism and how this influenced the way the Greens run Hobby Lobby and the causes they contribute too. It covers the pet cause each of David’s sons were interested in (one focuses on bible translations and religious films and the other focuses on ancient artifacts). It also covers the controversies they have faced.

I found it very readable and would highly recommend.

[Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Gospel According to Hobby Lobby by Michael Blanding is a well-researched deep-dive into the history and machinations of one of the richest families in America, and how they personally helped push Christian Nationalism in America.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve told the story of how Hobby Lobby stole and forged ancient artifacts from other countries for their Bible museum to stunned acquaintances at parties. This is one of those news headlines that feels like it should’ve been a bigger deal than it was, and yet nobody seems to be aware that it even happened.

While I initially picked up this book to watch some of the wealthiest men in America trip over their big clown shoes as they commit one of the dumbest crimes in US history, It was also fascinating seeing how Evangelism got its start, and how the Green family used their money and influence to push their religious agenda and change politics in America for the worse. I was tuned in to most of the big shifts mentioned in this book as they happened, but I was shocked to learn just how hard Hobby Lobby was pressing its thumb on the scale behind the scenes. I had to take frequent breaks because I kept getting stress headaches. Everything that happens in this book is so frustrating and stupid, and I think it’s important that everyone knows about it.

Please read this book, this story is fascinating and completely insane.

Thank you PublicAffairs for providing this advance copy for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

[Jacqueline · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subject matter here is genuinely fascinating: a billionaire craft store family quietly bankrolling a Christian nationalist movement, acquiring looted biblical antiquities, and fighting Supreme Court cases, all while selling yarn and fake flowers.

Michael Blanding clearly did his homework, and the history of both the Green family empire and the broader evangelical movement is worth knowing.

But I kept bumping up against the same question: what is this book trying to be? Part corporate exposé, part family biography, part evangelical movement history, and it never quite commits. The structure suffers for it. Long biographical detours on prominent figures in the evangelical world sit awkwardly alongside the Greens’ own story, and the transitions between them are rough enough to give you whiplash.

The identity crisis of the book is a shame, and caused the pacing to suffer. It felt like it took me forever to finish, despite the content being interesting.

If the subjects interest you, definitely give the book a shot. I don't regret reading it.

Thanks to NetGalley and PublicAffairs publishing for the advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a well-researched and fairly even handed look at the family who owns Hobby Lobby and their firm conviction that they are meant to convert others to Christianity. I appreciated the context the author provides that suggests that their interpretation of things is probably wrong. And even though some people may interpret their actions as evil, the author only ever presents the family as people who are truly living out what they believe and trying to do what they believe is best for others as a result of those beliefs.

[Ellen Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is absolutely loaded with information about Hobby Lobby and all the drama that has come with it. There is so much info but it’s laid out in a way that I could handle - the start of HL, the things in between, and everything up till the present day. The reporting is so thorough and a lot of things are explained with facts and historical tidbits, which helped especially to explain some of their religious beliefs. I was in awe by the time I got to the final page. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[JXR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well-written and insightful tell-all about the secrets of the family behind Hobby Lobby and their political aims. 5 stars. tysm for the E-ARC.