We've had quite a lot of threads on the subject of dominionist front companies and corporate funding of dominionism, including at least two involving Hobby Lobby:

Thread the First
Thread the Second

In both threads, there's also been discussion over Assemblies of God-linked groups setting up front companies as well (in particular, Hillsong AoG in Australia which recently "steeplejacked" Gloria Jean Coffee's non-US operations).

In an effort to update the Dark Christianity Wiki (and in particular, adding a formal entry on Hobby Lobby and its relationships with dominionist groups...well, let's just say I found some major bombshells which should permanently blow the whole "Hobby Lobby? Dominionist? NO WAI" stuff out of the water.

Stuff like, oh, a very real possibility that Hobby Lobby itself is connected with the Assemblies--the very denomination that birthed dominionism in the first place.

Specifically, there are two primary linkages with the Assemblies that I was not aware of--one of the groups Hobby Lobby directly funds is an Assemblies frontgroup, and it turns out the owners are Assemblies members too.

Firstly, one of the Hobby Lobby funded groups--Book of Hope--was massively pinging my "dominionist-dar" on multiple fronts:

a) Use of the term "Affect Destiny" in one of their groups ("Destiny" is increasingly a dominionist, and specifically an Assemblies and "Joel's Army", codeword in groups and churches)

b) "Missionary" groups targeting kids in heavily Catholic countries, including El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Brazil (all four of which have had massive problems with Assemblies-linked pastors "sheep-stealing" en masse from Catholic dioceses--that is, when they aren't setting up FGBMFI-run "Catholic Charismatic" cuckoo churches to commit steeplejacking)

c) The group's founding in the 70's in Beirut, Lebanon--an area where Assemblies-linked groups have historically run missionary groups targeting Israel and the rest of the Middle East (hell, the very group I escaped from runs such an affair--Voice of Hope Jerusalem operated in Beirut and transmitted dominionist programming to Israel); these groups based themselves out of Beirut in order to avoid Israeli laws prohibiting missionary activity towards the Jewish population.

d) Hell, the use of the word "hope" in the name, which is an absolute favourite of Assemblies-linked charity fronts.

As it turns out, there is a very good reason my dominionist-dar was pegged squarely in the red; Book of Hope is operated by a guy named Bob Hoskins. Hoskins also runs a little affair called Life Publishers International--LPI is the international publishing wing of the Assemblies of God, and Book of Hope is essentially a subsidiary of LPI (it's not uncommon for operations to be traded off between the two wings). Hoskins in particular seems to be one of the Assemblies' "main men" in the Middle East.

That's not the only bit of scumminess there--nope, not at all. More proof that Book of Hope is an Assemblies front comes courtesy of the Assemblies themselves wherein they brag about Book of Hope and Teen Challenge (another Assemblies front) putting together projects which would essentially be an international version of the "Seven Project" (which is yet another Assemblies front that claims to be a program for "at risk" youth, is promoted actively in public schools, but which is a recruitment front and has mandatory altar calls at its "Seven After 7" affairs):

Book of Hope International, Pompano Beach, Florida, an organization that has been responsible for distributing God's Word throughout the world, has united in partnership with Teen Challenge International in an effort to reach more young people with the message of Jesus Christ.

Through this effort, a new publication, "Book of Hope Special Edition Teen Challenge," has already been printed and distributed in Swaziland and South Africa. Plans are now underway for global distribution of the book in many languages. The book includes the miraculous testimonies of young people who escaped lives of drug addiction through a relationship with Jesus Christ.
. . .
Hoskins said that through the combined effort of the two ministries, evangelical efforts are planned for Russia, Australia, Puerto Rico, Slovakia and Iceland.

Bob Hoskins [Rob's father], founder and director of Book of Hope International, agreed that the ministry alliance is opening many new doors of ministry. Hoskins was recently in Australia establishing ministry projects for teams that will soon be there. Teen Challenge is seen primarily as a drug-prevention program, despite its evident ministerial characteristics. The senior Hoskins said, "There are three-and-a- half million high school students in Australia that we will soon be communicating with. This is truly an exciting opportunity to reach untold numbers of youth with the message of Jesus Christ. Plans are underway to distribute copies of "Book of Hope Special Edition Teen Challenge" in Australia."

He noted that in Russia, although over 40 million copies of the "Book of Hope" have been distributed, some schools are closed to Book of Hope efforts. "We believe, however, that through our relationship with Teen Challenge, we will now be able to minister in even more Russian schools," Bob Hoskins said. "This is vitally important since Russia has the fastest-growing drug abuse increase in the world. There are now 2.5 million heroin addicts in Russia. Through a special Russian edition of "Book of Hope Special Edition Teen Challenge," we hope to get into even more Russian schools next year. We can simultaneously help kids stay away from drugs (or escape dependence on drugs) and find new hope in Jesus Christ."

Book of Hope and Teen Challenge are now recruiting individuals to serve as two-year interns who will be responsible for the distribution "Book of Hope Special Edition Teen Challenge" in various nations. These interns will represent the two organizations in the public school systems as they work to help kids avoid drugs and find hope in Jesus Christ.

(And people wonder why Russia has such severe restrictions on ministry groups. For that matter, this stuff is the last thing Oz needs--they have enough problems with their own homegrown Assemblies churches (cough cough Hillsong cough Planetshakers cough ahem).)

If that's not enough for you, Life Publishers International happens to be publishers of guides by Paul Yonggi Cho on how to set up abusive "cell churches" in your own church, and in fact appear to be his primary publisher (not surprising, as Yonggi Cho actually led the Assemblies through most of the 90's and also essentially (re)invented "Joel's Army" theology; I am all too familiar with Cho as the church I escaped from was one of the first churches at the US where he tried to foment a "Brownsville" style revival at).

Life Publishers International also publishes an official Assemblies bible version targeting youth; the Bible is in turn based on the "Life in the Spirit Study Bible", an explicitly neopentecostal study bible offered in NIV and KJV versions (which seems to be the de facto "official" study bible of the Assemblies).

And reportedly, Book of Hope's founders get some of the most money of *any* group that Hobby Lobby funds. (This is not insubstantial, seeing as they gave Jerry Fallwell over 1.2 million dollars.)

As bad as this is, this isn't all of it. Nope. The links go even further.

Even if they weren't funding an Assemblies front-group, at least ten percent of the profits of every purchase you would make at Hobby Lobby would go into the Assemblies anyways. In a Charisma Today article (which I've posted before, but hadn't noticed the Assemblies links till today), it's noted that David Green (owner of Hobby Lobby) is a member of an Assemblies church and keeps close friendships with an Assemblies pastor:

The family are partners in more than the business. Just as Green's parents influenced their children to serve the Lord, David and Barbara passed that legacy on to their children.

"David's passion--his drive--has been instilled in his entire family," Glenn Cranfield says. Cranfield, a lifelong friend of the Greens, is their interim pastor at Lakeside Assembly of God in Oklahoma City. "They want to know Christ and make Him known to others in every area."

Yup, you heard it right--they're about as dominionist as you can get.

As if you didn't need any more reasons not to shop at Hobby Lobby...