David Green

Personal life Green grew up in Altus, Oklahoma, where his father was a Christian pastor with a congregation of 35. All five of his siblings are pastors or pastors' wives. He asserts that he has built his business on biblical principles. Green has taken a public stance against the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) because of its inclusion of a provision mandating that companies include the "morning-after pill" in their health coverage. He sued the federal government in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., overturning the mandate to provide that medication.

Green lives in southwest Oklahoma City with his wife, Barbara. Hobby Lobby is owned by them and their three children. The eldest son, Mart Green, is the founder and CEO of the Mardel Christian & Education book store and Every Tribe Entertainment. Steve Green is president of Hobby Lobby, as well as founder and primary funder of the Museum of the Bible, and patron of the Green Collection. Daughter Darsee Lett is Creative Director for the Hobby Lobby stores.

Museum of the Bible

Green funded the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. at the cost of $500 million. In 2017, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced that they had returned 3,800 ancient artifacts found in the Hobby Lobby warehouse to the Republic of Iraq. In 2020, an additional 11,500 artifacts were returned to Egypt and Iraq. Also a large number of papyrus fragments purported to be part of the Dead Sea Scrolls were revealed to be forgeries.

In July 2020, Forbes magazine reported the museum had received between $2 million and $5 million from the Paycheck Protection Program to retain 249 jobs (a calculated annual average salary between $38,000 and $97,000). In a statement to the magazine, a museum spokesperson said that the “Museum of the Bible applied for and received a PPP loan to pay our employees while the museum had to stay closed, taking in no other revenue."