When the Museum of the Bible was first founded in 2009, it seemed that Hobby Lobby’s president and the museum’s Chair Steve Green considered it an extension of the Green family’s evangelical ministry. Much of this outreach is specifically devoted to ministry the Greens have, for example, placed newspaper ads in order to remind readers of the “real meaning” of Christmas, and have supported Christian educational institutions like Oral Roberts University, to which they donated $70 million. The Museum of the Bible is the personal passion project of the Green family, the evangelical Christian family that owns craft arts and craft chain Hobby Lobby (you might recall them from a few landmark Supreme Court battles).Īs religion professors Candida Moss and Joel Baden recount in their (highly worth reading) book on the Green family, Bible Nation, the Green family devotes a staggering percentage of its Hobby Lobby earnings - reportedly about half of the company’s pretax income - to evangelical outreach and faith-based charity work. The museum is very different from its original conceptionĬentral to critics’ reservations is the background of the museum’s founders (and funders), and the way in which they have used (and, arguably misused) the artifacts in their vast, near-priceless collection. All of which the museum’s primary backers have, thus far, failed to do. (Even among respected academics in the field, you can find as many different and well-argued accounts of the composition of each book of the Bible as you can find scholars.) It means engaging respectfully and carefully with both texts and artifacts and doing methodical analysis. Telling the story of the Bible authentically means thinking critically: being willing to engage with difficult and often contradictory narratives. And there is no other museum of the same scale devoted to any kind of religious history in America.īut the way in which the museum’s founders have routinely disregarded basic principles of academic inquiry should make would-be visitors very, very cautious. Regardless of your faith tradition (or lack thereof), the Bible is an important cultural document, and one whose history and influence should be explored. With six stories’ worth of exhibits - from fragments of ancient Near Eastern texts to personal Bibles of major figures in the American civil rights movement - the museum purports to tell the story of the Bible’s creation and dissemination, of how stories of one tribe of ancient Israelites, rooted in their place and time, became stories of profound and personal significance for so many.Ĭertainly, the Museum of the Bible’s current stated mission - “to invite all people to engage with the Bible” - is a worthy one. This Friday, one of the most controversial new museums in recent memory will open to the public: Washington, DC’s Museum of the Bible, a gargantuan, 430,000-square-foot, $500 million building just off the National Mall.
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