of all the things i expected to read in the news today, hobby lobby being busted for smuggling 5,500 ancient mesopotamian artifacts including cuneiform tablets and clay talismans into the united states was not one of them
an arts n crafts superstore chain has been illegally smuggling ancient biblical relics LIKE THIS
out of the UAE, in falsely labelled packages delivered to some hobby lobby stores in oklahoma.
So hobby lobby indirectly funded Daesh??
Considering its militant Christian leadership, wouldn’t be surprised.
I feel like the point that gets missed in a lot of this dialogue is that they were buying these antiquities for their ongoing side project, which is a bible museum.
It doesn’t change the underlying wrong doing, but it adds an extra weird twist in which a “Christian” for-profit company probably smuggled looted antiquities that they were warned were probably looted and decided it didn’t matter if they were paying money directly or indirectly to ISIS and other terror groups because it was important that they have these items for their soon-to-open passion project in building a money-making shrine a Bible museum.
Now, in general, the Bible, like many religious texts, has had a huge impact on history and there are plenty of non-religious people who devote their lives to studying parts or all of the text or its impact. The idea of a private Bible museum isn’t inherently stranger or more worrisome than lots of other museums out there.
That said, this museum is inherently being built with a Christian focus (again, this isn’t necessarily a worrisome thing. It’s a private organization and they can push whatever message they want), but part of the goals of the Museum are to build a high school Bible curriculum. They want this to be made for “markets around the world” and it’s currently being developed with teams in the US and Israel. They boast that it’s already being piloted in public and “at risk” schools in the US.
So, to summarize, you have a private, for-profit company knowingly funneling money into questionable hands (at best) or terrorist groups (at worst), abetting the looting of priceless artifacts from countries that have been pillaged by western powers for decades, for the purpose of building a museum with the goal to increase knowledge and engagement with Christian ideas and the Bible both inside and outside the walls of the museum itself.
What would Jesus do? Idk, man, but “Fund some terrorists and illegally acquire to help fill the shelves at a new museum with $500 million in assets to help show off how great Christianity is while supporting a Presidential candidate (now President) who is actively against helping those who are harmed by western interference and terrorism in those countries” doesn’t seem like the clear translation of directions like “cast off all your possessions and follow me” or “care for your sick, your orphans, your widows, and aliens, because whatever you do to the least of these you do to me.”