Biblical scholars Moss (The Myth of Persecution) and Baden (The Historical David)
become dogged investigative journalists as they seek to understand how
the Green family, the billionaire owners of Hobby Lobby, have aspired to
influence national politics. In four densely packed chapters, the
authors examine the development of the Green family's collection of
Bible-related antiquities, their mediation of scholarly access to the
collection, and the use of the collection to promote Bible education in
public schools. Their efforts will coalesce in the founding of the
Museum of the Bible, projected to open in November. This thoroughly
sourced and rigorously argued work raises troubling questions about the
participation of the Green family (and their employees) in the global
antiquities market; their attempts to import business practices, such as
nondisclosure agreements, into educational research settings (thus
hampering peer review); and their resistance to accepting that their own
Christian nationalist vision is rooted in a Protestant understanding of
the Bible. While depicting the Greens as well-intentioned, Moss and
Baden make an impassioned case for fighting against the family's efforts
to limit access to their questionably sourced collection and to
misrepresent their work as nonsectarian when it is entrenched in a
deeply American evangelical worldview. The antiquities (many of which
were recently forfeited after federal prosecutors discovered they were
smuggled out of Iraq) include Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets, Torah
scrolls, papyri, a fragment of a copy of Paul's letter to the Romans
from the third century, and rare fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls,
among others. This is a timely read for those interested in the
relationship between money, faith, and American politics. (Oct.)
