The Museum of the Bible is a private museum that competes against numerous other publicly funded Smithsonian museums within America’s capital. Officially, they are neither a Christian museum nor a Jewish museum, but simply a Bible museum. Nevertheless, they are primarily sponsored by the Green Family, which also contributed numerous artifacts for display. The Green Family is also behind the He Gets Us Campaign. Started in 2010, the museum took seven years to fully establish itself before its grand opening in an effort that cost an estimated $400 million. Other notable sponsors for the museum include the Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, Rick Warren, Joyce Meyers, and JD Greear’s Summit Church.
Over the weekend, there was viral picture posted by Daniel Keene of an exhibit at the Museum of the Bible. Keene is a Southern Baptist who got shamefully condemned by his church for not wanting Texas to look like India. The post in question was an image of the museum celebrating abolitionist John Brown.
John Brown was a murderer hell-bent on instigating a slave revolt in the American South. He was involved in murdering people during what is called “Bleeding Kansas.” In 1859, he would take the federal armory in Harper’s Ferry captive. His grand plan, if it could be called such, would have been to loot the armory to then arm slaves who would then murder their masters. Instead, he ended up killing more black people than he ended up liberating until he was captured by the heroic Robert E. Lee and hanged.
Others featured on the display include Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman (not captured in the picture). Frederick Douglass was an egalitarian yet was less of a radical abolitionist compared to Brown while Tubman is an overembellished historical figure unworthy of commemoration.
The framing of the American Christianity section of the Museum of the Bible is through a progressive/whig view of history. America’s founding is presented as a continuous quest for religious liberty, with tolerance for all religions being seen as a development rooted in the Bible. The same framing is done on the issue of slavery. The abolitionists are painted as the heroes despite their heinous murder and rabid ideology which ultimately led to a bloody civil war that killed a million whites. There was no mention of R L Dabney or the Southern Christian perspectives.
Across from the Abolitionist is the early suffragettes, where the Museum has a display that discusses Elizabeth Cady Stanton, author of the Women’s Bible which was notorious for blaming the Bible and Christianity for the “oppression” of women. She was anti-white and dabbled into the occult. The Museum’s exhibit does take a semi-nuanced view of Stanton, noting her claims of oppression, yet the framing of the entire exhibit subtly conveys the inclusion of women in American Christian thought as a positive development. Just as the Bible is liberating for slaves, so too is it for women.
Then there is a section on “Restorative Justice” where the Museum of the Bible celebrates the historical shift from a punitive justice system to a restorative one. Historically, this was a development brought to us by the under-discussed Quakers from which the penitentiary system was developed. Does the Bible suggest that justice should be restorative? No. Yet somehow it is framed as a development out of the Bible rather than an aberration.
This picture shows a family “forgiving” a boyfriend for murdering their daughter and thus allowing him to get only twenty years for murder. Why does his remorse ex post facto negate the heinous crime he committed? Forgiveness should not negate nor reduce punishment, especially on the crime of murder.
They then have another story wherein the exhibit frames the death penalty as “revenge” that is uncompassionate and lacking restoration
The Scriptures are very clear that capital punishment is warranted for heinous crimes, that to permit and tolerate such criminality would bring judgment upon a civilization. The notion that the gospel abrogates justice is a vast misconception since Christ fulfills the law taking the punishment meant for man. God does not erase the punishment, but a substitute bears the punishment in place of Man. Thus, the guilty should be made to bear their punishment in the courts of man as there is no blameless substitute in such cases. Since the Lord is just by nature, it is against the very nature of God to permit clemency to the murderer.
Conclusion
The Museum of the Bible is a mixed bag, and the framing of American history is the worst part of the museum. There are neat artifacts that they have on display, and their collection of historic Bibles is interesting and probably the best exhibit that they have. Nevertheless, the framing of American history is through a progressive, egalitarian lens that at its logical conclusion has led America to the state of moral degradation we find ourselves within.
One Response
Thanks for these kind of informative articles. In response to the last point made. Liberals like to pretend they do not endorse Capitol Punishment. But all police carry guns. Police Officers work for the state and practically speaking will be allow to use their own judgement as to when to use deadly force. I’m sure there are organizations calling for the disarming of the police but it is hard to believe this kind of movement could become widespread or successfully instituted, nor would the officials of any governing authority, large or small, want it. So every county, village and state in our country has Capitol Punishment regardless of legislation that might suggest otherwise. It’s unfortunate that the Museum of the Bible could not be a place untouched or infiltrated by societally destructive themes. It would seem nearly everything is targeted.