Tag Archives: Hobby Lobby

U.S. Bible museum says five Dead Sea Scrolls fragments fake

FILE PHOTO: A visitor enters an exhibit room during a preview at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, U.S., November 14, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

(Reuters) – The Museum of the Bible in Washington on Monday said five of its artifacts thought to be part of the Dead Sea Scrolls were fake and would not be displayed anymore.

German-based researchers tested the fragments and found five “show characteristics inconsistent with ancient origin and therefore will no longer be displayed,” the museum said in a statement.

Academics have long questioned the authenticity of Dead Sea Scroll fragments sold by antiquities dealers. The museum established by the Green family of Oklahoma, who own U.S. craft-store chain Hobby Lobby, funded research over the past two years into whether its 16 Dead Sea Scroll fragments were genuine.

“Though we had hoped the testing would render different results, this is an opportunity to educate the public on the importance of verifying the authenticity of rare biblical artifacts,” Jeffrey Kloha, chief curatorial officer for the Museum of the Bible, said in the statement.

Scholars and media reports raised questions about the museum’s Dead Sea Scroll fragments last year in the run up to the Green family’s November opening of the $500 million museum.

The Dead Sea Scrolls, composed of hundreds of manuscripts and thousands of fragments of ancient Jewish religious texts, were discovered in the West Bank by Bedouin shepherds in the 1940s. The nearly 2,000-year-old scrolls gave religious scholars a new trove of information on the Hebrew Bible.

Kipp Davis, an expert on the Dead Sea Scrolls at Trinity Western University in Canada, was one of several academics who studied the Museum of the Bible’s scroll fragments, prompting the museum to send five for testing.

“My studies to date have managed to confirm upon a preponderance of different streams of evidence the high probability that at least seven fragments in the museum’s Dead Sea Scrolls collection are modern forgeries, but conclusions on the status of the remaining fragments are still forthcoming,” Davis said in the statement.

The museum sent the five fragments to Germany’s BAM institute for analysis of their ink.

Forgers typically write on top of ancient scraps of parchment or leather, making fragments appear authentic until their ink is tested.

(Reporting by Andrew Hay in Taos, New Mexico; editing by Bill Tarrant and Tom Brown)

U.S. returns thousands of smuggled ancient artifacts to Iraq

A man photographs artifacts on display, as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) hosts an event to return several thousand ancient artifacts to the Republic of Iraq, at the Iraqi ambassador's residence in Washington, DC, U.S., May 2, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

By Gina Cherelus

(Reuters) – About 3,800 artifacts, including Sumerian cuneiform tablets dating to 2100 B.C., that were illegally smuggled to retailer Hobby Lobby Stores Inc were returned to Iraqi officials in Washington on Wednesday.

U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement officials signed over the artifacts to Iraqi Ambassador Fareed Yasseen at his Washington residence, with some of the artifacts laid out on a table.

“We will continue to work together to prevent the looting of antiquities and ensure that those who would attempt to profit from this crime are held accountable,” said ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan.

Hobby Lobby, the Oklahoma City-based arts-and-crafts retailer, agreed in July to surrender the antiquities it received and pay $3 million to settle civil proceedings brought by the U.S. Justice Department. Shipping labels on the packages the artifacts arrived in described them as “tile samples,” federal prosecutors said.

The company had purchased more than 5,500 artifacts, according to court documents. It agreed that if it receives any of the remaining antiquities or learns where they are, it must notify the federal government, according to court documents.

Hobby Lobby’s president, Steve Green, is the founder of the Museum of the Bible, which opened in Washington in 2016. Privately held Hobby Lobby has said the seized artifacts were not intended for the museum. It has not said what it planned to do with them.

The forfeited packages included tablets with cuneiform script, one of the earliest systems of writing in ancient Mesopotamia. Many of the tablets come from the ancient city of Irisagrig and date to 2100 B.C. through 1600 B.C. primarily, known as the Ur III and Old Babylonian periods.

Justice Department officials have said Hobby Lobby’s 2010 purchase of $1.6 million in ancient artifacts through dealers in the United Arab Emirates and Israel was “fraught with red flags,” saying the company had ignored warnings that the items could have been looted from archaeological sites in Iraq.

When the company disclosed its settlement with the Justice Department in July, Green said Hobby Lobby should have “carefully questioned how the acquisitions were handled.”

A representative of the company did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Hobby Lobby and the Green family drew headlines in 2014 when the Supreme Court ruled the craft store chain and Conestoga Wood Specialties of Pennsylvania could refuse to cover contraceptives in their employees’ health insurance due to its owners’ religious beliefs.

(Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York; editing by Scott Malone, Bill Trott and Jonathan Oatis)

Supreme Court Justice Grants Abortion Pill Relief

A Supreme Court justice has given temporary relief to two religious groups that objected to the compromise to the abortion pill mandate in the Affordable Care Act.

Geneva College of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania and the Roman Catholic dioceses in Erie and Pittsburgh along with their affiliated organizations.  The groups sued the Obama administration because the so-called “compromise” still required them to provide abortion-inducing drugs.

The University of Notre Dame had previously filed a lawsuit over the same issue.

“Signing such a form or letter facilitates moral evil,” the groups wrote in legal briefs. “This is true whether or not applicants pay for the objectionable coverage.”

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito granted temporary relief and ordered the Obama administration to respond to the appeal by Monday.

The Supreme Court has already remanded the Notre Dame ruling to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to be reconsidered in light of the 2014 Hobby Lobby stations.

Museum Of The Bible Construction Begins

The Museum of the Bible is officially being built in the nation’s capital.

Construction has begun on the longtime project of Hobby Lobby head Steve Green.  The museum, scheduled to open in 2017, will have 430,000 square feet dedicated to the history of the Bible and the word of God.

“In many respects this is the kickoff of a three year project. We’ve been working on it for two years, this is the first time that anything major will be exposed to the public,” Cary Summers, president of the Museum of the Bible, said Thursday.

“Hopefully, it will be a great addition to this city. As you know, Washington, D.C. is the capital of museums in the world.”

Green, a collector of Biblical artifacts, had purchased a facility in 2012 for the purpose of building the museum.  The museum will not only be open to the public but also be open to seminaries around the world to study the various Biblical artifacts collected by the Green family.

The artifacts are also part of a course curriculum created by Green.

“It just seems to make sense because of the scholarship that we have, the artifacts that we have, the museum that we have, that we develop that into a curriculum that basically teaches what the museum displays,” said Green. “That is a venture that we’re working on as well.”

Oklahoma School Board Drops Bible Course

After complaints from anti-Christian groups, an Oklahoma school board has dropped an elective course on the Bible proposed by the head of the craft chain Hobby Lobby.

The Mustang School Board has approved in April the “Museum of the Bible” curriculum that Steve Green presented to them.  The class would show the Old and New Testament’s impact on American society.

The virulent anti-Christian groups Freedom From Religion Foundation and Americans United for Separation of Church and State claimed the curriculum was unconstitutional because it spoke positively about Christianity.

“The topic of a Bible course in the Mustang School District is no longer a discussion item nor is there a plan to provide such a course in the foreseeable future,” the school’s superintendent wrote, according to reports. “All students who were pre-enrolled in the elective had their schedules changed to a Humanities course or they were afforded the opportunity to select another elective.”

Officials with the Museum of the Bible seem unfazed by the outcome of the bigoted attack against them by the anti-Christian groups.

“We understand Mustang’s decision to withdraw the new, elective Bible course from consideration,” said course representative and editor Jerry Pattengale. “Museum of the Bible remains committed to providing an elective high school Bible curriculum and continues work on an innovative, high-tech course that will provide students and teachers with a scholarly overview of the Bible’s history, narrative and impact.”

District of Columbia Delays Abortion Coverage Vote

A bill to force all business owners in the District of Columbia to provide abortion coverage to employees regardless of their faith beliefs has been delayed.

The “Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Amendment Act of 2014” was pulled on Tuesday afternoon.  The bill was introduced in the wake of the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court decision that said the government could not force business owners to pay for abortion coverage.

“The council seems to have heard the voices warning them not to waste D.C. taxpayer dollars promoting the abortion lobby’s interests,” said Casey Mattox of the Alliance Defending Freedom.  “There is simply no prospect that a court would uphold a bill forcing D.C. prolife non-profits to pay for abortions. The D.C. Council has wisely stepped back from the ledge and – for now – respected fundamental freedoms and avoided raiding taxpayers’ paychecks.”

Pro-abortion organizations had hailed the bill and the infringement on the religious freedom of business owners to advance abortion including NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Pro-life groups contacted the members of the city government to inform them that the bill would be a violation of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

President George W. Bush Shares Importance of Bible Reading

Every day for eight years, the President of the United States spent time reading, studying and meditating on the Word of God.

That’s the message that President George W. Bush told a group of 200 civic and business leaders in Dallas on Sunday.

“I read the Bible every day during my presidency,” said Bush.  “The easiest time to be faithful is during a time of crisis. The hardest time for faith is when all is well. Faith informed my principles and decisions, but not my tactics. It would give me strength, but I didn’t use my faith to make decisions. Freedom is a faith informed principle.”

The President spoke with Hobby Lobby president Steve Green at an event to raise funds for the Museum of the Bible that is scheduled to open in Washington, D.C. in 2017.

President Bush praised the museum.

“The museum is a great idea. It’s very important that the Museum of the Bible invites and makes people of all faiths feel comfortable. It will be an important part of our capital,” he said.

Hobby Lobby Donates Land To Chicago Megachurch

The Green family of Hobby Lobby has purchased a 14 ½ acre property in the Chicago area and then donated it to Fellowship Baptist Church to build a center for the needy of their community.

Pastor Charles Jenkins said their Legacy Project is aimed at “building people, building communities.”

“As we looked at expanding (church), we didn’t just look within but we looked without. As we talk about those who are returning home from prison, we looked at the desolation, the destitution, the healthcare disparities. We looked at the unemployment rate in the neighborhood where we serve; it’s almost 70 percent. And there’s so many challenges, and that’s when we started to look at the idea to not just share the Gospel, but show the Gospel in a broader more dynamic way,” explained Jenkins to Christian Post.

Pastor Jenkins said that he was connected to the Green family through Pastor James McDonald.  He told Jenkins that the Green family was all about spreading the Gospel through acts of service.

“Bless God for people like that who engage. My wife does remind me that 11 cents of every dollar spent at Hobby Lobby does go to Christian ministries, so I’m blessed when she shops there,” said Jim Liske, moderator of the panel where the donation was discussed.

Anti-Christianists Call Hobby Lobby Family Threat To America

Extremist anti-Christian groups are attacking the family who owns the Hobby Lobby chain of stores for their plans to open a Bible Museum in Washington, D.C.

In one case, a group calls them a “great threat” to America.

The family of Hobby Lobby President Steve Green plans to open the Museum of the Bible in 2017.  The museum’s construction was announced shortly after the Supreme Court ruled that Hobby Lobby could not be forced to provide four abortion causing drugs under the Affordable Care Act.

The Museum will have antique Bibles as well as educational areas about the Bible and its history.

“I think they (the Green family) are a great threat,” Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the anti-Christian Freedom From Religion Foundation, told The New York Times. “My instincts would tell me that they are choosing Washington, D.C. because they intend to influence Congress.”

A spokesman for the Museum of the Bible said that Washington, D.C. was chosen because it was the museum capital of the world and that studies showed they would have the best level of attendance in the nation’s capitol.

Construction Begins Next Month On Historic Bible Museum

The new Bible museum scheduled to open in Washington, D.C. in 2017 is scheduled to begin construction next month.

The museum, which will feature many ancient Bibles and manuscripts owned by the Green family who owns the Hobby Lobby chain, will be located on D Street SW.  The building is two blocks away from the Capitol building.

“Our intent is for this museum to showcase both the Old and New Testaments, arguably the world’s most significant pieces of literature, through a non-sectarian, scholarly approach that makes the history, scholarship and impact of the Bible on virtually every facet of society accessible to everyone,” said Museum of the Bible spokesperson Mark DeMoss.

The Green family hopes the location of the museum near the Capitol will help the legislators remember the foundation of the nation comes from Biblical principles.

Steve Green also hopes the museum will help Biblical illiteracy.

“We have probably the most ignorant population we’ve ever had in our society [about the Bible] because it’s been taken out of our schools,” he told the Baptist Press. “We want to be able to, in a simple way, explain to them, ‘Here’s what the Bible is.’ Ultimately, it’s about the fact that we are sinners, we need a Savior and Christ was that. And He came to die for us that we might have life.”