The Bible is big,
according to the new Museum of the Bible. It’s also influential, easy to
understand, relevant to everyday life, and very American. The museum also
suggests that the Bible is not all that complex or challenging.
The museum
announces its presence with a text-emblazoned portal, three stories of the
first chapter of Genesis, presented as a massively resized version of the plates
used by the Gutenberg Bible’s printer. The entrance hall features enormous
overhead screens, on which an ever-changing rotation of evocative photographs signals
the technological thrust of the museum’s displays. The building’s glass-walled,
futuristic cap offers stunning views of the U.S. Capitol, just two blocks away.
Though founder
Steve Green deflected attention during a press conference to the institution’s
50,000 founding donors, the Museum of the Bible is his brainchild. Green, president
of Hobby Lobby, began collecting biblical artifacts in 2009, aiming to present
them to the public in a format that would garner wide attention. A committed
evangelical who has taken his turn in the culture wars, Green knows how to make
a political statement. His museum aims to educate and to inspire, but those brassy
yards of bas-relief text are also a way of claiming a permanent corner of the
public square for his people, the people of the Bible.
