And others argue that the Museum of the Bible promotes an evangelical Christian political agenda and this loan would reinforce ties between Israel and the museum, which sponsors archaeological digs in Israel.
Cavan Concannon, a religion professor at the University of Southern California said to the AP that the museum acts as a “right-wing Christian nationalist Bible machine” with links to “other institutions that promote white evangelical, Christian nationalism, Christian Zionist forms.” The Museum of the Bible was founded by David Green, also the founder of Hobby Lobby craft stores. Green is a major financial supporter of Evangelical organizations, and is known for his extreme right-wing beliefs.
But more troubling to archaeologists and art historians is the Museum of the Bible’s past forgeries and smuggling cases of other artifacts. In 2017, they were forced to return 3,800 ancient artifacts that were found in a Hobby Lobby warehouse to the Republic of Iraq. In another instance, a group of papyrus fragments on view at the museum were said to be Dead Sea Scrolls were revealed as fakes.
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