WASHINGTON — Throughout history, the Bible has been the subject of controversy.
Perhaps it’s appropriate then that some controversy has accompanied the planning stages for the $500 million Museum of the Bible set to open Friday in the nation’s capital.
Hobby Lobby, whose president Steve Green is chairman of the museum board, paid a $3 million fine in July for illegally smuggling Iraqi biblical artifacts.
Thousands of tablets and bricks written in cuneiform, one of the earliest systems of writing, were among the 5,000 artifacts forfeited after prosecutors said they were shipped without proper documentation.
More: In the Capitol’s shadow, massive Museum of the Bible readies for opening
Still, about 1,000 biblical artifacts are displayed on six floors of the the 430,000-square-foot museum, which aims to educate visitors on the history and impact of the Bible, Green said.
“Our mission is to invite and get people to engage with the Bible,” said Steven Bickley, the vice president of marketing finance for the museum.
He emphasized the museum takes a non-sectarian approach, not involving a specific religious sect or political group, because organizers want every visitor to feel comfortable and learn something about the Bible.
Green said he even wants atheists to feel welcome at the museum.
Admission to the museum is free but donations are encouraged, Green said.
The desire to educate is reflected in the museum’s proximity — just blocks away — from the Capitol and Supreme Court, where Green has sought to defend his religious beliefs.
“I think (the Bible is) foundational to our government,” Green said during preview of the museum this week. “There are many principles this nation was built on that many people today may not even understand that connection. Like religious freedom.”
In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in a case involving Hobby Lobby that requiring family-owned corporations to pay for insurance coverage for contraception under the Affordable Care Act violated a federal law protecting religious freedom.
“Our freedoms, our economic system, our political system, many of those were built and influenced from the Bible and many people may not know that and we want people to understand that,” Green said.
Green said he wanted to tell the story of the Bible in an engaging and creative way, pointing to the many interactive and high tech areas of the museum.
The museum features a 30-minute, walk-through experience of the Old Testament on the third floor. The narrative expedition takes groups of 30 people through the exhibit brought to life with special effects using lights and holograph-like images.
Visitors can also sit in a small theater seating about 100 people where the New Testament is condensed into a 12-minute film on a 180-degree screen.
On the second floor, visitors learn how the Bible has been part of past and present cultural developments.
Issac Newton is one of the scientists whose story is on display. “For Newton, to understand more was to understand God,” his informational plaque reads.
Galileo Galilei is featured as well. He was condemned by the church for his discovery in the 1600s that the earth rotates around the sun. The Vatican acknowledged his findings were right in a statement in 1992.
More modern influences that the Bible has had are on display as well.
Biblical references in fashion have appeared in clothing for centuries. An example in the museum is a dress with the face of Mary, the mother of Jesus, on the fabric.
On the same floor, visitors can enter a dome-like egg where music inspired by the Bible plays. Some of the music includes tracks from the bands The Offspring, Good Charlotte and more.
“This is the first, as we know, world class museum to the Bible in history,” said Dr. Tony Zeiss, executive director of the museum. “That’s a pretty amazing feat and it happened right here in our capital.”
Julia Fair - Journalist 