Background: The Green family (the folks who own Hobby Lobby) plans to spend some of their money on building a Bible Museum in NYC [DC. My bad.] – actually, they’ve been planning to do this for some time. Why? Because they think that the Bible is, you know, the word of God; and they intend to promote interest through it via the avenue of a privately-owned, yet well-situated, museum. And hoo, boy, does that get the usual suspects in full meltdown mode:
Such sentiments have stirred fears about the museum among groups such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which promotes separation between church and state. “I think they are a great threat,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, a co-president of the group, which is based in Madison, Wis. “My instincts would tell me that they are choosing Washington, D.C., because they intend to influence Congress.”
Scheduled to open in 2017, the yet-to-be-named museum would welcome people of all faiths and include rare Torahs as well as historic Bibles.
You can kind of hear the NYT article writer sound interested in spite of himself, and for good reason: apparently the Greens have collected an impressive amount of Biblical-related materials with genuine historical significance. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Hysterical paranoia like Ms. Gaylor’s aside, I would say that if this is going to be a museum then it should make the effort to not be too heavy-handed in its proselytizing. I suggest, in fact, that the museum not proselytize at all. If for no other reason than it would drive the people at the Freedom From Religion Foundation stark, raving mad*.
Well. Madder.
Moe Lane
*Yes, I know: you’d think that a secularist/atheist group would be happy that religious believers weren’t pushing their religious beliefs unduly. And, indeed, the atheists I know and like would be fine with that, especially since none of their tax money is being spent anyway. But you’re giving certain types too much credit for their ability to embrace sweet, sweet reason.
Quick Question: NYC or DC? There’s a conflict in your post.
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If NYC, what did the Freedom From Religion Foundation think of the Ground Zero Mosque?
Exactly what I was wondering, but then I think I have a pretty good guess as to what their reaction was .
For obvious reasons, even the most hard core atheists are very reluctant to make any statements even in the neighborhood of offending Muslims.
I think you owe Moe an appology. You assume that he made an error. It is far more plausible the mental giant from FFRF doesn’t know the difference between New York City and Washington, D.C. Reasonable enough, since both are far far away from Gos’s Country (aka Texas).
Meant “God’s Country,” stupid fat fingers.
Nah, I made an error. 🙂
The thing I notice about most atheists is that they will go out their way to sneer condescendingly at anyone who professes faith of any kind (At least Christianity). It’s almost as if they quietly think that their ideas are wrong so they want everyone else to be just as miserable.
I had friends in grad school that were atheists and want to talk religion during happy hour. We were drinking. It was Friday!!! Unbelievably annoying. Unfortunately that is the predominant impression I have of atheists today. I know there are many live atheists, but these obnoxious types give the a bad name
Personally, I only know of two atheists that are not obnoxious. The rest of them seem to enjoy sharing their faith.
I think atheism has become an affectation and a form of social signaling: it’s not so much anymore a conviction that there is no god as a label that signifies the wearer’s (assumed) superiority to those Bible-thumping rubes with their boomsticks and their sky god.