The Museum of the Bible dressed a sectarian Christian mission in secular language

Evidence

When the museum was formed as a legal entity in 2010, it declared its mission was “to bring to life the living word of God, to tell its compelling story of preservation, and to inspire confidence in the absolute authority and reliability of the Bible.” By 2012, that mission had been scrubbed to read, “We exist to invite people to engage with the Bible through our four primary activities: traveling exhibits, scholarship, building of a permanent museum in DC, and developing elective high school curriculum.” But this shift seemed to reflect more of a public relations move than a real change in mission. For example, even as late as the museum’s opening, all members of the board of directors were required to sign a statement of Christian faith. And despite its self-proclaimed nonsectarian approach, the museum is unmistakably presenting the Bible as the cultural object it is in the Protestant imagination—as an unmitigated force for good in human history. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 223

Categorization

• SEED: A museum that scrubs its explicitly sectarian mission statement to read secular while keeping faith requirements internally — a clean example of institutional ‘repackaging religion as heritage/culture’ worth an essay on how confessional institutions launder their agendas.
• XREF: connects to: Orientalist biblical art shored up Christianity against scientific challenge

Broader Connections

• Orientalist biblical art shored up Christianity against scientific challenge #complicates (0.75)