Washington Post reports that the new $500 million privately-funded
Museum of the Bible opens in Washington, D.C. today. The museum has been created by the Green family, owners of the Hobby Lobby retail chain. Located on a site near the Mall in southwest Washington, the Museum focuses the importance of the Bible, Biblical history and the place of the Bible in U.S. history. The Post says that the Museum "will set a new standard" for fusion of entertainment and education. It summarizes:
The Bible Museum has come to town, in all its technical splendor, bearing with it something that most historians and museum professionals may have thought was long discredited: the "master narrative" idea of history, that there is one sweeping human story that needs to be told, a story that is still unfolding and carrying us along with it. It tells this seductive story well, in many places with factual accuracy, and always with an eye to clarity and entertainment. It is an exciting idea, and an enormously powerful tool for making sense of the world.
Unless, of course, you don’t believe it.