Bible Nation

Starred review from August 14, 2017
Biblical scholars Moss (The Myth of Persecution) and Baden (The Historical David) become dogged investigative journalists as they seek to understand how the Green family, the billionaire owners of Hobby Lobby, have aspired to influence national politics. In four densely packed chapters, the authors examine the development of the Green family’s collection of Bible-related antiquities, their mediation of scholarly access to the collection, and the use of the collection to promote Bible education in public schools. Their efforts will coalesce in the founding of the Museum of the Bible, projected to open in November. This thoroughly sourced and rigorously argued work raises troubling questions about the participation of the Green family (and their employees) in the global antiquities market; their attempts to import business practices, such as nondisclosure agreements, into educational research settings (thus hampering peer review); and their resistance to accepting that their own Christian nationalist vision is rooted in a Protestant understanding of the Bible. While depicting the Greens as well-intentioned, Moss and Baden make an impassioned case for fighting against the family’s efforts to limit access to their questionably sourced collection and to misrepresent their work as nonsectarian when it is entrenched in a deeply American evangelical worldview. The antiquities (many of which were recently forfeited after federal prosecutors discovered they were smuggled out of Iraq) include Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets, Torah scrolls, papyri, a fragment of a copy of Paul’s letter to the Romans from the third century, and rare fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, among others. This is a timely read for those interested in the relationship between money, faith, and American politics.

August 1, 2017
Two biblical scholars combine to dig into the actions and words of the billionaire Green family, founders of the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores.Moss (New Testament/Univ. of Notre Dame) and Baden (Hebrew Bible/Yale Divinity School), co-authors of Reconceiving Infertility: Biblical Perspectives on Procreation and Childlessness (2015), focus on the lawsuit filed by the Greens that reached the Supreme Court in 2014. The Greens, who have long been major funders of evangelical Christian initiatives, believed they possessed the right as business owners to ignore federal law requiring employers to cover the costs of contraceptives for employees. In a 5-4 decision, the justices sided with the Greens. The authors explain how the family arrived at their view of the prosperity gospel: due to their literal interpretations of the Bible and their generosity to evangelical Christian causes, God rewarded them with widespread business success. Patriarch David Green claimed that the legal battle occurred because the family could not abide abandoning religious beliefs to obey a provision of the federal government's Affordable Care Act, signed by President Barack Obama. The authors began their deep dive into the Green empire after becoming aware of the vast sums the family was spending to inject religion into school curricula, to collect rare biblical manuscripts, and to open a massive Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., which is currently under construction. Moss and Baden portray the Green family members and their key executives as sincere evangelicals and benevolent employers. Throughout the book, however, they also show the Greens as naive or disingenuous. To be sure, the family's proselytizing is not neutral. Rather, they are promoting a historically inaccurate saga of the U.S. as an exclusionary Christian nation meant to marry church and state. An impressive monograph by two scholars well-positioned to examine the impact of religion on secular life.

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September 1, 2017

After revealing arts and crafts giant Hobby Lobby's procurement of biblical antiquities in a 2016 article in The Atlantic, Moss (New Testament & early Christianity, Univ. of Notre Dame; The Myth of Persecution) and Baden (Hebrew Bible, Yale Divinity Sch.; The Historical David) conduct a full investigation of how company founder David Green ."..aspires to personal cosmic impact" by steering the populace toward conservative Christianity. In 2009, the Green family began collecting biblical antiquarian manuscripts, now possessing the largest private collection in the world. The company promotes "Bible-focused initiatives," such as Bible curriculum advocacy and the Museum of the Bible, a charitable organization owned by Hobby Lobby to advocate a private belief system while claiming it is a "nonsectarian independent organization." This weighty tome is the first look into the heated academic debate over Hobby Lobby's activities aside from their pending judicial cases. Moss and Baden's meticulous research will stand up to the most rigorous scrutiny, as they manage to stay dispassionate without judgement. This book raises serious ethical questions, and the dense prose will be of most interest to researchers. VERDICT A scholarly work of investigative journalism that offers a troubling look into how a personal belief system can infiltrate seemingly public institutions through corporate means.--Jessica Bushore, Xenia, OH

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