Show Notes:: Are the Dead Sea Scrolls Fake (VERY LONG)

Before we dig in, I want to clarify a very important point or should I say points. 1] the DSS deemed forgeries are those that came into circulation post-2002 not the original collection (1947-58). There is a reason this point is important, and we will return to it. But as a bit of foreshadow, think Steve Green, the Museum of the Bible, and the Reich; interwoven in this are tax ramification. https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-the-museum-of-the-bible-exploits-jewish-traditionand-saves-its-evangelical-christian-donors-millions 

Green and his family have a clear set of beliefs that, they hold, should shape American life: The U.S. is a Christian nation, the archaeological record supports an evangelical Protestant view of the Bible, and Americans should be compelled by law to live according to this interpretation. And they are determined to prove it. 

2] There are geo-political ramifications concerning some of these questionable fragments. We wont be broaching this topic at all. It's a cluster-fuck getting into the whole notion of Christian Zionism

3] And our final point, there are numerous conspiracy type theories surrounding the scrolls. Some, may be warranted. It also is not a topic we will be broaching.

I know many of us, in discussions with Christians, have faced this tactic,,, But the DDS prove the Bible - no, no they don't. We'll come back to that maybe in more detail. Of late, though, I have seen a very dishonest tactic being used - the sweeping counter claim the DDS are fake - which raises the question, how should or can non-believers utilize the recent disclosure that some post 2002 fragments have been determined to be forgeries?

If you remember, Green and family were at the heart of the Hobby Lobby case. But, Green is also deep in the theocratic movement in the US. If you recall from a 2014 post,,,  

That’s our goal, so that we can reintroduce this book to this nation. This nation is in danger because of its ignorance of what God has taught,,, Someday, I would argue, it should be mandated. (Starting about the 4:28 mark)

For those unaware, one of the goals of Mr. Steve "Hobby Lobby" Green, is to have a 4 year Bible curriculum, that they (the Green Scholars Initiative) write, be mandated in all public schools. Currently, the Mustang School Board (OK) approved Green's curriculum although it is still in draft.

While the issue of Mustang,OK didn't quite pan out, Green was, during this time, in the beginning phases of the Museum of the Bible. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/bible-museum-planned-for-washington-dc/2012/07/10/gJQAWH2MbW_story.html

So we are going to make the assumption y'all know what the DDS are. Trading in antiquities has been in existence since the early days of what we would call archaeology. And the concept of forgeries has been around since forever. Just ask Bart Erhman, Forged (2011) - the book posits that 11 or more books out of the 27 books of the Christian New Testament canon were written as forgeries.

Or consider this, the business of biblical relic collecting dates back to, at least, the fourth century, when Helena of Constantine came to Jerusalem looking for pieces of the True Cross. And who can forget the impact charlatan Ron Wyatt, who took to digging in Israel, claimed to have found the Ark of the Covenant and once announced that he had found the blood of Jesus. We have the James Ossuary as well as the “Jesus wife” fragment.  

 

So why are we here tonight?

The 100,000 fragments of the DDS are housed in the Shrine of the Book, part of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. The excavation and selling of fragments is outlawed under a UN convention on cultural property from 1970, which means that private sellers fight over any fragments removed before that time.


In 2002, new fragments began mysteriously appearing on the market, where many were scooped up by evangelicals eager to own a piece of biblical history and find tangible evidence attesting to their belief in the inerrancy of Scripture. Some evangelicals' idolization of Scripture made them easy marks for unscrupulous dealers, scholars say.

The founder of the Museum of the Bible, Steve Green, faced scrutiny over the purchase of more than 5,500 artifact from 2010 that originated from Iraq. The chain agreed to pay a $3m fine to settle a case with the Department of Justice that claimed the objects were illegally smuggled. The items have since been returned. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/iraq-hobby-lobby-smuggler-artifacts-arts-crafts-museum-bible-a8333646.html

Hobby Lobby said that it was new to the world of antiquities when it began acquiring historical items for its Museum of the Bible in 2009 and made mistakes in relying on dealers and shippers who “did not understand the correct way to document and ship” them. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/iraq-hobby-lobby-smuggler-artifacts-arts-crafts-museum-bible-a8333646.html

That's the back drop we are working within. Personally I don't by the Museum's explanation and I do know of others who feel the same way but for slightly differing reasons. https://chasingaphrodite.com/2017/07/10/hobby-lobbys-legal-expert-speaks-i-cant-rule-out-they-used-my-advice-to-evade-the-law/

Since the original discovery approximately 70 more “scrolls” have filtered onto the market in the past 15 years. None of these new scrolls have a reasonable provenance: Unlike the original Dead Sea Scrolls, we don’t know which cave at Qumran they were discovered in, much less where they have been since then. https://www.thedailybeast.com/bible-museums-dead-sea-scrolls-turn-out-to-be-forgeries

Now, it is revealed, the five small scraps purported to be parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls are forgeries. This isn’t news to scholars, who have been objecting to the presence of the fragments in the museum for roughly two years. https://www.thedailybeast.com/bible-museums-dead-sea-scrolls-turn-out-to-be-forgeries

See also::

• https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/17/us/bible-museum-fakes/index.html
• https://edition.cnn.com/2017/11/17/us/bible-museum-fakes/index.html
• https://www.thedailybeast.com/exclusive-feds-investigate-hobby-lobby-boss-for-illicit-artifacts

As you can see this is quite a mess. I don't want to get to bogged down in the political aspects of this, but it bears repeating that Steve Green is a theocrat with dominionist leanings that clouds everything he says or does. He knew there were question about his collection, but did nothing until pushed. If I remember correctly it wasn't until the Schoyen Collection had some of their fragments tested that Green did anything. The SC is the largest private manuscript collection in the world, mostly located in Oslo and London. Formed in the 20th century by Martin Schøyen, it comprises manuscripts of global provenance, spanning 5,000 years of history. It contains more than 13,000 manuscript items; the oldest is about 5,300 years old. There are manuscripts from 134 different countries and territories, representing 120 distinct languages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sch%C3%B8yen_Collection

I know y'all are sitting there wondering WTF this has to do with anything at this point. Simply put, Green is making a mockery out of “biblical” archaeology specifically and archaeology as a whole. Just as creationists or anti-vaxxers try to undermine the science of evolution and vaccines with bullshit science, Green is doing the same to archaeology. 

Good example::

The men the Greens chose as their buyers were straight out of Bible archaeology’s seedy-saintly central casting. One such man was Scott Carroll.Carroll eventually earned the scorn of mainstream classics scholars, who nicknamed him “Palmolive Indiana Jones” after a YouTube video showed him encouraging students to use the common household detergents Palmolive or Dawn to take apart Egyptian mummy masks. The ancient masks, made of recycled papyrus in the early Christian era, sometimes contain fragments of text that Carroll and other confessional scholars define as Bible-related material.

An evangelical writer in this field, Josh McDowell, scoffed at the scholars alarmed by the destruction of the masks and explicitly connected the process to a religious experience: “These biblical manuscript fragments will be used of God to bring many young people to Christ.... Pray with me that these discoveries will be blessed of God to bring people to Christ.” https://www.newsweek.com/2016/04/15/hobby-lobby-steve-green-bible-museum-washington-dc-444752.html

More on Carroll https://www.bricecjones.com/blog/more-on-the-private-collecting-of-the-indiana-jones-of-biblical-archaeology

Furthermore, the debacle surrounding the DDS fakes and the Bible Museum may have engulfed other “innocent” parties. https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/26/us/evangelicals-dead-sea-scrolls/index.html I believe Green's greed has ramped up the need for these fakes – ie he created the market for such (School of Theology at Azusa Pacific University, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.  As Deana notes SBTS may not be so innocent a victim.). He doesnt give a flying fuck who may be harmed by his actions as long as he benefits. https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/26/us/evangelicals-dead-sea-scrolls/index.html

 

For years, Justnes and other scholars have been calling on the Greens and other evangelicals to reveal how and from whom they acquired the Dead Sea Scroll fragments. In an interview before the Bible museum opened last Fall, Steve Green told CNN that wasn't sure who sold his family the Dead Sea Scroll fragments.

"There's been different sources, but I don't know specifically where those came from." A spokesperson said Green was not available for comment about the German test results.

"They should tell us where they bought them and show their papers," Justnes said. "The physical tests are super sexy and what the public wants to hear about, but without an object's provenance, it is just unethical. And it helps the illicit market."

Were do these forged fragments come from?

Virtually all the material found after the initial 1947 discovery was sold by the Bedouins to a dealer in Bethlehem nicknamed Kando. Kando, in turn, sold these fragments to the, now known as, the Rockefeller Museum. The authenticity of the fragments was confirmed, as the archaeologists were able to find some remains of the same manuscripts in fragments left in the caves when they excavated them. Nonetheless, there has been a persistent claim ever since that Kando kept some fragments, or that the museum didn’t buy some fragments, and that these were sent by him through Lebanon to a bank vault in Switzerland before the Jordanian adoption of antiquities laws prohibiting the exportation of such items. When the materials began to surface in 2002, they were said to come either directly from this vault through Kando’s son William, or from fragments that had been sold earlier to collectors that were now available again on consignment. A few American dealers seem to have represented William Kando, the second generation in this business, in selling these fragments to collectors.

In 2016 the Museum of the Bible published what should have been a standard-setter in scholarly literature concerning the DDS. https://facesandvoices.wordpress.com/2018/11/05/open-letter-to-brill-fake-and-unprovenanced-manuscripts/ But questions arose, one of its editors, Kipp Davis, hinted in a brief note at the irregularity of the lettering on one fragment published in the volume. Davis, criticized the museum for publishing descriptions of the fragments in 2016 without fully investigating the origins of the texts.

But by the time the volume was actually published, Davis and another scholar from Norway, Årstein Justnes, began to circulate articles on the Internet arguing that some or all of these fragments were forgeries. After the publication of the results of the Schøyen tests, the majority of Dead Sea Scrolls scholars took very seriously the claim that the 70 or so fragments that came on the market after 2002 were indeed forgeries. When the Museum of the Bible received the results of the tests of its own fragments it did the only responsible thing, removing them from the exhibit cases and replacing them with others that have not yet been invalidated, those in their collection that are most likely to be authentic. Of course, the signs will stay, warning viewers that these fragments may also be forged. Don’t be surprised, however, if these fragments also turn out to be problematical. http://lawrenceschiffman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/buyer-beware-forged-dead-sea-scrolls.pdf (I lifted Schiffman's explanation as it seems thorough, but may be a bit biased. Criticism of him includes being part of the cabal of elitists that control access to the scrolls. Some have questioned his more scholarly presentations concerning interpretation etc.)

So I want to throw this caveat out there, since this debacle began, I have heard differing understandings of what transpired concerning TmotB. I may have been wrong concerning my initial assessment concerning the museum itself in how it was handled. I still have my doubts especially concerning Green, but understand that I am severely biased where he is concerned.

Separately, critics have seized on a changing mission statement of the museum from its earliest days, when founders said they aimed to prove the authority of the Bible, to a new, more neutral goal of inviting people to learn more about the Bible. Museum president Cary Summers described the change as a natural progression as the project moved ahead.

But John Fea, a historian at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, points to the family’s goal of helping people “engage with” the Bible as a telling indication about what the Greens hope to achieve. He said the “Bible engagement” concept was popularized by the American Bible Society in the 1990s amid concern that people who owned copies of the Scriptures weren’t necessarily reading them.

Fea said advocates for this strategy ultimately hope the Bible will inspire a desire to learn more and maybe accept Christ.

“There’s a public face to this Bible engagement rhetoric and then there’s a private aspect of what it really means,” Fea said. “It debunks the whole notion that this is just a history museum.” https://wtop.com/local/2017/11/museum-of-the-bible-built-by-hobby-lobby-owner-opens-in-dc/slide/1/

But my doubts are based on the handling of how the artifacts were smuggled out of Iraq. In 2010, as a deal for the tablets was being struck, an expert on cultural property law who had been hired by Hobby Lobby warned company executives that the artifacts might have been looted from historical sites in Iraq, and that failing to determine their heritage could break the law. H/L executives and Green knew exactly what they were doing, knew it was illegal, and still did it.

Green's role in the forgery industry (whether he knows it or not)

With the 1991 full release of the DDS, new interest was spurred but with it a dark side as well. Collectors, most of whom were Evangelical Christians seeking to connect tangibly with the Bible, began to attempt to purchase fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls manuscripts. Several individuals and institutions bought such fragments, believing that they were buying the real thing. Today, some 70 fragments have been identified as having surfaced on the antiquities market from 2002 on. But as we recently heard in a press release issued on October 22 by the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, regarding five of their own fragments, many if not all of these 70 fragments are almost certainly modern forgeries. http://lawrenceschiffman.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/buyer-beware-forged-dead-sea-scrolls.pdf

According to Schiffman the forged fragments have some very specific characteristics. It is the first one he mentions that of interest to us tonight (1) They are almost all Biblical, which appears to be a response to the Christian market in which collectors want to “own a piece” of Scripture.

And this goes to an earlier point, we encounter in apologetics, the use of the DDS generally for innerancy by Christians. But as I also mentioned it is just as wrong for “us” to make the sweeping statement that the DDS are fake. Only 70 fragments are currently under scrutiny, all from post 2002.

 

NatGeo sums it up well, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/12/inside-bible-collectors-search-other-original-christian-texts/

People of many faiths venerate religious relics. But for those who believe that God speaks through words written down by prophets and apostles in past ages, ancient texts are foundational to their faith. From artfully adorned medieval manuscripts to humble fragments of papyrus, revered texts represent tangible links to God’s appointed messengers, whether Muhammad, Moses, or Jesus Christ.

Reverence for holy writ is integral to the faith of evangelical Christians, who have become a driving force behind the search for long-lost biblical texts in desert caves, remote monasteries, and Middle Eastern antiquities markets. Critics say that the evangelical appetite for artifacts is fueling demand for looted objects—a charge borne out to some degree by recent investigations and by reports from legitimate dealers.

“Evangelicals have had a tremendous impact on the market,” says Jerusalem antiquities seller Lenny Wolfe. “The price of anything connected to the lifetime of Christ goes way up.”

Briefly, Greens role can be summed up thus, some scholars accused the Greens of buying too many artifacts too quickly, without being sure exactly where they came from, or who had owned them in the past. They made it widely known that they were buying everything. Every antiquities seller knew the Greens were buying everything and not asking questions about anything. As I mentioned, Green has been quoted as stating, “There's been different sources, but I don't know specifically where those came from.”

IOWs he doesn't care. Basically Green's greed is fueling the market. A market antiquity dealers are willing to supply no matter through fraud or smuggling. It doesn't help his cause when he has outright stated he wants to use the museum as a proselytizing device to make more Christians. Although as, the AP noted the exhibits avoided interpreting the Bible and did not delve into issues like evolution and marriage. https://wtop.com/local/2017/11/museum-of-the-bible-built-by-hobby-lobby-owner-opens-in-dc/slide/1/

 

The Tax angle – buying Torahs

https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-the-museum-of-the-bible-exploits-jewish-traditionand-saves-its-evangelical-christian-donors-millions

Bible Nation: The United States of Hobby Lobby (2017), Candida R. Moss & Joel S. Baden

Simply put, Moss and Baden believe that the half-billion-dollar museum is part of a broad effort by religious conservatives to promote an evangelical view of the Bible’s history, importance, and influence on American society. The Torah scrolls at the museum play a substantial role in this project.

This is where Green's personal brand of Christianity comes into play, or I should apologetics. The MotB believes their Torah display demonstrates the consistency of Jewish Scriptures - all of these perfectly identical copies of scripture attest to the unchanging nature of the biblical text from antiquity to the present. The scriptural and textual integrity of early modern Torah scrolls is evidence of divine agency in the preservation of biblical manuscripts.

According to traditional Jewish law, decommissioned Torah scrolls are to be either buried in a Jewish cemetery or stored in perpetuity in a genizah, a dedicated synagogue space for out-of-use ritual objects. Damaged scrolls can also be restored and rededicated for ritual use, while those that survived the Nazi era are permitted to be displayed in exhibits dedicated to documenting the Holocaust, as they are, for example, at the Holocaust Museum.

For many Jews, this type of language is unsettling: it colonializes Judaism and its most sacred text, making them into part of a Christian narrative, both historically and theologically. The idea that the Bible came directly in its current form from God and never changed over the millennia is a standard position for some evangelicals, but one that, to most biblical scholars, is deeply problematic.

Another reason the museum owns so many Torah scrolls: because they are relatively cheap for the Greens to buy and, when donated to the museum, can be worth many times their purchase price in tax write-offs. Consider, the purchase of a decommissioned Torah scroll is between $1,000 and $1,500 apiece. But they could be appraised for a great deal more; $50,000 to $250,000 and even more.”

When we asked Steve Green how he decides which artifacts to donate to the museum, he confirmed that the donation process is driven by financial considerations. While the Torah purchases are a good tax deal, so is donating to your own museum.

 

Only after the fragments were published and put on display did Museum of the Bible begin to study their authenticity in depth. By this time, Hobby Lobby had donated them to the museum, and the Green family had likely received their tax break for their donation. In their 2017 book Bible Nation, biblical scholars Candida Moss and Joel Baden report that, for their philanthropic activities, the Green family follows a set ratio of appraised value-to-purchase price of 3:1 — that is, an appraised value (and therefore a tax write-off) at least three times the purchase price. This ratio is reportedly followed for all of their various donations, including antiquities. Due diligence after the donation is convenient, in that the profit has already been made.

Tax breaks for donation to museums are a common device to encourage philanthropy. What makes MOTB unique is that the Greens are donating the artifacts to their own museum — which is legally a separate entity from Hobby Lobby. To put it another way, the government is effectively paying the Greens to amass a collection of dubious antiquities. https://hyperallergic.com/467318/dead-sea-scrolls-at-the-museum-of-the-bible-revealed-as-forgeries/

http://illicitculturalproperty.com/taxpayers-paid-triple-for-the-forgeries-at-the-museum-of-the-bible/

Why are the DDS important to Christianity?

Before the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered 70 years ago, the earliest and most complete version of the Hebrew Bible was from the

9th century. For many believers it is a question of whether their faith is based on fact or fiction? As Green notes, “When visitors to our museum see an ancient text, they’re seeing evidence that what they believe isn’t just a bunch of fairy tales.”


In order for what Green states to be true, one would have to rely on the presuppositional argument that god exists AND he spoke to the authors of the bible. BUT no autographs exist. The bible as we known it only survives because the various books were hand copied countless times until the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. No two copies are exactly alike.

Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (2005) Bart Ehrman

While it’s true that more than 5,500 Greek New Testament manuscripts have been found, close to 95 percent of those copies come from the ninth to the 16th centuries. Only about 125 date back to the second or third centuries, and none to the first.

Many in Christendom believe the DDS eliminates those discrepancy using the argument we don’t have the autographs of any Greco-Roman literature. Or, the thousands of NT variants are rendered moot because scholars have such a wealth of texts to study and compare, they’ve been able to identify those errors and largely recover the original wording.


With a growing number of predominantly Evangelical Christian collectors willing to pay upwards of six figures for the tiniest snippet of “holy” text, there is a clear motive for forgery. Increasingly upon expert inspection, these fragments are thought to have been written by a modern hand. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/12/inside-bible-collectors-search-other-original-christian-texts/

"The sellers of these fragments have preyed on the well-meaning faith of Evangelical Christians who are compelled by the idea of owning a piece of ‘the Bible that Jesus read,'” said Davis in 2017. “This is more than a simple form of manipulation,” he said. Given how seriously Evangelicals “are committed to their notion of sanctity of scripture, there is a danger of inflicting collective psychological harm.” https://www.timesofisrael.com/five-proven-dead-sea-scroll-forgeries-only-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-says-scholar/

So , no matter how one looks at it, the DDS are agenda driven whether Jewish or Christian or even secular.

 

As a side note::

That belief—that the more we learn about the Bible, the more we can investigate how accurately it has been transmitted over the millennia—may account for a program launched in the summer of 2010: the Green Scholars Initiative. Designed to facilitate the academic study of the artifacts in the Green Collection, the program has focused on early biblical manuscripts. For the past five years, a growing group of scholars has taken part in this project.

For papyrologists on the lookout for unpublished texts to work with, it’s an exciting opportunity. The initiative doesn’t just provide scholars with access to rare and previously unknown materials that wouldn’t otherwise be available for study. It also provides them with access to the most-advanced technologies for pursuing that study, funds their travel to conferences and colloquia, and all but guarantees an eventual outlet for publication. But rather than make its holdings available to any scholar who might want to use the collection for legitimate research, as is the usual procedure, the Green Scholars Initiative carefully selects individual scholars to work on its material, seemingly without regard for traditional scholarly standards. Highly qualified scholars seeking publication rights to precious, never-before-seen papyri have been denied permission unless they agreed to join the Green Scholars Initiative, while scholars who had never before touched an ancient manuscript have been recruited to participate. In 2013, the then-director of the initiative, Jerry Pattengale, stated that “no religious requirement for involvement” was in place. But it’s worth noting that almost all the institutions with which the initiative’s scholars are affiliated are explicitly Christian, and most are evangelical. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/01/can-hobby-lobby-buy-the-bible/419088/


That anti-intellectualism pervades the Greens' ambitions, and it lays bare the family's agenda. Among other things, Moss and Baden report that David Green once admonished the collection's director, "You will not use this collection to undermine the King James Bible," reflecting the conservative evangelical view that "the King James is not really a translation of the Bible at all; it is simply the Bible." https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/how-one-evangelical-family-is-reshaping-politics-law-and-religious-research/2017/11/16/ba043b8e-b998-11e7-a908-a3470754bbb9_story.html?utm_term=.2fec220fc934

Resources::

Rollston Epigraphy

The Lying Pen of Scribes 

CHASING APHRODITE 

Michael Langlois

Leon Levy DSS Digital Library

Media

Times of Israel

Dead Sea Scrolls scam: Dozens of recently sold fragments are fakes,experts warn

https://www.timesofisrael.com/topic/dead-sea-scrolls/

Can Hobby Lobby Buy the Bible?

TheMessiah Cometh: Hobby Lobby's Museum of the Bible Descends on theNation's Capital 

American evangelical collectors buy up Dead Sea Scroll fragments

Post-2002 Dead Sea Scrolls-like Fragments Online: A (Really Exhausting) Guide for the Perplexed 

World famous Dead Sea Scrolls at Museum of the Bible 'are fake'

Museum of the Bible, ambitious attempt to woo faithful and those withoutreligion 

Inside the cloak-and-dagger search for sacred texts 

Buyer Beware! HOW FORGED DEAD SEA SCROLLS WERE EXPOSED BYHIGH-TECH TESTS 

Daily Beast

Exclusive: Feds Investigate Hobby Lobby Boss for Illicit Artifacts 

Bible Museum’s Dead Sea Scrolls Turn Out to Be Forgeries 

The Museum of the Bible Is Exploiting Jewish Tradition—And Saving Its Evangelical Christian Donors Millions 

CNN

Mystery at the new Bible museum: Are its Dead Sea Scrolls fake?

AfterBible Museum scandal, more American Christians suspect they boughtfake Dead Sea Scrolls

Okla. school district rejects Hobby Lobby bible class - Freedom From Religion Foundation

My initial post concerning this debacle is http://interestinghmm.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-good-book-taught-badly-okla-school.html here,,,

Mustang Public Schools is canceling plans to conduct a bible course developed by Hobby Lobby President Steve Green, a zealous evangelical Christian advocate.

The district's announcement came in response to a follow-up open records request to the Oklahoma school district from FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel, in conjunction with Americans United Senior Litigation Counsel Greg Lipper, ACLU of Oklahoma Legal Director Brady Henderson and Daniel Mach of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief.
,,,
"In summary, the topic of a Bible course in the Mustang School District is no longer a discussion item nor is there a plan to provide such a course in the foreseeable future," wrote Superintendent Sean McDaniel in his emailed response.

FFRF led the charge against the proposed class in April when the Mustang school board voted to approve Green's curriculum. FFRF pointed out numerous flaws with the course, entitled "The Book, the Bible's History, Narrative and Impact of the World's Best-selling Book." The course in the Mustang school district was to be the first in what Green intended to be implemented in school districts around the country. Americans United and ACLU later also wrote letters, and teamed up with FFRF for the most recent open records request.

McDaniel said two "non-negotiables" the school had requested from Hobby Lobby were not met, namely that the district be permitted to review the final curriculum before introducing it, and that Hobby Lobby commit to providing legal coverage to the district.

FFRF's concern from the beginning was that Green and his staff were using the Mustang School District for their own ends, persuading it to adopt an unconstitutional curriculum for which the Mustang taxpayers, not Green, would ultimately pay the court costs for the inevitable court battle.

Okla. school district rejects Hobby Lobby bible class - Freedom From Religion Foundation

UPDATE::Hobby Lobby's Green family postpones launch of public school Bible curriculum | Religion News Service

I first posted about the Green's desire to implement a four year public school Bible curriculum back in late April. Both the FFRF and the TFNEF (Texas Freedom Network Education Fund) have panned said curriculum.

Both FFRF and TFNEF comment that FFRF noted that the course material shows a clear Christian bias, treat the bible as historically accurate and true in all respects and make theological claims. Chancey noting that there is a clear sectarian view favored by fundamentalist Protestants.

So it comes as no surprise that Green et al "announced it was postponing the August introduction of the curriculum adopted by the Mustang, Okla., school district."

“We have operated on an aggressive timeline to deliver the curriculum for the upcoming school year,” wrote Jerry Pattengale, editor for the projected four-year high school syllabus, in a prepared statement. But “unforeseen delays” necessitated postponing the debut until January.

Pattengale, who has previously said he hoped to see the full curriculum introduced in thousands of schools by 2016, wrote: “We will continue to work with Mustang and other school districts that have shown interest” in the program.

Hobby Lobby's Green family postpones launch of public school Bible curriculum | Religion News Service

See also: 

The (First) 7 Problems with the Hobby Lobby Bible Curriculum

For those of you who say apathetically that both parties are the same, I beg to differ

"When one provokes in a child a fear of the dark, one awakens in him a feeling of atavistic dread. Thus this child will be ruled all his life by this dread, whereas another child, who has been intelligently brought up, will be free of it."

Adolf Hitler,  "Table Talk" discussions on the night of July 11-12, 1941, p. 12

__

I've been thinking about what I wrote above concerning the SCOTUS decision - regarding Hobby Lobby - being a Reich wet dream and the possibility that their grand scheme may backfire.  I really didn't pull those ideas out of my ass, others have been pondering this thought as well.  Just maybe not in the same colorful language.

When one looks at the decision rendered by SCOTUS it has to be through the lens of the Reich's overall agenda -  starting with a "reformed" interpretation of the Free Exercise Clause or an outright repeal of the First Amendment,  continuing with the abolition of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, ending with the implementation of dominionist ideology in order to govern by theocratic control.  With the ruling in Hobby Lobby, the Reich will "now" be able to exempt themselves from any laws that they don’t like; that they find “religiously objectionable.” 

Now here's where it gets a bit tricky.  I have more or less insinuated on various occasions that nothing done within the ranks of the Reich are individually motivated. Green's personally held religious convictions no matter how "sincere" they may be, have an agenda attached.  That agenda, "Hobby Lobby-related entities are some of the biggest sources of funding to the National Christian Charitable Foundation." 

According to Eli Clifton, the National Christian Charitable Foundation then funds "a range of causes including climate science denial, charter schools, free market and pro-life advocacy."  One of their biggest grant recipients,  Alliance Defending Freedom, one of the bulwarks behind Arizona's failed SB 1062 legislation. And their mission, "'[making] certain that governmental laws cannot force people to violate their faith unless it has a compelling governmental interest–a balancing of interests that has been in federal law since 1993.'”

So what does this have to do with Hobby Lobby and the Reich's agenda.  First Steve Green has a personal agenda.  One I have highlighted before.

That’s our goal, so that we can reintroduce this book to this nation. This nation is in danger because of its ignorance of what God has taught,,, Someday, I would argue, it should be mandated.  (Starting about the 4:28 mark)

Book? Mandate?  WTF you talking 'bout?

For those unaware, one of the goals of Mr. Steve "Hobby Lobby" Green,  is to have a 4 year Bible curriculum, that they (the Green Scholars Initiative) write, be mandated in all public schools.  Currently, the Mustang School Board (OK) approved Green's curriculum although it is still in draft.

I won't harp too much on the obvious (besides the legalities) but is this the "re-education" that Richard Mourdock, Tony Perkins, Austin Miles  and Rick Santorum are talking about?  In my mind, this curriculum is the gateway to theocratic rule with "its primary intent the conquest of the land — of men, families, institutions, bureaucracies, courts, and governments for the Kingdom of Christ.”

Christians have an obligation, a mandate, a commission, a holy responsibility to reclaim the land for Jesus Christ — to have dominion in civil structures, just as in every other aspect of life and godliness. But it is dominion we are after. Not just a voice. It is dominion we are after. Not just influence. It is dominion we are after. Not just equal time. It is dominion we are after. World conquest.

As Leah Burton explains, "This notion of having to 'reclaim' something that they truly believe they lost is pervasive. In order to understand that they must convince you that we always were a Christian Nation and now it must be reclaimed by them in order to save our country from moral decline."

And what better way to indoctrinate the notion of Christian Nation ideology, "Give me just one generation of youth, and I'll transform the whole world."  Sound familiar?  It should, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Steve Green said that, "We're working on 4 year public school bible curriculum.  The first year will be a summary of all three of those section. It's history, it's impact and it's story.  Then the next 3 years is going in depth in each of those -- a year for the history, a year for the impact and a year for the story -- in some order,,,."

“We're working on 4 year public school bible curriculum.  The first year will be a summary of all three of those section. It's history, it's impact and it's story.  Then the next 3 years is going in depth in each of those - a year for the history, a year for the impact and a year for the story - in some order,,, The nation is in danger because of its ignorance of what God has taught,,, If we don’t know it, our future is going to be very scary,,, we really want to get,,, be into the,,, high school level because we want to reach as many as possible.  Someday, I would argue, it should be mandated.  Here's a book that's impacted our world, unlike any other, and you're not gonna teach it? There's,,, something wrong with that."

We all are well aware that there is a slippery-slope in regards to the decision in favor of Hobby Lobby's demands.  Many writers are taking the high road of optimism.  I on the other hand, I see things getting more tumultuous  before they get better.  And this is where the Reich's agenda comes into play (keeping in mind Green's Bible curriculum takes care of the implementation of the dominionist/theocratic ideology) . From Clifton's article cited above,

'Individuals and entities with religious objections to certain laws that protect others are seeking to use their religion to trump others,' Brigitte Amiri, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project, told Salon.
,,,
Center for Arizona Policy president Cathi Herrod heralded the Hobby Lobby lawsuit as a rare example of a 'business willing to step out in faith and literally risk it all to hold fast to their faith,,,'

Clifton then goes on to discuss how Green/Hobby Lobby is the poster child of the Reich by outlining some recent cases.  Cases that where funded by or through the National Christian Charitable Foundation:  McCullen v. Coakley, Elane Photography v. Willock, and the various "religious liberty" bills similar to SB 1062 that appeared in 13 other states.

Think of that as our starting point, testing the water of the SCOTUS if you will.

Remember what I said about the First Amendment?  Here is what the Hobby Lobby ruling has done by placing too much emphasis on the phrase "closely held."

The corporate plaintiffs' argument that they enjoy free exercise rights under the First Amendment and RFRA is in conflict with the text, history, and purpose of the First Amendment's free exercise guarantee. Amicus submits this brief to demonstrate that throughout our nation's history, corporations have been treated differently than individuals when it comes to fundamental, personal rights of conscience and human dignity. The First Amendment's free exercise guarantee has always been viewed as a purely personal liberty, guaranteeing the right of individuals to worship and exercise religion consistent with the dictates of their conscience. It has never been considered a right possessed by secular, for-profit corporations. Indeed, in the more than 200 years since the First Amendment's ratification, this Court has never held that secular, for-profit corporations may assert rights under the Free Exercise Clause. 
,,,
The Hobby Lobby case, of course, deals in part with the question whether the federal [Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA)] was or is intended to benefit the owners of large, for-profit, nonreligious corporations. Hobby Lobby's interpretation that it does would open the floodgates to exempt every business owner in the United States from the anti-discrimination laws, because there is no real middle ground. The forces behind Hobby Lobby have tried to argue that the Court should hold for Hobby Lobby because it is "closely held," but that would not limit the holding to a few instances, because over 90% of corporations are "closely held." If the Court sides with Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood, it will open the Pandora's box of corporate law.

As for civil right, please consider this in regards to the LGBTI community:

The Associated Press reported this weekend that social conservatives believe they have an opening to bring the state's religious freedom bill back in 2015. The legislation failed this spring; it passed the House, but stalled in the Senate after significant backlash from business groups. It would have prevented businesses from being sued if they refused to serve LGBT people for religious reasons.

"We are not going to let it die. We are very committed," Rev. Terry Fox, a leading Southern Baptist minister, told the AP. "The Body of Christ is a powerful movement when it comes together."

Gay rights advocates and social conservatives alike had watched the Hobby Lobby case to see how it might influence their cause. The Court's decision was decidedly narrow in its language, and some legal experts pointed TPM to Justice Anthony Kennedy's concurring opinion in the case as evidence that he would not support discrimination against LGBT people on religious freedom grounds.

But others warned on the day of the ruling that conservatives would likely take Hobby Lobby's win as their chance to resuscitate religious freedom legislation.

"The opinion really doesn't really resolve the question of whether for-profit businesses can seek religious exemptions from anti-discrimination law," Douglas NeJaime, a law professor at the University of California-Irvine, told TPM. "If I'm one of those groups, I'm going to pursue this."

Or this in regards to women:

At a time when women make up more than half of the workforce, the ruling also further denies women equal rights in the workplace. “By setting women’s reproductive health care apart from all other forms of health care the Roberts’ Court has legally enshrined a new kind of gender-based inequality where only women are specifically subject to interference from their employer when it comes to personal medical choices,” continued Cotler. “We hope that the President will explore ways to ensure that women who will otherwise be denied reproductive health care by their employers are not left without coverage.” 

And what about an individual employee's religious beliefs:

The First Amendment's establishment clause prevents the government from requiring people to bear the burden of religions to which they do not belong and whose teachings they do not practice. To be sure, the U.S. government should accommodate religious beliefs and practices but only when doing so does not impose significant burdens on others. We accommodate, for example, those who object for religious reasons to sending their children to public school; no one is hurt if these families opt for a private school or home-schooling.

On the other hand, the Supreme Court consistently has condemned government accommodations that shift the cost of practicing a religion from those who believe it to others who don't. For example, the court struck down a state law that gave employees an absolute right not to work on their chosen Sabbath because of the burden it imposed on others. If most employees were Christian and took Sunday off, the statute would have forced the remaining, non-Christian employees to work every Sunday. This, the court said, violated the establishment clause: "The First Amendment ... gives no one the right to insist that in pursuit of their own interests, others must conform their conduct to his own religious necessities."

If the court grants these businesses the religious exemption they seek, it essentially would be directing the women who work for these businesses to bear the cost of the owners' anti-contraception religion.

And for shits-and-giggles, consider this bizarre case that is pending in regards to individual employee's religious beliefs:

To explain, the Supreme Court’s decision in Hobby Lobby did more than simply allow religious business owners to ignore a federal rule requiring them to include contraception coverage in their employees’ health plans. It tore down decades of law protecting workers from bosses who, in the words of one Supreme Court decision, would “impose the employer’s religious faith on the employees.” Prior to Hobby Lobby, that same Court decision held that “[w]hen followers of a particular sect enter into commercial activity as a matter of choice, the limits they accept on their own conduct as a matter of conscience and faith are not to be superimposed on the statutory schemes which are binding on others in that activity.” Today, that is no longer the case.
,,,
Should Eden Foods prevail, however, it could shatter what may be the most fundamental assumption of any law protecting the free exercise of religion — religious exercise laws protect religious exercise, they don’t protect the right of an anti-government CEO to make a federal case out of every single thing the government does that he disagrees with.

Don't be lulled into believing that this "concern" for your religious liberty is mere coincidence.  This is a well thought out and implemented plan beginning with the take-over of the GOP in the 1990s by the Religious Right:

The formula they've concocted has been called the "15 per cent solution" by the Christian Coalition. Even in a well attended presidential election, only 15 per cent of eligible voters determine the outcome,,, "We don't have to worry about convincing a majority of Americans to agree with us," Guy Rodgers, the Christian Coalition's national field director declared at the 1991 Road to Victory conference. Most of them are staying home and watching Falcon Crest."

,,, "What the Christian right spends a lot of time doing," says Marc Wolin, a moderate Republican who ran unsuccessfully for Congress from San Francisco last year, "is going after obscure party posts. They try to control the party apparatus in each county. We have a lot to fear from these people. They want to set up a theocracy in America."

"They have acquired a very detailed and accurate understanding of how political parties are organized," says Craig Berkman, former chairman of the Republican Party in Oregon:

Parties are very susceptible to being taken over by ideologues because lower party offices have no appeal to the vast majority of our citizenry. Many precincts are represented by no one. If you decide all of a sudden because it's your Christian duty to become a precinct representative, you only need a few votes to get elected. Increasingly, they have the key say so on who will be a delegate at the national convention, and who will write the party platform and nominate the presidential candidate,,,

And if that candidate wins, guess what?  We have a SCOTUS filled with the likes of Kennedy, Scalia, Thomas, Alito and Roberts.

Not a single justice appointed by either President Bill Clinton or President Barack Obama sided with Hobby Lobby. It was indeed only the justices appointed by socially conservative presidents who voted to keep women trapped in a bygone era. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, because both sides of the aisle have been saying for the last few election cycles how important it is with our aging Supremes to have someone in the position to nominate justices of an ideological bent they agree with, and the proof of that concept is in Citizens United, McCutcheon v. FEC, and now the Hobby Lobby case. These narrow decisions will have a lasting impact on American society, and they are decisions made by men who have not been in power for decades in some cases, a half decade in one case.

So for those of you who say apathetically that both parties are the same, I beg to differ.  For those that say your vote doesn't count, yes it does; even if it is not for your ideal candidate.

TFNEF Report: Bible Curriculum Backed by Hobby Lobby President Would Lead to Preaching, Not Teaching, in Public Schools | TFN Insider

Hobby Lobby’s president Steve Green has sponsored the development of a new Bible curriculum, The Book: The Bible’s History, Narrative and Impact, that he reportedly hopes thousands of public schools will adopt. The curriculum will be published by Museum of the Bible, a nonprofit organization created by Green to guide the development of a museum that will house his extensive personal collection of Bible-related manuscripts and artifacts. In mid-April the school board of Mustang, located six miles from Hobby Lobby’s Oklahoma City corporate headquarters, announced that it would teach a pilot version of the course beginning in the fall of 2014.

Today, a new TFN Education Fund report authored by Mark Chancey, a professor of religious studies at Southern Methodist University, finds that the curriculum’s combination of a religious purpose, pervading sectarian bias and frequent factual errors demonstrates that this curriculum has a long way to go before being appropriate for a public school classroom.

[,,,]
Chancey’s review reveals that the new curriculum suggests the Bible is literally and historically accurate, promotes faith claims as fact, and advances a sectarian view of the Bible generally favored by fundamentalist Protestants but not people from other faith traditions. All of those issues raise serious constitutional concerns about the curriculum’s use in public schools, he writes.

Moreover, factual errors and idiosyncrasies in the curriculum betray a seriously flawed knowledge of the subject that fails to align with established, mainstream scholarship on the Bible. For example, the curriculum treats Adam and Eve as actual historical figures, suggests that Einstein’s Theory of Relativity provides evidence for the Creation told in Genesis, and bizarrely compares the Book of Exodus to the infamously racist, KKK-glorifying film The Birth of a Nation.

[,,,]
TFN Education Fund President Kathy Miller said Chancey’s review reveals that this new curriculum suffers from many of the same flaws seen in other public school Bible courses he has reviewed for her organization.

“Well intentioned or not, the writers of this curriculum seem to be confused about the job of public schools,” Miller said. “Families and faith leaders rightly have the responsibility of passing on faith beliefs to children. Public schools shouldn’t be put in the position of promoting anyone’s religious beliefs over those of everybody else.”

TFNEF Report: Bible Curriculum Backed by Hobby Lobby President Would Lead to Preaching, Not Teaching, in Public Schools | TFN Insider

FFRF blasts Hobby Lobby bible curriculum - Freedom From Religion Foundation

Will be watching to see what action(s) the FFRF may or may not take in regards to the Mustang Public Schools accepting this dribble,,,

National state-church watchdog FFRF has been eyeing the bible course since November, when Hobby Lobby’s billionaire owner Steve Green personally pitched it to the school board. On April 23, FFRF Staff Attorney Andrew Seidel had a chance to look over the proposed textbook.

“I am amazed that any school district would think this is appropriate for public schools,” said Seidel, adding that his amazement isn’t accompanied by surprise. “This just confirms the suspicions we had about the class last year. Clearly, Hobby Lobby and the Greens are trying to convert children to their particular brand of Christianity. There is nothing scholarly, fair or balanced about the curriculum.”

In its April 24 letter to the school district, FFRF noted that the “the draft materials MPS intends to use unequivocally fail to meet the legal standards required by our Constitution. The materials show a clear Christian bias, treat the bible as historically accurate and true in all respects and make theological claims.”


FFRF blasts Hobby Lobby bible curriculum - Freedom From Religion Foundation

Glenn Beck has been busy

Glenn Beck Says David Barton's 'Founder's Bible' Is 'The Only Answer' To Saving America | Right Wing Watch

Last week, Glenn Beck had David Barton on his television program where he heaped praise upon Barton's last book, "The Founder's Bible." Now Beck has begun personally promoting Barton's book during advertising breaks on his show, as he did last night when he beseeched his audience to buy the book because is represents "the only answer" to our problems.

"This is, honest to God, we are out of all other options," Beck said, holding up Barton's book. "This is the only answer and he have to know it inside and out ... We have to start reading this with our kids that the table at dinner every night."

"I can't urge you enough to get involved and get this," he concluded before, later, interviewing Robert Muise of the American Freedom Law Center, who declared that America is God's "chosen nation" because the Holy Spirit inspired the Founding Fathers to create this country and our Constitution.

Glenn Beck Wants The Bible Taught In Public Schools Because It Has Been 'The Only Textbook We Needed'

Glenn Beck has been on a kick recently hailing the Bible as the solution to every single one of our nation's problems, so it comes as no surprise to see him now throwing his support behind an effort led by Hobby Lobby president Steve Green to get the Bible taught in public schools all over the nation.  (Go here to read more on that.)

Hailing the Green family as "true Americans" during his morning meeting, Beck turned directly to the camera and urged viewers to shop at Hobby Lobby in order to support them because "these people are the best."

On last night's television program, Beck then interviewed Jerry Pattengale, who is overseeing the development of this Bible curriculum program, declaring that trying to build a Western democracy without studying the Bible is like trying to become a chef without ever reading a cookbook.

Beck Goes Full Barton, Claims One-Third Of The Constitution And Declaration Came Straight From Deuteronomy

On today's radio broadcast, Glenn Beck went full David Barton, claiming that one-third of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence came straight out of the Bible; more specifically, right out of the Book of Deuteronomy.
Continuing his argument from last night that the Bible is the "cookbook" of America's system of government, Beck echoed David Barton's claim that the Founding Fathers were so well-versed in the Bible that they quoted it continually in their correspondence.
- See more at: http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/beck-goes-full-barton-claims-one-third-constitution-and-declaration-came-straight-deuteronom#sthash.lqWpfs8F.dpuf

On today's radio broadcast, Glenn Beck went full David Barton, claiming that one-third of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence came straight out of the Bible; more specifically, right out of the Book of Deuteronomy.

Continuing his argument from last night that the Bible is the "cookbook" of America's system of government, Beck echoed David Barton's claim that the Founding Fathers were so well-versed in the Bible that they quoted it continually in their correspondence.

As RRW points out Chris Rodda has thoroughly debunked this bullshit:  "This installment of my series debunking the American history lies told on Glenn Beck is about a study published in 1984 in The American Political Science Review, and how that study is misrepresented to make it appear that our founding documents were based on the Bible, especially the Book of Deuteronomy."

The Good Book Taught Badly?: Okla. School District Approves Hobby Lobby Owner’s Bible Course | Americans United

That’s our goal, so that we can reintroduce this book to this nation. This nation is in danger because of its ignorance of what God has taught, ~ Steve Green
--
An Oklahoma school district has approved the use of a Bible curriculum designed by Steve Green, the controversial owner of Hobby Lobby. The Mustang public schools will begin offering the curriculum next academic year.

As reported by Religion News Service, Green’s curriculum is designed to correspond with his planned Museum of the Bible, which is currently under construction in Washington, D.C. Jerry Pattengale, who heads the Green Scholars Initiative and is overseeing the curriculum’s development, said the ultimate goal is put the curriculum in “thousands” of schools.

Little is known publicly about the details of the curriculum. However, in a 2013 speech he delivered to the National Bible Association, Green explained that it’s divided into three sections: the history of the Bible, the story of the Bible, and the impact of the Bible.

Classes about the Bible don’t necessarily violate the separation of church and state. It all depends on what is taught and how it’s taught. Green’s speech indicates that he may have ulterior motives.

It appears that Green doesn’t intend to simply teach students history.

“The history is to show the reliability of this book,” he told his audience, and added, “When you present the evidence, the evidence is overwhelming.”

The Good Book Taught Badly?: Okla. School District Approves Hobby Lobby Owner’s Bible Course | Americans United

See also: 

Curricular Controversy: Hobby Lobby President Proposes Bible Elective in Okla. Public School

,,,but Green also has strong ties to Bill Gothard, the leader of an extremist Christian fundamentalist sect roiling with allegations of child abuse.

Gothard’s religious empire includes a homeschool curriculum popular with fundamentalist families, and a nationwide network of training centers and youth programs that exclusively rely on Gothard’s teachings.

[,,,]
In 2002, Green, acting through his family trust, purchased and then leased a vacant college campus to Gothard’s ministry. A year later, Green, this time acting through Hobby Lobby itself, purchased a shuttered hospital in Little Rock, Ark., and donated it to Gothard for the purposes of building a local training center.

These weren’t mere business transactions, either. The website of one of Gothard’s many ministries features video of Steve Green describing Hobby Lobby’s “desire to share Christ and Disciple others.” And in a review of Gothard’s book, The Amazing Way, David Green, father of Steve Green and founder of Hobby Lobby, wrote that, “Through the example and teachings of Bill Gothard and the Institute in Basic Life Principles, we have benefited both as a family and in our business. It is as we take those lessons from God s Word that Bill clearly articulates that we live the full life that God intends.”