17
votes
Israeli proposal to move early Christian mosaic to US Museum of the Bible sparks controversy
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- Title
- Israel may uproot ancient Christian mosaic near Armageddon. Where it could go next sparks outcry
- Published
- Aug 15 2023
- Word count
- 1260 words
As best I can understand, there is controversy about moving the mosaic at all. There is further controversy about moving the mosaic before the site has been completely studied. There is yet more controversy because the proposed recipient, the Museum of the Bible is tied to far right wing Christian groups in the US and is not respected for scholarship. https://www.museumofthebible.org/explore?utm_source=googleads&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=cqr&gclid=CjwKCAjw5_GmBhBIEiwA5QSMxOaliWIBGGnxx-rx14jS48t22kZHwncEZW6PU1yfQpP7lVZE7QqWWxoCVBIQAvD_BwE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_the_Bible
It's worrying how engaged fundamentalist Christians in the US are in Israel
They're literally trying to bring about the apocalypse. They believe that Israel's existence is necessary for the world to end and support it for that reason, along with a few other things (like, there's an active breeding project designed to create a specific color of cow that there's some reference in the bible to being a necessary sacrifice despite cows not coming in that color).
Christian fundamentalism is fundamentally a doomsday cult.
Edit: A source for the cow thing and a little more context on the whole actively trying to bring about the apocalypse thing.
When I was younger, I read most of the "Left Behind" series of Christian novels about Revelations and the end times that were all the rage back then. Not because I'm religious -- I was raised Catholic, but otherwise I'm an atheist and always have been.
But because those books were, at least to 14yo me, filled with decent suspense and action! There were even some sci-fi elements in there. They were entertaining reads.
So it's quite wild that people actually want that stuff to happen. The main characters in that book, who are all believers (though only becoming born-again after the Rapture, that's why they were "left behind"), were basically living hell on Earth as God put the world to trial after trial after trial until the final battle at Armageddon. Millions and millions of people died, often in horrible ways, because they're non-believers. Even believers died left and right as they were persecuted by and/or fought the forces of the Anti-Christ over seven years. So many didn't even make it to the end. Which I guess it's better to make it to the end, as the survivors were more exalted or something? I don't remember.
Obviously, I'm using logic to talk about that which is beyond logic. It's faith. But the stuff in the Book of Revelations, if taken literally, is no walk in the park. And anyone who wants that...well. I have nothing nice to say, so I'll stop there.
Yes. There are a few causes, but one of them is the belief that the Bible is not merely inspired (which can mean a lot of different things to different groups) but innerrant. The belief that scripture is perfect and contains no errors has caused a lot of wierdness to put it mildly.
They were also caught smuggling looted relics out of Iraq:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_the_Bible#Hobby_Lobby_smuggling_scandal
And displaying forgeries:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_the_Bible#Dead_Sea_Scrolls_forgeries
And the museum was also founded (and is still being run) by Steve Green of Hobby Lobby infamy... who are rather problematic company themselves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_Lobby#Controversies