Dead Sea Scrolls at the San Diego Natural History Museum: the Christian fundamentalist connection

Nowpublic ^ | August 3 | Charles Gadda

[Charles Gadda]

Why on earth did it cost six million dollars to bring the Dead Sea Scrolls to San Diego, and why has this exhibit become submerged in controversy? Hoping to shed some light on these matters, I decided to take a closer look at the parties involved. What I found was surprising evidence that members of several Christian fundamentalist organizations played a major role in creating the exhibit and choosing its content, a fact carefully covered up in the media campaign surrounding the exhibit's opening. For details, see my linked article.

[PetroniusMaximus]

Gee! Christians are interested in promoting the study of the Bible and the Dead Sea Scrolls.

What a shocker!

I was sure we’d find atheist behind it all.

[Guyin4Os]

And I bet people who penned the Dead Sea Scrolls even BELIEVED IN GOD! The scrolls are therefore obviously contrivances of right-wing nutjobs intent upon perpetrating the notion that the BIBLE was written by JEWS in order to get others to BELIEVE IN GOD! It is all so FISHY!

[therut]

I am really tired of the word
“Fundamentalist” being thrown around by liberals,Democrats etc. It has become the new media sterotype. If you believe Jesus was the son of God, born of the virgin Mary, died on the cross for mankinds sin and was resurrected YOU ARE A FREAKING FUNDAMENTALIST according to the MSM. These are just the basic Christian beliefs of coarse they are fundamental. I despise these Christian bashers.

[bnelson44]

After reading your article, I don’t have the foggiest idea what your beef is. In 25 words or less, what is your point?

[MarkL]

Well, the Jewish community, as well as the Hall Foundation and the Kempers here in Kansas City were instrumental in bringing the Dead Sea Scrolls to Kansas City.

Seems to me that the writer is LOOKING for a conspiracy!

Mark

[Charles Gadda]

Thank you for your replies!

I see that you all have a keen understanding of the difference between fundamentalist doctines (e.g., the inerrancy of Scripture, mandatory practices based on the original first-century Church, the necessity that the Jews convert, etc.) and other forms of Christianity. It makes no difference if one belongs to the Churches of Christ or any other Church, as long as one is Christian, and as a result, I am a “Christian basher.” Very interesting indeed!

Mark: I didn’t seek to suggest that Jewish groups were not involved. That the original Dead Sea Scroll monopolists are now working together with Christian fundamentalists to exclude their opponents’ views from museum exhibits nonetheless can be seen as raising serious ethical concerns, and that is certainly why the matter has been carefully passed over in silence by the parties involved. Don’t you think the public had the right to know?

Forgive me if this message raises more questions than it answers; it is late and I’m tired. Good wishes to all of you.

[Tax-chick]

The Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit was here in Charlotte last spring (2006), without “controversy.” Maybe it’s just a California problem. I had a baby and didn’t get to see it, but I’m told it was really cool.

[Between the Lines]

My daughter is a curator for a large museum, so I asked her about this. She told me that all loaned or leased exhibits and especially historical exhibits come with stings attached. The owners and or sponsors of such an exhibits always attach a long list of dos and don’ts about how the exhibit is to be presented, publicized, advertised, etc.

The museum has little control over any of this. The more popular an exhibit, the less likely that any of these things are negotiable. Most of the time they can only choose to accept or reject the exhibit. The owners and or sponsors call the shots, not the museums.

[Charles Gadda]

I don't entirely disagree with what either of you say, but a few things need to be pointed out. (1) In Kansas City, the museum directors made sure to invite University of Chicago historian Norman Golb, a major opponent of the Qumran-Essene theory, to participate in the lecture series (and in that sense the exhibit was both "with" and "without" controversy); this was reported on in the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle. You can read Golb's detailed critique of the Kansas City exhibit in his article on "Fact and Fiction in Current Exhibitions of the Dead Sea Scrolls." (2) Thus, the Kansas City exhibitors clearly attempted to accomodate opposition to the old theory, and this itself shows that hosting exhibitions do have a measure of control. Indeed, from what I hear, when the scrolls were shown at the Library of Congress, the Library distributed supplementary material to the public informing them of the debate; and when they were shown at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago they held a public debate on their origins. By contrast, in San Diego all opponents of the Qumran-Essene theory have been carefully excluded from participating in the lecture series. (3) At any rate, beyond the question of the hosting exhibit, there is the issue of news coverage. I am perhaps not as critical of the San Diego museum's failure to modify or supplement the exhibit, as I am of its active, and obviously successful, effort to conceal the affiliations of the exhibit's sponsors from the public. I can understand why they did this, but it certainly does seem to raise ethical concerns that need to be addressed.

[Charles Gadda]

Please note that the link to my article has changed. Here is the new link.