Hobby Lobby Owner May Be Trafficking in Antiquities

[LeopardLady]

One of the scariest things about this is the nagging thought in the back of my head that they wouldn't hesitate to destroy an artifact if it disagreed with their "biblical" interpretation of history. Maybe I'm too cynical about these people, and they wouldn't actually go to those lengths, but it scares me that they have access to some of these items so that they could if they wanted to.

[December]

Not shocked. Disgusted, sure. Just not shocked. I won't be shocked when they inevitably try and pass it off as okay because it's for the Bible Museum either.

I hope the government looks into this issue. It's grossly unethical at absolute best. 

Never shopped at Hobby Lobby and never will.

[hoipolloi]

ThinkProgress has an update (http://thinkprogress.org/world/2015/11/04/3718938/hobby-lobby-antiquities/) with good commentary from knowledgable people:

The Green family’s oversight might not even be an oversight. The Greens met with Patty Gerstenblith, a law professor at DePaul University before they began amassing their collection of Bible-related antiquities in 2011. The family discussed issues of due diligence procedures to prove the legal provenance of antiquities with Gerstenblith, along with measures to ensure the legality of their purchases.

Even with that guidance, however, the Greens appear to have circumvented the law and opted to purchase and import antiquities with dubious provenance, or none at all.

“The issue is not whether they were caught smuggling stuff, the issue is why they were doing it,” said Amr Al-Azm, a professor at Ohio’s Shawnee State University who has helped save antiquities from all out destruction or illegal sale through a league of archaeologists in Syria.

The reason that he thinks the Green family might have broken international law or avoided ethical standards in the antiquities trade is to promote their overtly Christian beliefs—beliefs they fought for and won at the Supreme Court last year in their landmark case on the religious freedom of employers with regards to government mandates on healthcare.

“In their hearts, [I think] they think they’re doing the right thing,” Al-Azm said. “They look at this cultural heritage and they have a close affinity to it. They feel that this is something that touches their deep core beliefs, and they see it in an area or a place that is dangerous or unstable. So they can justify this sort of activity by saying I’m doing something good for posterity.”

The problem is that they have to disregard the law and support brutal forces in order to “save” Christian antiquities from Iraq and Syria.

“In the end they’re just supporting and encouraging an illicit trade in looted items that are in many cases going to fund potential terrorists or, in many cases, directly fund terrorism,” he said.

[Emphasis added to portions excerpted above]

[ShepherdontheRock]

racist fucking colonialist thieves.

And that's all I have to say in response to the rest.

[DaisyD]

Isn't funding terrorism considered treason? I really hope so. I hope they prove that they directly funded terrorists and that they are tried for treason. It won't happen, but that's what I want.

[hoipolloi]

Isn't funding terrorism considered treason?I really hope so. I hope they prove that they directly funded terrorists and that they are tried for treason. It won't happen, but that's what I want.

Re: bolded. One would think so but probably IOIYAFundie.

[RosyDaisy]

Like I said, this is treason, and their asses belong in federal prison.

[formergothardite]

So they probably funded terrorists so they could steal some items they thought they deserved. Fuck them. I hope this brings about the downfall of their empire. But I have little faith that stealing and funding terrorism will bother their Christian fan base.