By Victor Ochieng
We all have our moments when we’re thinking of a place to visit to learn more or just have fun. There are those who like visiting historical sites and recreational parks just so they can refresh ahead of their next busy season at work. If you’re one such person, The Museum of the Bible (MOTB) should join your list.
MOTB is a 430,000-square-foot museum near the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The museum was officially opened to the public on Friday, November 17. The curators of the facility say it’d take roughly nine days to be able to explore every artifact therein. But even if you only had a few hours at the place, there is still so much to benefit from.
Below are four reasons why you should consider visiting MOTB:
Better Evangelical Cultural Dialogue
The museum is providing a positive and refreshing shift. It has several distinctive attributes that provide an optimal pedestal for evangelical cultural engagement that befits those who embrace the kitschy and cheesy artifacts of Christianity, as well as those who’re either embarrassed by or simply are against kitschy. At the same time, it sets a higher standard when it comes to museum technology. Commenting on the new museum, Philip Kennicott, an art and architecture critic with The Washington Post said, “Every resource of museum design and careful argumentation has been mustered to sweep up these unrelated ideas [that the Bible is enormously influential and that the stories it tells are fundamentally true] in one, big, overwhelming package.”
MOBT Has Something For Every Individual
Even though Kennicott says atheists and adherents of non-Judeo-Christian outfits won’t be cozy with MOTB’s “master narrative,” they’re equally highly likely to acknowledge just how great the Bible story has impacted the world.
Mahatma Gandhi once lamented, “You Christians look after a document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilization to pieces, turn the world upside down and bring peace to a battle-torn planet. But you treat it as though it is nothing more than a piece of literature.” And indeed MOTB has so many historical exhibits that tell clearly how the world was torn apart when Christians and Jews treated the Bible as nothing more than mere literature.
MOBT Is A Worthwhile Cultural Artifact
While the content and presentation seen at MOTB make it a world-class museum, it’s an adorable cultural artifact in its own right. The museum has exhibited what a great design and proper use of technology can achieve. The whole accessibility and presentation is designed in a simple and ingenious way, such that it illuminates how much true believers in the Bible still need to do to reach all the corners of the Earth with the good news.
MOTB Inspires Greater Appreciation of The Bible
The Bible, as presented at the MOTB shows clearly that it’s both a cultural and technological artifact. Unfortunately, even as evangelicals claim that they’re “people of the book,” the museum shows clearly just how badly we’ve treated the Bible. Nowadays, the Bible is easily accessible. We can carry with us a small version, we can have a digital version in our smartphones, but not so many people appreciate the technological and design efforts put in place to make all these possible. If you’re one such person, visit MOTB and you’ll begin to appreciate all the work that has been done by you or by others.
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