MUSTANG, Okla. — A school board in Oklahoma has voted to approve an elective Bible course proposed by the president of the popular arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby.
The Mustang School Board agreed Monday to move forward with the “Museum of the Bible” curriculum presented by Steve Green, the president of Hobby Lobby and overseer of the traveling Bible exhibit “Passages.”
As previously reported, Green introduced the course to the school board last fall, explaining to those present that he would like to offer an introductory course on “the Old and New Testament’s impact on society.” He had been invited by Mustang School District Superintendent Sean McDaniel to speak about the proposed class for Mustang High School.
According to reports, the school will beta-test the course during the first semester, beginning this fall. If successful, “Museum of the Bible” will then serve as an elective spanning all four years of high school.
Local television station KOCO reports that 170 students selected the course as their first choice for an elective when recently polled about the matter.
Green hopes to expand the curriculum to educational institutions worldwide.
“We have a list of universities that we are working with today all over the world,” he told reporters last fall. “We want to find the leading scholars to help us and we will be pulling from this group to help write this curriculum and it will tie to the three parts we want to teach.”
“With the history, we want to show the archeological evidences of the Bible and then we want to show the impact of the Bible,” Green continued. “The Bible has had an impact on just about every area of life, whether you like it or not, it has. It has impacted government, education, art, science, literature, you name it. Thirdly, is the story, meaning what does the book say.”
As previously reported, Green is simultaneously working on opening a museum in Washington, D.C., which will also focus on the Bible and similar artifacts. Last October, the entrepreneur announced that he had obtained “the oldest Jewish prayer book ever found” and would add it to the D.C. collection. The Greens have over 40,000 pieces to their name, which they began collecting in 2009.
“We didn’t buy them because we’re collectors; we bought them because we wanted to tell the Bible story,” he told the Baptist Press. “The material we have to make a museum with trumps any museum that’s there [in D.C.]. Our story is the most incredible story to be told.”
Portions of the Dead Sea scrolls, a historic translation of the Psalms to Middle English, tracts from the reformer Martin Luther and a copy of John Wycliffe’s New Testament are all expected to be included.
For now, many of the items are on tour in a traveling exhibit known as “Passages.”
Photo: The Green Collection
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