American Bible Society's $60 Million Museum is Shuttered


Just three or four years ago, the Bible Society of America sold a building in NYC for $300 million. Its thinking was that Philadelphia had better imagery for linking patriotism to the Bible. It spent $60 million and hired staff to open a state-of-the-art museum. It turned out visitor numbers were but a fraction of that projected and the place hemorrhaged losses. It has now closed.

There must have been lots of prayers for the museum's success. Certainly, there were no prayers for failure because atheists don't pray. When people drop in the phrase, "Everything happens for a reason," what might be the reason traffic at the museum was too low to keep it open?

There was a study before the museum was built projecting visitors and revenues. I'm wondering if those who did the study looked at the many studies I look at which say fewer and fewer people read the Bible. Interest in the Bible has been falling for years. Wouldn't it be logical to apply this fact to prospects of the new Bible Musem? 

The museum closing seems like another example of a weakness within the marketing arm of Christianity. Most Christian operatives are unable to envision how the rest of the world sees them. They insist others see the faith the same way they do. When skeptics fail to buy miracles, invisible beings and complex versions of a "life" after death, the faithful conclude skeptics have not read the Bible. If skeptics had read the Bible they would see that all these odd notions are perfectly logical. There is no hope for converting the skeptics because they are skeptical of the Bible itself. Few skeptics are interested in paying admission to a Musem of the Bible.

The most common "solution" suggested by Christain operatives for declining Christian numbers is for parents to drum the faith into the heads of their children. These operatives do not understand the situation from the parents' point of view. The parents are not convinced drumming the faith into their children is good for their children. They are deciding not to do it. 

Parents also are not taking their children to the Museum of the Bible.


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