Bible Museum: Hands off Our Asses and Illicit Cunies!

After demolishing the claims that an attempt was made to import over five thousand cunies into the USA without the proper paperwork 'by mistake' Lynda Albertson (Thou Shall Not Covet thy Neighbor's Cuneiform) gives the Greens some face-saving advice:

they should also make every effort, before making any further acquisitions, to ensure that the objects they are purchasing have been legally obtained and been legally exported from their country of origin. If the Greens truly want to make amends, they should fill their future Museum of the Bible with acquisitions collected ethically, and make the details of their past purchases open to researchers and investigators so that they can start to set things right by restituting any objects purchased without sufficient moral and ethical consideration.

Exodus 20:15 and 17 King James Version (KJV),
“Thou shalt not steal."
“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.”

I think that includes cuneiform tablets, clay bullae, incantation bowls and papyrus fragments.

As do we all.

Meanwhile Tony Norman is even more hard-hitting in his merciless use of language: 'Hobby Lobby and the god of sticky fingers'

Hobby Lobby president Steve Green blames his company’s “passion for the Bible” for ignoring the shady circumstances by which it came into possession of thousands of ancient cuneiform tablets from war-torn Iraq. Those of a less evangelical persuasion might be more inclined to chalk it up to what it really is [....] Like the good Christian company the Supreme Court insists it is, Hobby Lobby promises to retrain its personnel and adopt international standards for importing cultural artifacts going forward. No word on whether retraining consists of reading the Bible’s many admonitions against thievery.

Vignette: Covetous Evangelists looking a bit foolish now.