RantCrush Top 5: July 6, 2017

The Christian arts and crafts chain Hobby Lobby has agreed to pay a $3 million fine to resolve a lawsuit brought by the Justice Department. The company was accused of illegally smuggling more than 5,500 ancient artifacts from Iraq into the U.S. The objects were added to the owner’s collection of cultural objects and were probably intended to go into a “bible museum,” which CEO Steve Green has spent $800 million on so far.

Hobby Lobby looting Iraq was not a story I was expecting but then again this is 2017.

— Gabe Ortíz (@TUSK81) July 5, 2017

Reportedly, Green bought some ancient tablets in 2010. An expert warned that the tablets could have been illegally obtained from historical sites, but apparently, that didn’t alarm Green. In fact, he personally traveled to Israel to inspect them. The packages were marked as tile samples and bore labels that falsely claimed they came from Turkey. Now, Hobby Lobby has to return all the goods on top of the hefty fine. The chain of stores has made it its mission to promote evangelical Christianity and produces films with biblical messages. Hobby Lobby was famously the defendant in a 2014 case that ruled that forcing family-owned businesses to pay for certain types of reproductive health care violated freedom of religion.

The hobby lobby revelations are further proof karma is real and God has a sense of humor. https://t.co/yrDc0oIQDj

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) July 6, 2017

To recap: The billionaire founder of Hobby Lobby may be funding ISIS by buying religious artifacts on the black market https://t.co/I54jpyl6hx

— Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) July 5, 2017

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.