Washington, DC has two different types of museums: the Smithsonian Museum and the Museum of the Bible. I like both museums, but the first one is looking more like an instrument of wokeism and left-wing culture.

Last year, President Trump issued an executive order dedicated to “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” This year, the White House Domestic Policy Council issued a 162-page report on the National Museum of American History.

The director appeared before Congress to respond to the report. You might have seen how Representative Brandon Gill asked the director if she thought politeness was a sign of White Supremacy, since that is stated in the Smithsonian material. She has also been promoting a different role for the museum. She wants to connect “research and scholarship to activism and advocacy.” She sees their programs and displays as a “prime tool of social justice.” 

The Smithsonian Museum could learn something from the Museum of the Bible, even though it is not a taxpayer-funded government museum. It begins with some foundational principles, namely that the Bible is transcendent truth. It illustrates how the Bible shaped Western culture. By contrast, the Smithsonian attempts to reinterpret history through the latest cultural and philosophical fads.

Perhaps the greatest failing of the Smithsonian isn’t what is said, but what is left out. A recent white paper on the museum reported that there is “no major exhibit dedicated to America’s Founding era, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, other Founding Fathers, the Continental Congress, the Pilgrims, the Puritans.”

The American people deserve better.