Wednesday, July 10, 2024

It is the 10th of July 2024 Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

Once again, I apologize if you are listening to a bunch of these at once in a row. This summer, I am redoubling my efforts to highlight some of the “main” things that can come off as “plain” things when you are submerged in this world.

So we are finding events—many of them referenced in passing already—that could use a “wait, what exactly was that?” moment.

Lest I make another tired Mt Rushmore allusion- today marks the anniversary of an event in American church history that belongs in the pantheon of events in American church history that were mischaracterized by the media of the day and continue to be into the present day.  

The famous Scopes Monkey Trial began on this day, July 10, 1925, in Dayton, Tennessee. A few years back, on a trip through the South, I made a point of spending a day in Dayton at the courthouse and surrounding neighborhood.

The impetus for this trial was the passing of the Butler Act in Tennessee- this hastily written bill forbade any teacher from publicly denying the divine creation of man as taught in the Bible (and yes, that’s vague). The context was the creation of state and national education standards in the 1920s.

There was no real concern about godless Darwinism in small-town Dayton, Tennessee, but passing this bill would score political points. The American Civil Liberties Union saw this bill as a blatant attack on freedom of speech and sought to challenge the law.

Dayton, then, in an economic slump on account of the closing of the Coal and Iron company, saw a media circus as a means of supporting the local economy. They would need to find a teacher willing to admit that they taught evolution. The main biology teacher at the local school was the principal, so that wouldn’t do. However, the football coach, a young and single John Scopes, was willing to confess to teaching evolution (there is a small problem: he never did).

Dayton’s gamble paid off- the town was a buzz with this “trial of the century,” already a worn title- but one given to other high-profile cases with the high-profile defense attorney Clarence Darrow. The prosecution, playing to the cameras, brought in William Jennings Bryan- a shell of his former self as a three-time presidential candidate and Secretary of State- he was now known as “Mr. Fundamentalism,” and with him, the case became a referendum on Christianity and evolution rather than freedom of speech.

The media circus was led by the likes of H.L. Mencken, who used the trial to lampoon so-called “fundamentalists,” and a division in American culture and the church was born. What was once a symbol of fidelity- believing in a set of “fundamental” beliefs- became an epithet for a supposed yokel.

While the question of human origins played a central role in the trial, the academic side of the emerging Fundamentalist school often played it down.

The trial- including the jury selection and arguments- needed to last as long as possible as the jury’s deliberation was not likely to take long.

Despite all the uproar over the debate about monkeys, evolution, and creation, the Bill and its interpretation were not in question. In fact, the ACLU and Scopes hoped that he would be found guilty so that they could appeal to a higher court and discuss the law in question.

The jury took 2 hours. The Butler Act said you can’t teach X, and Scopes admitted to teaching it. The judge levied a fine of up to $100. The case was appealed, and it went to a high court only to find that, according to the law, the jury, NOT the judge, was supposed to decide the amount of the fine. The conviction was overturned, and the law stayed on the books until the 1970s.

Add to this the famous play and movie “Inherit the Wind,” which purports to dramatize this story when, in fact, it is a commentary on McCarthyism, not a historical report.

It was one of the trials of the century and certainly cast the die for the church and the courts in the 20th century. The Scopes Monkey trial began on the 10th of July in 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee.

 

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary from Jeremiah 16 and a word about the coming turn of the Gentiles to the LORD:

Lord, my strength and my fortress,
    my refuge in time of distress,


to you the nations will come

    from the ends of the earth and say,


“Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods,

    worthless idols that did them no good.

Do people make their own gods?

    Yes, but they are not gods!”

“Therefore I will teach them—

    this time I will teach them

    my power and might.


Then they will know

    that my name is the Lord.

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 10th of July 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man xxx, Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by those who ate at the Krystal (with a K) burger in Dayton and didn’t love it…  Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.