Also known as the "Monkey Trial," the Scopes' Trial refers to the (in)famous trial brought against John Scope, an American biology teacher, by the state of Tennessee, for teaching evolution which had been banned earlier in the year. It turned out to be one of the most disastrous setbacks in the history of American Christian fundamentalism.
The growing strengtht of the fundamentalist movement in USA had allowed them to 'persuade' a number of southern states to pass laws which forbid the teaching of evolution in schools. When such a law was passed by the state of Tennessee in 1925, a young biology teacher, John Thomas Scopes volunteered for American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to challenge the case by teaching it to his students. His trial took place in the small town of Dayton. The lawyer provided by the ACLU was Clarence Darrow, a New York lawyer who had recently gain nation-wide fame in a high-profile kidnap-n-murder case. William Jennings Bryan—a fundamentalist politician, three-time unsuccessful candidate for the presidency*, and famous for his oratory skills—volunteered for the prosecution. With two such celebrated attorneys the case naturally attracted wide publicity.
Scopes was found guilty. It was, however, not the trial of Scopes that made it so (in)famous (the verdict on Scopes was overturned three years later on a technicality). It was Bryan's foolishness that did. During the trial he offered himself to be cross-examined by Darrow on the accuracy of the Bible. "I want the papers to know," he boasted, "that I am not afraid to get on the stand in front of him and let him do his worst." Darrow give him more than he wished and it proved fatal. Here is the disaster as it unfolded:
Darrow: When was that [Noah's] flood?
Bryan: I would not attempt to fix the date. The date is fixed as suggested this morning.
Darrow: But what do you think that the Bible itself says? Don't you know how it was arrived at?
Bryan: I never made a calculation.
Darrow: A calculation from what?
Bryan: I could not say.
Darrow: What do you think?
Bryan: I do not think about things I don't think about.
Darrow: Do you think about things you do think about?
Bryan: Well, sometimes.
The trial has since stood as a definitive demonstration of fundamentalism's lack of intellectual credibility, the stuff that is only good for consumption by rural folks who could not understand anything beyond their county borders. Whith the massive public humiliation he suffered, Bryan died suddenly soon after the trial. The humiliation suffered by the fundamentalists was further sensationalized by its fictionalization in the movie Inherit the Wind (1960).
* Some scholars have suggested that Frank Baum's famous Wizard of Oz may have been an allegory of the US during the time of the election when Bryan stood against McKinley in 1896, with the latter portrayed by the Wizard and Bryan the cowardly Lion.
Further Reading & Resources:
George M. Marsden, Fundamentalism and American Culture. The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism: 1870-1925. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980.
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