“Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.”
~H. L. Mencken
Today is the 100th anniversary of the first day of:
The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes.
This was a legal case that was tried from July 10 to July 21, 1925 in Dayton, Tennessee. High school teacher, John T. Scopes, was accused of violating the Butler Act, a state law which outlawed the teaching of human evolution in public schools.
The Scopes Trial (aka, Monkey Trial) became a symbol of the ongoing debate between science and religion, and it highlighted the cultural shifts occurring in America during the 1920s. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sought to challenge the Butler Act by finding a teacher willing to be prosecuted for violating it, which led to John Scopes being charged. The trial became a nationally televised event with Clarence Darrow defending John Scopes; and former presidential hopeful and populist, William Jennings Bryan arguing against evolution.
Inherit the Wind was a fictionalized play of the Scopes trial written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee. It debuted in Dallas in 1955 and was eventually made into a film by director Stanley Kramer. (If you’re interested in the non-fiction version of events, PBS’s American Experience also had an episode in 2002, called Monkey Trial.)
In the play, the role of Matthew Harrison Brady was intended to reflect the personality and beliefs of William Jennings Bryan, while Henry Drummond resembled Clarence Darrow. Bryan and Darrow, formerly close friends, opposed one another at the Scopes trial.
The character of Bertram Cates (Dick York) corresponds to John Scopes, and the character of E. K. Hornbeck (Gene Kelly) is modeled on that of H. L. Mencken, who covered the trial for The Baltimore Sun and whose sensational reports helped attract national attention.
It’s an excellent film and if you haven’t seen it, you might want to watch it. When I was with family a few months ago, we streamed the Spencer Tracy/Frederick March classic and watched it again. It felt all too familiar to what is happening in today’s America.
It was an uncomfortable feeling.
One likes to believe that our country had progressed beyond the time, when a humble, curious school teacher was being tried for exploring the idea and teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution. Yet even today, 1 in 4 Americans reject evolution, a century after the Scopes monkey trial spotlighted the clash between science and religion.
“Similar to today, the late 19th century was a time where a small group of men enjoyed immense wealth, privilege and power to shape the nation. It was a time of immense inequality, as factory and housing conditions crushed the lives of the poor.
And it was a time of white Christian nationalism.”
You might want to read this whole article, 100 years ago, the Social Gospel movement pushed to improve workers’ lives – but also to promote its vision of Christian America. It’s really quite interesting. The social gospel movement over a 100 years ago was influenced by the demographic changes in America and the inequality of people’s lives.
…many of these white Protestant activists believed their own culture and race to be superior, and this prejudice hindered their efforts. They often spouted anti-Catholic and anti-immigrant rhetoric, and mostly ignored Black workers’ plight.
…Though many white Protestants felt threatened by the challenges of immigration, they were still a clear majority, and they presumed that most Americans would endorse applying Christian ethics to public policy and social reform.
…Like the Social Gospellers of a century ago, the Christian nationalists of recent decades are wary of religious and racial change in their country. Yet the movement’s priorities – often focused around its vision of families, sex and gender – are starkly more limited than the broader quality-of-life issues that Social Gospellers addressed.
…Many Social Gospel leaders embraced women’s suffrage because women were already leading supporters for their causes: For example, Frances Willard, who promoted temperance and workers’ rights; and Jane Addams, who ran a Christian “settlement house,” or community center, for the poor.
…In 1908, for example, the Federal Council of Churches adopted a 14-point statement called the “Social Creed,” affirming that churches should support reforms “to lift the crushing burdens of the poor, and to reduce the hardships and uphold the dignity of labor.” While some of the reforms they called for are taken for granted today — like one day off per week — other calls, like a living wage for all, are yet to be realized.
While both today’s Christian Nationalists and the Social Gospel leaders of yesterday promote white Christian nativism, there is, at least, one big difference between these two movements. Social Gospellers wanted to vindicate Christianity and show it was still relevant to modern life. Their vision of what a Christian America should look like conflated their Protestant faith with their race and culture. “Fueled by faith, the Social Gospel movement worked to expand labor rights and improve living conditions at the turn of the 20th century.”
Today’s Christian Nationalists primarily are concerned with political power. There’s very little in their movement that would suggest that they have any “Christian” motives, morality or ethics. I’ve written about this before (MAGA Theology and Moral Leadership).
And up until recently, I thought our country had evolved far beyond the mentality that led to the John Scopes trial. We were on an upward promise. We had enacted fair housing laws and other civil rights legislation protecting minority groups. We had some of the best universities, scientific minds and creative forces leading us at the turn of the 21st Century. With things like the Environmental Protection Agency, minimum wage laws, food and drug protection laws, OSHA safety standards and unemployment insurance policies, Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, et al, there were some safety nets for the poor and indigent and some regulations in place to protect our health and safety. We had moved - however imperfectly - to the vision of “liberty and justice for all.”
Sadly, the Project 2025 advocates have a different vision for our country. Apparently, we’re entering an era of devolution.
Today, the monkeys are running the circus.
Thought for the day…
“History repeats itself, and that's one of the things that's wrong with history.”
~ Clarence Darrow
Must Read Article:
The Scopes monkey trial took place 100 years ago, but the fight isn’t over
But amid the spectacle, the arguments and tensions raised during the eight-day trial persist. The rift over evolution and creationism — particularly in classrooms — has never fully been put to rest, and questions over how students should be taught about life’s origins still spark debate among educators, lawmakers, and the public.
Evangelical Political Life After the Religious Right
From the presidential election of 1980 through 2008 it was relatively clear what role American evangelicals played in our nation's political life: They were an active and influential bloc within the Republican party, sharing influence within a coalition that also included foreign policy hawks and pro-business libertarians. This meant that while the evangelical coalition didn't get everything they wanted, they really did have genuine power and influence over Republican policy and really did get some recognizably Christian policy wins through that influence.
Quote of the day:
“It is becoming increasingly clear that evangelical Trump voters are, by and large, not abandoning Trump's GOP for any reason. This means that their views and policy priorities simply can be ignored by the real leaders of the current GOP because there is no reason to concede anything to people whose vote you will have no matter what.
Thus we have arrived at a new Republican coalition that looks like this:
The tech right, which is essentially a weirder and more evil upgrade of the pro-business libertarians
The barstool right, which is a genuinely new constituency made up of hedonistic anti-woke libertarians that has replaced the Christian conservatives
The neo-conservative foreign policy hawks, who are the weakest member of the coalition, but can still get what they want on certain issues, as seen with the attacks on the Houthis as well as the saber rattling regarding Greenland
In other words, the Christian influence on actual Republican policy items and their political vision is going to be exceedingly negligible going forward.”
~ Jake Meador
What I’m reading today…
The Christian Right Is Going Extinct
There have been two competing narratives about the rise of the Christian right in the United States…was the Christian right a virtuous — however imperfect — movement born out of deep regard for the life and liberty of human beings created in the image of God? Or was it a corrupt movement born out of fear and spite that used religion to deceive the masses (including countless good and faithful Christians) and conceal its true nature?
If it’s the former, then it should have strong antibodies against cruelty and corruption. If it’s the latter, then cruelty and corruption are no impediment to success. What matters is power, and power is the measure of that success.
New laws this month touch on fundamental rights
This year's batch of laws taking effect at the start of July includes measures in Republican-controlled states to back the Trump administration's goals for deportations, put more restrictions on transgender people and get fluoride out of public water supplies.
Local officials in Tennessee can face a felony charge if they back what the law calls "sanctuary policies." It defines those a few ways, including preventing law enforcement from communicating with federal officials about someone's immigration status or inquiring about someone's immigration status.
Another new Tennessee law is also in the courts and testing legal boundaries. It would make it illegal to shelter immigrants in the country without documentation. Backers of the law say it's aimed at stopping human smuggling. But a suit has been filed by some religious groups and a local landlord saying it could be used to punish people providing emergency shelter to someone or even renting them an apartment.
Wyoming rolls back rules for "gun-free zones" in public buildings
Florida joins Utah in banning fluoridated water
Evangelical Has Lost Its Meaning
One of the most important points to grasp about evangelicalism: It’s not a denomination. It’s not even a single tradition. It is, rather, a complex and fluid movement dedicated to the renewal of Christianity, largely among Protestants, though its efforts have occasionally reached into Catholicism. Its focus is on preaching the euangelion, a New Testament Greek word meaning “good news” or “good message.”
…in the 1980 election the newly confident evangelical movement, in its self-understanding as the Moral Majority, supported not its co-religionist Jimmy Carter but the divorced former Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan. And that inaugurated the affiliation of white American evangelicals with the Republican Party that has lasted to this day.
Trump vs. the Church: The President's Five-Month Assault on Pope Leo’s Catholic America
It began with ICE raids at parishes. It might end with padlocks on hospital doors.
Over the past five months, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance’s escalating assault on Pope Leo’s Catholic Church has moved from intimidation to institutional destruction. With the Senate’s razor-thin passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” on July 1 — Vice President Vance breaking the 50-50 tie — the war has reached its most dangerous phase yet. If the House follows suit today, hundreds of Catholic hospitals that serve the nation’s poor and vulnerable could be shuttered. It’s not just bad policy. It’s a moral and religious emergency.
Pastors who endorse political candidates shouldn’t lose tax-exempt status, IRS says in filing
In a joint court filing intended to end an ongoing case against the IRS, the tax collection agency and the National Religious Broadcasters Association — an Evangelical media consortium — and other plaintiffs have asked a federal court in Texas to stop the government from enforcing the Johnson Amendment against the plaintiffs. The Johnson Amendment is a 1954 amendment to the U.S. tax code that prohibits tax-exempt organizations, including churches, from endorsing or opposing political candidates.
The Christian Rocker at the Center of MAGA
Given his rallies and political connections, Feucht is “maybe the most effective evangelical figure on the far right,” Matthew D. Taylor, the senior Christian scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies, told me. He is a big reason Christian nationalism has more purchase now than at any other point in recent history. According to a February poll from the Public Religion Research Institute, a majority of Republicans support or sympathize with Christian nationalism. They agreed with a variety of statements provided by PRRI, such as “If the U.S. moves away from our Christian foundations, we will not have a country anymore.” Last month, the Appeal to Heaven flag—a symbol popular among Christian nationalists—was spotted flying above a D.C. government building. Feucht is pushing to bring religion and government into even closer alignment.
Christian Nationalism Raises Its Flag at the Pentagon
Hegseth’s membership in a church that belongs to the CREC drew attention because prominent members of the church identify as Christian nationalists, and because of its positions on issues concerning gender, sexuality and the separation of church and state…The CREC doctrine is opposed to religious pluralism or political points of view that diverge from CREC theology. On its website, the CREC says that it is “committed to maintaining its Reformed faith, avoiding the pitfalls of cultural relevance and political compromise that destroys our doctrinal integrity.” CREC churches adhere to a highly patriarchal and conservative interpretation of Scripture. Wilson has said that in a sexual relationship, “A woman receives, surrenders, accepts.”
Families file suit challenging Arkansas law that requires Ten Commandments be posted in classrooms
Seven Arkansas families filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging an upcoming state requirement that public school classrooms have posted copies of the Ten Commandments, saying the new law will violate their constitutional rights.
The federal lawsuit challenges a measure Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law earlier this year, similar to a requirement enacted by Louisiana and one that Texas' governor has said he'll sign.
Eyeing a friendly Supreme Court, Republicans push for the Ten Commandments in schools
Claims of ‘anti-Christian bias’ sound to some voters like a message about race, not just religion
Even though they remain the largest religious and racial groups, white Americans and Christian Americans have both declined as a proportion of the U.S. population. Over the past two decades, the percentage of Christian Americans has decreased from 78% to 63%, and the percentage of white Americans has decreased from 69% to 60%. White Christians now account for less than 50% of the country…
Whether intentionally or not, it seems that rallying around anti-Christian bias can serve as a “dog whistle” signaling support for people concerned about changes in America’s racial makeup, as well.
Trump administration raises possibility of stripping Mamdani of US citizenship
The Trump administration has raised the possibility of stripping Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral candidate for New York City, of his US citizenship as part of a crackdown against foreign-born citizens convicted of certain offences.
MAGA Christians Have a Right to Practice Their Faith — But So Do I
One of the more alarming aspects of the Trump administration is the way it seeks to instrumentalize Christianity — both as a weapon against its political opponents and to reward its political supporters. Perhaps President Donald Trump’s most prominent example of this in his second term is through his February executive order on “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias,” which created a task force that held its inaugural meeting last month.
A book I recommend…
Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy and the Trial That Riveted a Nation by Brenda Wineapple
What I am listening to…
What I read every day…
