Dayton, Tennessee became a household name on this day in 1925 as a famous trial began. A young high school science teacher had broken Tennessee law, and his trial was beginning. Dayton was turned into a three-ring circus atmosphere with food vendors, tents, demonstrations, barbecues, carnival games, and the media. Inside Judge John Raulston’s court room, the atmosphere wasn’t much better. After the first day of the trial, the proceedings were ordered outdoors for fear that all the weight of the people in the gallery would collapse the court room’s floor.
Known as the Scopes Monkey Trial, teacher John Thomas Scopes was being tried for teaching evolution, a violation of a law passed in March of the same year. That law “made it a misdemeanor punishable by a fine to “teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.”1
Attorney and former Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan represented the prosecution. A Presbyterian, Bryan held to a literal interpretation of the Bible and was know for his anti-evolutionary stands. “Author Scott Farris argues that “many fail to understand Bryan because he occupies a rare space in society … too liberal for today’s religious [and] too religious for today’s liberals”.2
The defense was led by attorney Clarence Darrow, a leading member of the ACLU. He was about to retire until he heard that Bryan was the prosecutor. Both Darrow and Bryan had spared in the past and Darrow didn’t want to miss this final opportunity.
“In front of several thousand spectators in the open air, Darrow changed his tactics and as his sole witness called Bryan in an attempt to discredit his literal interpretation of the Bible. In a searching examination, Bryan was subjected to severe ridicule and forced to make ignorant and contradictory statements to the amusement of the crowd. On July 21, in his closing speech, Darrow asked the jury to return a verdict of guilty in order that the
case might be appealed. Under Tennessee law, Bryan was thereby denied the opportunity to deliver the closing speech he had been preparing for weeks. After nine minutes of deliberation, the jury returned with a guilty verdict, and Raulston ordered Scopes to pay a fine of $100, the minimum the law allowed. Although Bryan had won the case, he had been publicly humiliated and his fundamentalist beliefs had been disgraced. Five days later, on July 26, he lay down for a Sunday afternoon nap and never woke up.
“In 1927, the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the Monkey Trial verdict on a technicality but left the constitutional issues unresolved until 1968, when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a similar Arkansas law on the grounds that it violated the First Amendment.”3
Whatever happened to Bryan on that day to get him jumbled in his thoughts and defense is known only to God. I do feel sorry for him because I know what it’s like to have someone trying to trip you up in your words. They know just the right buttons to push and the ways to tear you apart. It’s not that you don’t know your beliefs or that the beliefs held by your opponent are wrong. Your beliefs and position just weren’t articulated well.
I am awed today at the abilities of those who can debate the atheists, agnostics, and detractors of the Word of God without getting derailed or backed into an indefensible corner. This is an area where the Apostle Paul excelled.
Acts 17:1-3 says, “Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews: (2) And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures, (3) Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.” In simplified form, the word reasoned is a dialogue. Paul didn’t just preach. Instead, he had a conversation. He let the others talk, sharing their questions and debates. Paul responded in kind, sharing the truth of God’s Word.
In Acts 19:8, we read, “And he went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God.” In a sense, Paul was on trial. He defended the faith, the Gospel, and the Lord for three months. He wasn’t afraid of the hard questions.
While we may not have the kind of minds that can easily enter debates such as this, we are supposed to “… be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.” (1 Peter 3:15) That means we need to always be ready to share the truth of the Gospel. To do this, let’s make a practice of 2 Timothy 2:15. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
1https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/july-10/monkey-trial-begins
2https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jennings_Bryan#Family
3https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/july-10/monkey-trial-begins
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