Town Still Ridiculed for Christian Beliefs 80 Years After Scopes Trial

c. 2005 Religion News Service DAYTON, Tenn. _ Eighty years ago, media coverage of the Scopes “Monkey Trial” branded this town a backwater haven of the Bible Belt, a place where ignorant Christians gave blind faith precedence over scientific discovery. It’s still ridiculed for its literal biblical beliefs, recently by Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” […]

c. 2005 Religion News Service

DAYTON, Tenn. _ Eighty years ago, media coverage of the Scopes “Monkey Trial” branded this town a backwater haven of the Bible Belt, a place where ignorant Christians gave blind faith precedence over scientific discovery.

It’s still ridiculed for its literal biblical beliefs, recently by Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” but its residents make no apologies.


Nestled on the Tennessee River, Dayton offers gospel music at McDonald’s and other fast-food restaurants. Last year county commissioners voted to ban homosexuals, only to reverse themselves after a national outcry.

Dayton is a place where residents rallied to raise money to keep Bible stories in their public schools after a lawsuit was filed. It’s a Southern town where the first question after an introduction is not “What do you do?” but “What church do you go to?”

In short, Dayton remains the faith-based city that hosted what was called the trial of the century in 1925, a trial that many point to as a turning point nationally for evangelical Christians and their beliefs.

Some residents, like 93-year-old Eloise Reed, can still recall details of the trial that made H.L. Mencken a journalistic legend after he called Daytonites “hillbillies,” “yokels,” “morons” and “primates,” among other compliments.

“I was there just a-squirmin’ and just mad as I could be,” said Reed, who got a front-row seat at the trial because she was the 13-year-old friend of the sheriff’s daughter. “If the story in the Bible was not true, then how could this be true?”

High school biology teacher John Scopes was convicted of breaking state law and teaching evolution. The trial pitted literal belief in the Bible against the then-burgeoning American Civil Liberties Union and Darwin’s theory of evolution.

The trial here in the foothills of the Cumberland Plateau drew thousands and shaped how science was taught in classrooms for decades. Dayton’s Christians were portrayed as fundamentalist fanatics in the 1960 film “Inherit the Wind.”


Feeling maligned and misunderstood, fundamentalist and evangelical Christians across the country retreated from broader society to create their own institutions, and in some cases hunker down for the Second Coming of Christ.

“Did Christians pull back from the marketplace of ideas? I kind of think they did,” said Tom Davis, a county commissioner and spokesman for the 750-student Bryan College, a Christian college in Dayton named for William Jennings Bryan, the three-time presidential candidate and fiery prosecutor of Scopes.

Yet after decades of retreat, Christians have stormed back into the public square, helping to elect school boards, governors and even a U.S. president to fight for their values. In some states and communities, they have pushed a battle over evolution back into the classroom and courtroom. In Dayton, evolution is taught, but creationism is part of the classroom discussion.

“I wouldn’t necessarily call it a Christian community,” said Davis. “But we certainly have a respect for our Christian heritage.”

The trial was a test of a state law forbidding public school educators from teaching “any theory that denies the story of the divine creation.” Scopes’ conviction eventually was overturned and the law repealed.

The trial discouraged educators from teaching evolution for decades, said Dr. Eugenie C. Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education. Even though Scopes was portrayed as a heroic martyr in the press, textbook publishers concluded the best way to avoid controversy was to avoid evolution.


“By 1930,” said Scott, “evolution essentially had disappeared from the public school curriculum.”

While Davis, the county commissioner and an academic expert on the history of trial, says it contributed to a temporary withdrawal of evangelical Christians from politics, they have returned to leave a significant mark.

A commission vote last year to ban homosexuals from living in Dayton _ Davis calls it a misunderstanding _ never would have garnered the attention it did had it not been for the stigma of the Scopes trial. Davis says commissioners thought they were voting to ask the county attorney for a resolution addressing gay marriage, which was in the news at the time.

The vote prompted national outcry, the commission rescinded it and the town eventually was host to a “Gay Day” demonstration that drew hundreds.

Davis also blames a misunderstanding for a lawsuit filed three years ago by a parent against the school board in protest of a Bryan College ministry that sent students into public schools to teach Bible stories. The lessons were informative, not proselytizing, Davis said. The board took the case to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, using funds raised by churches and residents, but gave up the case after a defeat there.

Some residents relish the ongoing media attention as an opportunity to share their faith.

“Dayton is the capital of the culture war,” boasts June Griffin, 66, better known as the “Ten Commandments Lady” for her travels to every Tennessee county urging that the biblical laws be displayed on public property.

But others are sensitive to how they might be perceived by outsiders. They are friendly and warm toward journalists, but wary.


Many pointedly say they seldom talk of the trial. Richard Fisher, superintendent of Dayton’s K-8 school, cautiously explains science is taught here according to current state standards, but creationism is not dismissed because so many here believe it.

The town’s portrayal on an episode this year of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” a cable TV show mixing humor with the news, made at least a few locals cringe. It was part of a special report titled “Evolution, Schmevolution” and poked fun at some of the town’s rural sensibilities.

“It wasn’t as bad as it could have been,” Davis said of the episode. “I guess I was expecting worse.”

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Some visitors still come in search of history and perhaps an answer to the question _ Where did we come from? They visit the historic courthouse, which underwent a $1 million restoration in the late 1970s and today is home to a small museum in the basement with news clippings, photos and other relics of the trial.

The museum gets visitors from across the globe, said Flossie Lowe, 70, who works there. Residents appreciate the business the visitors bring a town where many work at the local La-Z-Boy plant or commute to nearby Chattanooga.

But some “would just like to see it all go away,” said Lowe of the attention the Scopes trial still brings.


MO/PH END RNS

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