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“He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind; and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart.” ~ Proverbs 12:29
I don’t usually quote The Bible, but man are we humans troubling our own house right now, on so many levels! I’m getting whiplash from the newest events every day. Everything seems like it’s in chaos. And yet, you have to take everything out of the closet before you can reorganize it. I think that’s what’s going on right now. Humanity is doing some cosmic closet cleaning.
I connected with The Bible quote because it was part of the the movie, Inherit the Wind (1960) that I watched not too long ago. It’s about the Scopes vs Tennessee Trial which took place in 1925. I’ve seen this movie several times and I’ve always thought of it as a dramatization of an historical event. But within the first few moments of watching this time, I was dismayed by the similarities between this movie and all the “history denying” going on in various States and school districts around the country. I guess we haven’t yet learned this lesson from history.
The story is based on the real events when the Tennessee Legislature passed a law forbidding science teachers from including lessons about the Theory of Evolution in their curriculum. The ACLU immediately wanted to challenge that law, hopefully going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. So, they looked for a teacher willing to challenge the law. In real life, John Thomas Scopes volunteered. The trial became what was called “The trial of the century” and dubbed The Scopes Monkey Trial by the press.
I thought it was interesting that the stage play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, premiered a few years after the main investigations of The House Un-American Activities Committee and may have been in response to those events.
The compelling thing about what happened in real life is that it attracted two powerhouse lawyers, Clarence Darrow, (Henry Drummond played by Spencer Tracy) and William Jennings Bryan, (Matthew Harrison Brady played by Fredric March). These two nationally known figures are what made following the trial so popular. Radio was in it’s infancy then, and this trial was a ratings hit. But there were print stories galore as well, for those who didn’t own a radio, outlining every aspect of the day’s proceedings.
On the surface the issue was whether Evolution should be taught in schools, but as Henry Drummond points out the real issue was whether or not the students should be taught different theories of the origin of the planet and everything that lives upon it, so they can make up their own minds about what they believe. Instead, Drummond pointed out that the law was really about whether or not the students would be allowed to use their minds to “think”, to consider the many possible creation stories in addition to the one taught in The Bible.
Much of the trial dialogue in the play/movie comes strait from trial transcripts. In fact, in real life, Clarence Darrow did something never done before and called William Jennings Bryan to the stand as an expert in The Bible. He did this because all of his scientific witnesses were denied him. Little by little Drummond, (Darrow) was able to get Brady, (Bryan) to admit that there are inconsistencies in the “historical” thread of the Biblical creation story, which weakened the prosecutions case.
This segment of the story is so compelling and relevant to today. At one point Drummond, goes on a rant: “I say that you cannot administer a wicked law impartially. You can only destroy, you can only punish. And I warn you, that a wicked law, like cholera, destroys every one it touches. Its upholders as well as its defiers.”
Judge: “Colonel Drummond …”
Drummond: “Can’t you understand? That if you take a law like evolution and you make it a crime to teach it in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools? And tomorrow you may make it a crime to read about it. And soon you may ban books and newspapers. And then you may turn Catholic against Protestant, and Protestant against Protestant, and try to foist your own religion upon the mind of man. If you can do one, you can do the other. Because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, your Honor, with banners flying and with drums beating we’ll be marching backward, BACKWARD, through the glorious ages of that Sixteenth Century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind!”
I say, that’s the precipice upon which we find ourselves again with groups wanting to walk us backward. I’m not sure it’s working this time, though. Thankfully there are a growing number of “woke” people in the world, people who are aware of systematic injustice and prejudice on all levels and who are doing something to stop it.
It’s almost a century since the Scopes Monkey Trial. Maybe this time we’ll cross the finish line and never go back to intolerance and fear of the truth. We’ll champion sincere investigation. I hope we’ll understand that no one person can know what is best for everyone because we each have free will and live in our own realities. None of us see the world in the same way. I love that I can learn new things from people who see the world differently than I do.
If you’re interested, my sister, Celeste and I recorded a Bonus Story-Power episode about Inherit the Wind for Apple subscriptions. It’s free to listen to through, or maybe until October 25. There are so many great things about that movie that we can learn to apply to today’s situations.
Thanks for reading, liking, and commenting. I appreciate it very much. I’m not sure if I’ll write a post next week. I’m still preparing and uploading past episodes of Story-Power to YouTube. We’ll see what the events of the next week bring up for me to comment on.
Blessings,
Lucinda Sage-Midgorden © 2023
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