Al Mohler is proof that you can dress a fundamentalist in a $3,000 suit and he’s still going to come off like a sweaty William Jennings Bryan at the Scopes monkey trial. The ever-well-dressed and ever-opinionated Mohler slapped down the…
Of gay penguins, the Grand Canyon, the Ark and the Scopes trial
As the 100-year anniversary of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial approaches, the scientific community has had an entire century to explore our world and then sharpen and share their discoveries through peer review. But young earth creationists are still stuck…
A hundred years after the Scopes trial, not much has changed
If you haven’t heard about the 1925 Scopes trial in Dayton, Tenn., that is about to change. We are rapidly approaching the centennial of that messy affair, and books and articles on the subject already are starting to appear. Any…
Fundamentalism is not the only religious voice unless we give up
The Psalmist writes: “Yonder is the sea, great and wide, creeping things innumerable are there, living things both small and great. There go the ships, and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.” Using the tools of biblical criticism, we…
Tennessee legislators turn back the clock to Jim Crow time
The recent actions of the Tennessee Legislature to expel two Black Democratic representatives scream for answers. Why would members of the Republican Party, who have spent the past seven years swearing on a stack of Bibles, sometimes held upside down,…
E.Y. Mullins, the piano mouse, the Cowardly Lion, and the monkey trial
In July 2025 we will mark the 100th anniversary of the Scopes trial regarding the teaching of evolution in Tennessee. The trial represents a key moment in the debate between modernists and fundamentalists. Like all history, the story offers insights…
The Scopes Monkey Trial and global warming: Same playbook, different football
It’s been nearly a hundred years since The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, but for many, science (or the Bible — depending on your perspective) remain on trial.
The Scopes Trial, then and now
By Bill Leonard “The parents have a right to say that no teacher paid by their money shall rob their children of faith in God and send them back to their homes skeptical, or infidels, or agnostics, or atheists.” — W.J….