Presbyterian Historical Society of the Southwest
James S. Currie, Executive Secretary
In a recent New Yorker review of Brenda Wineapple’s soon-to-be-published book, Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial that Riveted a Nation, Michael Luo quotes Wineapple as seeing parallels between the 1925 Scopes trial in Dayton, Tennessee and much of what is going on in America today (“How Christian Fundamentalism Was Born Again”, The New Yorker, July 29, 2024).
In reading this review I was reminded of the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy that was going on in the “northern” Presbyterian Church at the same time as the Scopes trial. In fact, the controversy was reaching a climax that had begun with the trial of Professor Charles Briggs of Union Seminary in New York City in the 1890s. In 1895 the “Five Fundamentals” (the inerrancy of Scripture; the deity of Christ and the virgin birth; the substitutionary theory of atonement; the bodily resurrection and return of Christ; and the authenticity of Christ’s miracles) were published and became the basis for positions taken by such militant conservatives as J. Gresham Machen of Princeton Seminary, Clarence Macarney, pastor of churches in Philadelphia and later in Pittsburgh, and William Jennings Bryan, Presbyterian elder and three times candidate for President of the United States. Theologically, the dispute was symbolized by the different positions taken by Union Theological Seminary and Princeton Theological Seminary.
To all appearances the modernists won that battle. Led by, among others, Henry Sloane Coffin, Harry Emerson Fosdick, and Robert Hastings Nichols, Princeton Seminary was reorganized in 1929, Machen left and started Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia, and the “northern” Presbyterian Church seemingly had put the controversy to rest.
In the South and the Southwest (and even in the rest of the country) that was not so much the case. Influenced by fundamentalists John Nelson Darby and Cyrus Scofield, Louis Chafer opened Dallas Theological Seminary in 1924. Interestingly, Chafer was examined by and received as a member of the PCUS’ Dallas Presbytery on July 5, 1923. Also interesting is that under the leadership of William M. Anderson, Jr. First Presbyterian Church in Dallas hosted the seminary in the school’s early years. At the same time, although not a Presbyterian by any means, Frank Norris of First Baptist Church in Fort Worth also carried the fundamentalist, anti-evolution flag.
By 1962, thirty-eight years after his trial in Dayton, Tennessee and after a career as a geologist for United Gas Company, John Scopes was retired and living in Shreveport, Louisiana. Jerry Tompkins, then pastor 160 miles to the northeast at First Presbyterian Church in Monticello, Arkansas, met Scopes for the first time that year, a meeting that was repeated several times over the next three years. In 1965 Tompkins published the book, D-Days at Dayton: Reflections on the Scopes Trial (LSU Press). In it is a fascinating collections of essays by persons from a variety of backgrounds: by John Scopes himself, H. L. Mencken who was a reporter at the trial, Roger Baldwin of the American Civil Liberties Union, four scientists, and two theologians – John Dillenberger and Carlyle Marney.
Forty years later an indication that the issue of fundamentalism and evolution was far from over is the experience of Presbyterian Susan Epperson. In 1965 she was a biology teacher at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1928 Arkansas voters had passed a referendum calling for a ban on teaching evolution. The law had two parts: first, the teaching or selecting books that teach the theory of evolution, and second, any teacher or any other person violating the act “shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall vacate the position thus held….”
The daughter of a biology professor at the College of the Ozarks (now the University of the Ozarks), a Presbyterian school in Clarksville, Arkansas, Epperson agreed to be the plaintiff for the Arkansas Education Association challenging the 1928 law. Interestingly, Jerry Tompkins, whose book on the Scopes trial had just come out and who was in Monticello, was invited by Watson Davis (a scientist who was present in Dayton, TN and who contributed an essay in Tompkins’ book) to cover the trial on behalf of “Science Service”, a nonprofit organization that promoted the popularization of science.
Epperson’s case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. In November of 1968 the Court decided unanimously in Epperson’s favor, declaring the Arkansas law unconstitutional.
Susan Epperson, professor at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, delivered a paper detailing her experience at the annual meeting of the PHSSW in March of 2013 when it met on the campus of the University of the Ozarks.
Lest one think that the issues of fundamentalism and evolution in the South and Southwest occurred only in the 20th century, mention should be made of James Woodrow (1828-1907) of South Carolina. Uncle to the future U.S. President, Woodrow Wilson, Woodrow was professor of chemistry and geology at the University of Georgia. He was also an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) and served on the faculty of Columbia Theological Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina. Arguing that the theory of evolution did not contradict Scripture, Woodrow was eventually tried for heresy by Augusta Presbytery in 1886 and was exonerated. However, the Synod of Georgia overruled the Presbytery’s decision. Eventually, Woodrow was removed from his position on the Columbia faculty. He subsequently became president of South Carolina College, later the University of South Carolina. He remained a member in good standing in the PCUS and served as moderator of Augusta Presbytery in 1888.
Clearly, with issues of book-banning, school prayer, and the use of the Bible in public schools, as Wineapple and Luo suggest, issues related to fundamentalism remain very much with us.
The Presbyterian Historical Society of the Southwest exists to “stimulate and encourage interest in the collection, preservation, and presentation of the Presbyterian and Reformed heritage” in the Southwest. If you are not a participating member of the Society and would like to become one, the annual dues are $20 per individual and $25 per couple. Annual institutional and church membership dues are $100. Checks may be made out to PHSSW and sent to:
PHSSW – 5525 Traviston Ct., Austin, TX 78738.
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