+Religion in the 1920sFundamentalism and the Scopes Trial

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Religious movement Followers were concerned of nation’s moral decline

the modern consumer culture

relaxed ethics growing urbanism

Fundamentalism

Believed that the Bible was literally true and without error

Creationism—the belief that God created the world as described in the Bible Rejected Darwin’s theory of evolution

Human beings had developed from lower forms of live over the course of millions of years

+ Billy Sunday

Aimee Semple McPherson

+The Butler Act Tennessee, 1925

outlawed any teaching that denied “the story of the Divine Creation of man as

taught in the Bible” and taught instead that “man descended from a lower order of animals”

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Advertised for a teacher who would be willing to teach

evolution

John T. Scopeshigh school biology teacher from Dayton, TN

+The Scopes Trial, 1925Prosecutor— Defender—

William Jennings Bryan Clarence Darrow

+The Scopes Trial, 1925 Scopes found guilty of

teaching evolution

and is fined $100

Parts of the trial are broadcasted over the radio Darrow’s cross-

examination of Bryan did little for Fundamentalism

Fundamentalists were isolated from mainstream Protestantism Political activism

declined

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