Powerful moments in open-air 'Inherit the Wind'

Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's oft-produced 1955 courtroom drama, based on the famous Scopes "monkey trial" of 1925, was intended — like Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" — to use earlier events in American history as a frame for examining the 1950s "Red Scare" hysteria. But when polls show a clear majority of Americans reject Darwin and with battles still raging over "intelligent design" in science curricula, the ideological battle in "Inherit the Wind" is no longer a metaphor. It's a by-the-book portrait of our contemporary culture wars, sans bloggers and air conditioning.

Director Steve Pickering's staging for Oak Park Festival Theatre in the company's traditional Austin Gardens setting loses the sense of confinement and stifling heat in the Hillsboro courthouse — the stand-in for the town of Dayton, where John Scopes was convicted of violating Tennessee's law against teaching evolution. Some of the taunts become less taut when one has to compete with overhead air traffic. (Though it makes the musings of Henry Drummond about how "you may conquer the air, but the birds will lose their wonder and the clouds will smell of gasoline" that much more apropos.)

But Pickering brings the action into the audience during the trial scenes by having townspeople sit next to us, fanning themselves and gasping as Jack Hickey's Drummond (based on renegade atheist defense attorney Clarence Darrow) clashes with Aaron Christensen's populist Christian orator, Matthew Harrison Brady (based on William Jennings Bryan). He also cunningly refocuses attention on the women on the perimeters of the story, most notably Rachel Brown (Emily Williams), Mrs. Brady (Susan Fey) and E.K. Hornbeck (Kimberly Logan).

Continue reading at www.chicagotribune.com

« Previous Article

Posting Policy

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse. Read more.

http://rationalresponses.blogspot.com/ Jeff Dixon

The United States has fallen to "average" in international education rankings released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, according to the AFP.

America has received scores around 500 on a scale that goes up to 1,000: 487 in math, 500 in reading and 502 in science.

The AFP reports,
The three-yearly OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, which compares the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in 70 countries around the world, ranked the United States 14th out of 34 OECD countries for reading skills, 17th for science and a below-average 25th for mathematics.

One of the aspects that occurs when you teach your children that fantasy is reality is that they fail to learn how the world actually operates. Creationism and a belief that the world is less than 10,000 years old tries to teach children not to believe evidence.
- keyboardshark
  
  I agree with you that the U.S. has fallen in the education rankings, but I disagree with you on the reasons for that decline. Evolution and old-earth ideas were not generally taught in the 1800's as they are today, nor were all the other liberal social-indoctrination time wasters, yet the education and quality of the students was far above modern standards.
  
  For example, here is a link to an 1895 8th Grade Final Exam which I guarantee that modern U.S. high school students could not pass (and I doubt I could either): http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-spine/79470/1895-8th-…
  
  Here are some sample questions (and notice that no knowledge of evolution or old-earth ideology is needed):
  
  "This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina , Kansas , USA .. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.
  
  8th Grade Final Exam:
  
  Salina , KS – 1895
  
  U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)
  
  1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided.
  2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
  3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
  4. Show the territorial growth of the United States.
  5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.
  6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
  7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
  8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, and 1865?
  
  Orthography (Time, one hour)
  
  1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic orthography, etymology, syllabication?
  2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
  3. What are the following, and give examples of each: Trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals?
  4. Give four substitutes for caret 'u'.
  5. Give two rules for spelling words with final 'e'. Name two exceptions under each rule.
  6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
  7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: Bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, super.
  8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: Card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
  9. Use the following correctly in sentences, Cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.
  10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication." http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-spine/79470/1895-8th-…
  
  Students of the 1800's could dance circles around modern students, and one of the main books used in their learning was, you guessed it, The Bible. Far too much time is wasted in modern schools on force feeding the students liberal-approved topics like sex education, homosexual indoctrination, global warming hysteria, secular ideas of origins, revisionist history, self esteem, etc. etc. rather than actually giving them an education and equipping them to think for themselves.
  - Skypilot 777
    
    Very well thought out, and well written, sir.
  - http://rationalresponses.blogspot.com/ Jeff Dixon
    
    There is nothing in the bible that could help a student answer any of the questions on that test.
    
    I agree that educational standards in the past were more rigorous than today. However, the aspects of modern biology were not understood in the 1800's. Now that they are understood, many US students are unable to compete in the world because they are being told that they should ignore evidence.
    
    The world is not less than 10,000 years old. You can shout that it is for your entire life, but it is simply nonsense.
    - keyboardshark
      
      PART 1
      
      Jeff says: "However, the aspects of modern biology were not understood in the 1800's. Now that they are understood, many US students are unable to compete in the world because they are being told that they should ignore evidence. "
      
      I know of no concepts of biology that cannot be understood apart from evolution. Biology is a study of living organisms in the present which can be observed and tested, and experiments can be repeated on living organisms in the present. Evolution is something that supposedly happened in the past and is not happening today, and it cannot be observed or tested, nor can experiments be conducted upon it in the present.
      
      You are correct that students are being told to ignore evidence, but the evidence they are being told to ignore is the abundant evidence for creation. Most public schools will not tolerate an honest, objective evaluation of the evidence for and against evolution, or the evidence for and against creation.
      
      Jeff also says: "The world is not less than 10,000 years old. You can shout that it is for your entire life, but it is simply nonsense."
      
      The methods used to arrive at dates of millions or billions of years for the age of the earth, such as radiometric dating, are based on uniformitarian assumptions and have been shown to be unreliable when used to test samples of known age, such as from the Mt. St. Helen's eruption in 1980.
      
      "Many people think that radiometric dating has proved the Earth is millions of years old. That’s understandable, given the image that surrounds the method. Even the way dates are reported (e.g. 200.4 ± 3.2 million years) gives the impression that the method is precise and reliable (box below).
      
      However, although we can measure many things about a rock, we cannot directly measure its age. For example, we can measure its mass, its volume, its colour, the minerals in it, their size and the way they are arranged. We can crush the rock and measure its chemical composition and the radioactive elements it contains. But we do not have an instrument that directly measures age.
      
      Before we can calculate the age of a rock from its measured chemical composition, we must assume what radioactive elements were in the rock when it formed.1 And then, depending on the assumptions we make, we can obtain any date we like.
      
      It may be surprising to learn that evolutionary geologists themselves will not accept a radiometric date unless they think it is correct—i.e. it matches what they already believe on other grounds. It is one thing to calculate a date. It is another thing to understand what it means.
      
      So, how do geologists know how to interpret their radiometric dates and what the ‘correct’ date should be?" http://creation.com/the-way-it-really-is-little-k…
      
      However, we do have 22 chronometers that indicate the universe is much younger than evolutionists would have us believe. While based on certain assumptions to a degree, these are much more likely to be reliable because the shorter the time involved, the more likely that a specific process has been constant, and unaltered by external influences.
      
      "A "clock" is any geophysical or astronomical process that is changing at a constant rate. Clocks may be used to estimate how long a process has been going on for. All clocks (including radiometric ones) require the use of at least three assumptions. These are:
      
      1. The rate of change has remained constant throughout the past.
      2. The original conditions are known.
      3. The process has not been altered by outside forces.
      
      In each of these cases it is not possible to prove that the assumptions are true. For example flooding can greatly alter sedimentation rates, and with clocks over 5,000 years old, the original conditions cannot be known with certainty. Therefore scientists must make a guess with regard to what they believe the original conditions might have been. The shorter the time involved, the more likely that a specific process has been constant, and unaltered by external influences."
    - keyboardshark
      
      PART 2
      
      "The following clocks point to a young earth, solar system, and universe. Taken together, they suggest that the earth is quite young — probably less than 10,000 years old.
      
      1. Receding Moon
      750 m.y.a. max
      
      2. Oil Pressure
      5,000 – 10,000 years
      
      3. The Sun
      1,000,000 years max
      
      4. The Oldest Living Thing
      4,900 years max
      
      5. Helium in the Atmosphere
      1,750,000 years max
      
      6. Short Period Comets
      5,000 – 10,000 years
      
      7. The Earth's Magnetic Field
      10,000 years max
      
      8. C-14 Dating of Dino Bones
      10,000 – 50,000 years
      
      9A. Dinosaur Blood and Ancient DNA
      5,000 – 50,000 years
      
      9B. Unfossilized Dinosaur Bones
      5,000 – 50,000 years
      9C. 165 Million Year Old Ligaments
      5,000 – 50,000 years
      
      10. Axel Heiberg Island
      5,000 – 10,000 years
      
      11. Carbon-14 in Atmosphere
      10,000 years max
      
      12. The Dead Sea
      13,000 years max
      
      13. Niagara Falls
      5,000 – 8,800 years max
      
      14. Historical Records
      5,000 years max
      
      15. The San Andreas Fault
      5,000 – 10,000 years
      
      16. Mitochondrial Eve
      6,500 years
      
      17. Population Growth
      10,000 years max
      
      18. Minerals in the Oceans
      Various (mostly young) Ages
      
      19. Rapid Mountain Uplift
      Less than 10 million years
      
      20. Carbon 14 from "Old" Sources
      10,000 to 50,000 years
      
      21. Dark Matter and Spiral Galaxies
      100 – 500 million years (max)
      
      22. Helium and lead in Zircons
      6,000 years"
      
      http://www.earthage.org/youngearthev/evidence_for… Moon:
keyboardshark

Jeff says: "There is nothing in the bible that could help a student answer any of the questions on that test. "

Maybe not directly, but the Bible and its moral and spiritual concepts was found in numerous early textbooks of the 1800's:

"The following books were used extensively in America's public schools throughout the United States. These books contained numerous scriptures from the Holy Bible and many references to God, Jesus Christ, sin and salvation. These public school textbooks plainly show that generation after generation of American children were educated in Biblical morals and the Christian religion was at the foundation of their learning.

Other early school books with Biblical Christian contents were also used in America from the 1600's well into the 1900's, a period of more than 300 years. Read these early public school textbooks and you will have a better understanding of why the America of today is so morally corrupt compared to the America of the first European settlers, the America of our founding fathers, and the America of 100 years ago.

Dilworth's Spelling-Book, 1796

The New Instructor, 1803

Beauties Of The Bible, 1806

The American Spelling Book, 1809

The American Preceptor, 1811

The New-York Reader, 1815

The American Spelling Book, 1816

The Columbian Orator, 1816

Instructions for the Better Government & Organization of Common Schools, 1819

A New Guide To The English Tongue, 1820

The North American Spelling-Book, 1821

The American Spelling Book, 1822

The Universal Preceptor, 1822

The American First Class Book, 1823

The Only Sure Guide To The English Tongue, 1823

The Critical Pronouncing Spelling Book, 1825

The English Reader, 1825

The National Reader, 1828

The Young Scholar's Manual, 1830

The Western Spelling Book, 1831

History of the United States, 1832

A History of the United States, 1833

The United States Spelling Book, 1835

The Elementary Spelling Book, 1842

Cobb's New Spelling Book, 1842

The School Reader, 1842

The American Common-School Reader, 1844

The Child's History of The United States, 1849

The Elementary Spelling Book, 1857

The National Spelling-Book, 1858

Right of the Bible in Our Public Schools, 1859

The Second Reader of The School and Family, 1860

The Little Orator, Or, Primary School Speaker, 1865

The Bible in Schools, 1870

National Elementary Speller, 1870

A Common-School Grammar of The English Language, 1871

Bible Readings For Schools, 1897

The Elementary Spelling Book, 1908"
http://www.angelfire.com/la2/prophet1/educationam…
John J Flanagan

I saw the movie "Inherit the Wind" with Spencer Tracy. I did not enjoy it, nor would I ever watch it again. It is very anti-Christian and it was written and produced to attack the Bible, God's inerrant word. I believe Christians in America must always boycott a television program or movie by using the remote to change channels or avoid patronizing entertainment that caricatures Christians and God in a bad light, often done in a perverse style of humor. How can a Christian laugh along with the wicked while our God is being mocked openly?