"Thank you, Jimmy", said the teacher, "for whatever that was, but do you really think that President Bryan made no difference in American history?"
"I think that was a quote from his Cross of Gold speech!", Jimmy shot back and the class tittered. Oh, they agreed with the teacher, everyone did, that William Jennings Bryan had been one of the greats of American history, he was the one carved upon Mt. Rushmore after all, staring alone across the nation that he had made so prosperous.
But they didn't mind the teacher being took down a peg, as she had been going on and on about how only President Bryan could have saved America, how he was the "Indispensable Man". The teacher shook her head, as if to herself, and then said, "Fair enough, Jimmy. And on this 100th anniversary of his Cross of Gold speech, I should have caught that. But I think President Bryan himself would understand that sometimes, even if the principle is true, it takes the right person to get the principle accepted."
The bell rang, and the kids wasted no time in turning on their Enhancers. Their eyes got that vacant stare as they exited the room, looking as they were at the VR overlay of their choice as they went to the Omaha beanstalk to get home for spring break. Many of them lived in space habitats at various LaGrange points around Earth. Some, like Jimmy, would be going further out.
He, to the envy of some of the others, was not going up there to take a routine shuttle, but would be waiting on the daily rocket to get to his parent's vacation home on Luna. Jimmy and the others were about to go up the stalk when the teacher came running up. "Oh, Jimmy!", she called out, "I'm so glad I caught you! You left your book behind! Didn't know if you'd need it!"
The other kids got on board, their VR overlays hadn't even bothered to incorporate the teacher into what they were viewing reality as. Jimmy only heard the teacher as she - like all adults - could only override a child's overlay if they were directing instructions at them and had the authority to do so.
Jimmy had been in a Narnia overlay, that being very popular among his generation, and smiled as he accepted the book from his teacher. In spite of his previous teasing of her, he did like her. The book was "Upon This Rock", required reading for all 8th graders, detailing as it did the Scopes Monkey trial, or "The Trial of the Century" as it was usually called.
"Maybe you can get this read on your way to your folks?", she asked hopefully. While most of the kids had turned in their essays on this short book early, Jimmy and a few other hold outs were leaving it to the last minute as usual. "Sure, Mrs. Adams.", Jimmy said. "And thanks! Have a good vacation yourself!" And with a friendly wave, he went into the lift with the other kids.
Mrs. Adams waved back, then turned to go home. Thanking God that she did live in the United States, and that President Bryan had made all the differences he made. He was the only President to have served five terms, though his death in 1927 interrupted his fifth term. And she needed only to look out upon the towering skyscrapers that ringed the Omaha Beanstalk to see the prosperity that abounded here, a prosperity that was long known to be solely from his lasting legacy of non-interventionism.
Such remarkable prosperity was from coast to coast, as America's technology and productivity were unparalleled due to the century of peace they'd enjoyed while the rest of the world fought perpetual wars. The poorest of the poor in America lived in clean and efficient homes, basic food and healthcare provided for free, and able to connect with any work they qualified for at once.
Jimmy meanwhile was making a quite adult decision - for him. Being a typical 8th grade boy, he was really most interested in continuing his tour through Narnia while going up the beanstalk and then waiting for the rocket to come. And he was figuring that there were some adventures he'd heard of that could take about as long as the 12 hour rocket trip would.
But should he read this book? Get it out of the way? He knew he'd have to read it eventually, should he let his whole vacation be colored by knowing he had that to do later? Or should he get it out of the way now? Could he just read the synopsis? He concentrated, and an Encycloscroll screen appeared. He muttered "Upon This Rock", so he could call up the article on it.
"Age Restricted", it flashed and would not show it to him. Of course, Jimmy thought. They didn't want school kids cheating, so stuff like this would be cordoned off. That decided him, though. He sighed, and was about to turn off the VR overlay, when he smiled instead. The book was, he remembered, a play! So he could have a bit more fun in Narnia, then get down to it!
Three hours later, the other kids gone on their shuttles, Jimmy was able to board the fusion rocket that would get him to his parent's second home. Settling into the comfortable seat, Jimmy said, "VR, please show me the play 'Upon This Rock'."
Jimmy's view of the inside of the luxurious fusion ship faded out. Jimmy found himself floating above a small town such as had existed in the 1920s, when the Rural Modernization Program that had started in 1918 was bearing fruit.
It was a well lit town, with the new-fangled Air Conditioners to be seen in a window of each house. Street lights shown brightly. Dawn came, and work crews of healthy young men were about, cleaning and fixing things, building and growing things. Europe used their surplus males as cannon fodder, Jimmy remembered, while America during that same time drafted them into Labor Battalions to disperse the New Tech of electricity, telephony, radionics and A/C to the masses.
It was also an age of invention, as not only did millions of young American men get to learn and discover and invent in peace, untroubled by Europe's Great War, but hundreds of thousands of Russians, Jews, Germans, British and other refugees flooded in with their own scientific learning and scholarship to boost American productivity like never before.
Jimmy's view point dropped down to street level, where two children were playing. One had found a worm, and was - as little boys love to do - waving it in the face of his similarly young companion, a seven year old girl, who was backing away and making a disgusted face.
She was telling him to get the worm away from her, and he was telling her that she was a worm once. She was vehemently disagreeing. He was explaining, rather idiotically Jimmy thought, that once everybody was a worm, or a blob of jelly. Oh, "Evolution", Jimmy thought. Yeah, this was that trial where some fool teacher had tried to teach other people's kids not to believe in the Bible.
Idly, Jimmy tried to fast forward. He knew enough to know that the trial was the meat of it, and like most kids his age, his attention span in this era of the interweb was conditioned to be very short. Memes, jokes, pithy comments, soundbytes, that was what the mind of modern kids were geared to. Heck, even the ministers nowadays were starting to keep their "messages" shorter just to try to hold the interest of the next generation.
It did not let him fast forward. He suspected that the powers that be that censored the synopsis were also making it so that kids his age could not skip parts of a school assignment. He wished their algorithms weren't quite so thorough. But at least he could watch this instead of reading it, so he supposed he should be grateful.
Here was some Minister's daughter talking with John Scopes, who was the teacher out on bail. Why she'd still want to be with a self-avowed apostate, Jimmy had no clue. And what did she think it would do for her social standing to marry a man that her father opposed? They were giggling over how he wasn't even sure he'd broke the law, but apparently he had to say he did to be a test case.
Oh, Jimmy realized, he had heard something about how this was a put up job, some Soviet sponsored communist group had offered to defend anyone who broke the law against teaching evolution. The Soviets, Jimmy knew, were the bad guys. Atheists, and not really socialist, not like the benevolent American Progressivism that he and his parents and grandparents had grown up under. Next, some reporter - apparently another apostate - was trying to tease various members of the town about all the controversy. Was there a point to this guy even being in the story? Comic relief?
The town folk were wondering why the reporter was even here, as while they were sad that one of their own had chose to break the law and teach Evolution, they bore him no particular malice, and were willing to dismiss the whole matter if he'd agree to stop. The young man was trying to make some obscure point, though, and wasn't going to back off. And he wasn't even the real teacher, but a substitute, and one clearly just looking for the trouble that he'd now got.
Eventually the District Attorney came by the park where many were speaking to the reporter about this, and he looked surprised at why there'd be any outside interest in this. The reporter got a big smirk on his face and asked the District Attorney if he anticipated any trouble prosecuting this case. Mr. Stewart, the DA, said, "Yes, in that I will feel bad for the young man when he is punished. I did offer him a plea wherein he could have just one year of probation. But he insists on a trial, for whatever good he thinks that will do him. My wife and I are keeping him in our prayers."
Then the reporter laughed and asked Mr. Stewart if he knew that Clarence Darrow was coming to town to defend Scopes. Mr. Stewart looked concerned, as did many of the town folk who knew of Mr. Darrow's legal reputation, but the only thing the DA said was, "It's a good thing then that I had already planned on doing my best."
Throughout this whole build-up to the trial, Jimmy was starting to get the gist of what the author was trying to show. This was a thinly fictionalized account of what had actually happened, where some "modernistic" forces and anti-Christian interests were trying to strait-jacket the nation into one way of thinking. Their way. Their godless way.
And they were trying to deny any freedom of thought to the vast majority of the nation that still loved God and wanted nothing to do with such modern heresies as internationalism, communism or atheism. The ACLU was well known as a puppet of Soviet interests, and that they didn't just defend the case but created it, told the town folk all they needed to know. They were being used.
And they didn't like it. Still, they tried to put a good face on it. Some figured that at least this would help bring some business to the town. And it being the first trial to be broadcast by television, that would be good and even get them a minor mention in the history books. This turned the conversation to Tom Jensen, the 18 year old prodigy who when thanked for inventing the electronic television in 1917 had famously said, "Don't thank me, thank President Bryan. That SOB Wilson would have drafted me to die for Mother England!"
Finally, the trial. Jimmy leaned forward, then caught himself, chuckled and leaned back in his seat. It did look and feel to him like he was in the courtroom, though. The place was packed, but fortunately the air conditioning kept it reasonable. The camera was set up, there was only one television station, and anyone with a television would probably be watching this. The District Attorney sat calmly at his desk. Clarence Darrow sat calmly at his.
Jury selection quickly became an indicator as to the seriousness with which some would take the trial, and some would not. Mr. Stewart asked normal questions, like a if particular juror went to church or knew the defendant and such like that. Mr. Darrow asked the very first juror if he'd ever read a book by Charles Darwin.
When the man said he hadn't, then Mr. Darrow asked if he preferred reading the Bible only. To which the poor man honestly answered, "I don't read either book, sir, I can't read." This seemed to give Mr. Darrow pause, but he then made a quip about it, and continued his irreverence when the next juror was up for being interviewed.
Throughout all Darrow's attempts to badger the DA, and oddly, the potential jurors, Mr. Stewart kept his cool. At one point, Darrow asked if he could remove his jacket, it seemed a pointless query, but Stewart when asked said he had no objection. Darrow at once removed his jacket to display some very bright purple suspenders. He looked like he was daring any to comment on them.
But Stewart and the Judge only gave each other a brief look, then the selection process continued. Darrow looked disappointed, as it turned out when his wife wrote her memoirs on this years later, he had bought them at a local store in the town this trial took place in, and had hoped to make some kind of joke about it.
The jury selection not taking long, the trial then started. The defense tried an opening statement that compared the law against teaching evolution to the Spanish Inquisition. The DA looked at the jury and said, "I had an opening statement. But having been accused by Mr. Darrow of being a torturer and a murderer, I will instead point out that it is a weak case indeed when you must start by insulting and degrading your opponent. For myself, I am sorry that Mr. Scopes has chose to go against the wishes of the parents who entrusted their children into his care. But I do not call him - as his attorney just called me - a torturer or a murderer."
"Objection!", Darrow said, "I did not call the learned Mr. Stewart either of those things!"
"Your honor", retorted Stewart, "I was called those things when in his opening argument he likened myself and those charged with enforcing the laws of this State to the Inquisition that slaughtered millions of innocents in five different continents!"
"Agreed", said the judge. "Sit down, Mr. Darrow."
Mr. Darrow sat down. Mr. Stewart said, "It is an old saying in the legal profession - 'when you have no case, abuse the plaintiff'. Mr. Darrow has no case. His client is guilty. And when his opening is that I - a neighbor and fellow citizen to each of you - is a murderer, then know he is confessing that he not only has no case, but knows that he has no case!"
The prosecution did not then put on a very elaborate case, as the defendant had deliberately sought to get arrested and tried, and his only point in being here was to cause trouble. And Darrow was defending him for free, for his own purposes in spreading agnosticism and secularism - and truth be told, ultimately, whether he cared to admit it or not - atheism.
Mr. Stewart put a few kids on the stand, each to say that they had seen and heard Scopes, a substitute teacher, speak from a text book about evolution. Darrow made some brief and ridiculous cross examinations in which the most serious question was, "Did hearing about this evolution hurt your pitching arm any?" The boy asked this looked puzzled, then gravely answered "no".
The prosecution soon rested, and as there were no facts in dispute, the defense could have just availed themselves of the chance to throw themselves upon the mercy of the court, or better, just to have took the DAs reiterated offer of a plea deal and probation. Instead, they started their "defense".
This defense consisted of eight scientists that they had brought in, but upon the quiet objection of the DA, only one was allowed to testify. The defense chose Professor Metcalf. Darrow questioned him at length, and looked very surprised that at no point did the DA object. Question after question as to what Professor Metcalf believed was the truth of evolution went on, and more, how it in no way contradicted what Professor Metcalf believed the Bible said. The crowd was clearly turned off by the complacent Presbyterian's tepid and Laodicean like "faith", and the judge was getting upset at this example of faux Christianity as well.
As if sensing that, Darrow ended his questioning and it was the turn of the DA to ask questions. Mr. Stewart got up and asked the judge if he could approach the witness. The judge granted permission. Mr. Stewart approached and offered a piece of paper to the puzzled looking Professor.
"Read that aloud, please.", said Mr. Stewart. The professor glanced at it, then looked up angrily, "I will not!" Darrow rose to his feet to object, but already Mr. Stewart was giving a copy of the letter to the judge and then to Darrow. Then to the court recorder. "Your honor", Mr. Stewart said, "I should like the court recorder to read this short letter into the record." The judge smiled and agreed, over Darrow's strenuous objection.
The court recorder intoned, "I, Professor Maynard Metcalf do declare that I desire that the citizens of Dayton, Tennessee be granted authority over the school boards of my home town of Baltimore, Maryland and given unlimited leave to prescribe such lessons and teachings that they feel are appropriate for the children of Baltimore, Maryland. To include, but not be limited to, the literal truth of the Bible, the falsity of evolution, and the importance of faith above science."
The crowd ooohed, they knew that was a crucial point. Mr. Stewart looked at Professor Metcalf and started with the real questioning.
"Are you from Baltimore, Maryland?"
"Yes.", said the Professor.
"Are you aware that you are now in Dayton, Tennessee?"
"Yes", said the Professor, with some resentment at being treated as if a child.
"Do you have any children of school age here?"
"No", the Professor conceded.
"Then why are you here telling the parents of this town, and the parents in this state, how to raise their own children?", asked Stewart triumphantly.
"Well...well...", the Professor stammered, "There is the issue of academic freedom, that is the important thing - "
Stewart overrode him easily. "You speak of academic freedom, but you refuse to grant me the right to tell your children and the children of Baltimore, Maryland how to learn?"
"But that's different", started the Professor, "Your ideas for teaching the children are false, but mine, that is, the scientific communities...that, is, we know the real way of teaching children and..."
"And we here a thousand miles away in another state must do as you say?", finished Stewart for the flustered Professor.
"No, well, that is, you see, evolution is true, so academic freedom demands that - ", the Professor started.
"That we obey what you think is true and teach our kids that? While what we think is true you can ignore and not teach your kids?", finished Stewart.
The Professor sat in silence. Darrow objected. Stewart said, "On what grounds, sir? On what grounds? That the hypocrisy of your witness is ugly and does not serve you well when the light is shone upon it?"
"That the Professor's views on child raising are...are...not relevant.", said Darrow. The crowd tittered. Darrow was a known warrior in the courtroom, and even the folks in this sleepy town knew that was lame, especially from him. The judge looked at Darrow and said, "For two hours we had to listen as you asked this Professor dozens of questions about how in his personal opinion evolution did not contradict his personal Christian faith. I think you and he can stand to hear a cross upon that same matter."
Turning to the DA, the Judge said, "But keep it short, I think the point has been made."
Mr. Stewart said, "Of course, your Honor." Then he asked the witness, "Did you believe, as you said on the stand, that evolution does not contradict Genesis?" "Yes, I do believe that.", the Professor said. "Do you know that others believe that it does contradict Genesis?", Stewart asked.
"Yes...", the Professor said warily.
"Do you still maintain that those who think as you think have the right to tell others who think differently how to raise their children?", asked Stewart.
"Academic freedom...", started the Professor lamely.
"What academic freedom? Have you seen such words in the Constitution? And what is it, anyway, but a pretty phrase for you thinking you've the right to kidnap other men's children? To steal a citizen's child for yourself, to force feed the child your ideas, to make the child agree with your way of thinking?", thundered Stewart. The witness was stuttering and stammering, Darrow was up on his feet yelling, "Objection! Objection!", the crowd was murmuring excitedly and the judge was hammering his gavel yelling, "Order! Order!"
The judge said, "Mr. Stewart, you will explain to me what you meant when you spoke of the Professor kidnapping children!"
"Gladly, your honor.", said Mr. Stewart. "We compel the citizens of this nation, in every town and county, in every State and region, to send their children to school. Maybe they do not choose to, but we make them anyway. And we keep it from being the kidnapping that some would allege it to be, as we let each parent participate in how the schools their kids go to are run. Each of them may run for a spot on the school board. Each may vote for such that do run. Each may have their voice heard at regular meetings. And further, they can, through their legislators, vote upon how the schools in their states are generally run."
The judge nodded. Mr. Stewart continued, "But what have we here? A lawyer from Chicago and a Professor from Baltimore telling us that they know better than us? Backed by an agency backed by Moscow? I submit that even if they did know better, that they'd still not have the right to try and compel us! Perhaps even now, new truths are being learned in Japan or India, are we to next give our children's minds and morality over to them? And who decides what new truth is true, and what is just a passing fancy? A professor from another State? A lawyer from the big city of Chicago? A bureaucrat from Washington, D.C.? A Russian Commissar? Any random stranger on Earth but the actual parent?"
The crowd burst into applause, standing and cheering. Darrow was yelling furiously. The gavel pounded and pounded. When it silenced, and before the judge could make any ruling or give any statement, Mr. Stewart said in a deliberately menacing tone, "Tell me where your grandchildren now are, Professor Metcalf, that I might go to them and take them against your will, and spend 8 hours a day with them for the next few years teaching them what a godless buffoon you are! And with you paying me for that out of your own pocket! Well? Well!? That's okay, isn't it? Come on, speak up! Where - are - they?"
The DAs voice rose at the last, as loud as a Captain's voice on the quarterdeck calling out to all hands. Loud, but not a yell, and the more powerful for that.
The Professor hung his head in the silence. No one broke the silence, not even Darrow, the question and lack of response was just that damning. Into that deathly silence the DA looked straight into the camera that was capturing this for the entire nation and said, as if to each American raptly watching, "No more questions for this man who would dare to raise our children to think only as he permits."
And Darrow started stammering "Objection!" again as the crowd again erupted in cheers. Jimmy found himself floating above city after city from California to Virginia, from Maine to Arizona, from Washington to Florida, as crowds of citizens, gathered together in town halls and churches and fraternal clubs nationwide also erupted into wild cheering!
Television was still new back then, and history recorded that a mass hysteria had gripped the nation at the powerful words of the humble DA and his trick of looking into the camera as if he was looking into your eyes. It was a trick that was to serve him well, as this launched his career first to Governor, and by 1932, Secretary of State for the first female President of the United States, Ruth Bryan Owen, daughter of William Jennings Bryan. And later, after she served four terms, his own Presidency.
Watching the coast to coast near riots of excitement over the trial, Jimmy was sure that this had to be the end of it, that is, he'd always known that the good guys won, but he was glad now he'd seen it, it was a worse beating for the anti-freedom atheists than he had thought. He was glad now he was watching this book!
But wait! Now he was back in the court! It wasn't yet over!
Darrow, famed for putting the law on trial instead of his usually guilty client, was not pleased with how badly it had gone yesterday, but he still had some ideas. Devilish ones, of course. As fitted the reputation of a the man who had freed two stone cold killers in the past.
"Your honor", Mr. Darrow started, "I have a new witness to call, one to address some of the points brought out yesterday in the cross examination of Professor Metcalf. His name is Charles Potter, he is a Unitarian Preacher and expert on the Bible."
"Objection as to relevance, your Honor", said Mr. Stewart at once.
Mr. Darrow said, "Mr. Stewart seemed to be thinking that Professor Metcalf wanted to force his views of what is or is not in accordance with the Bible on the good people of Dayton, Tennessee. This witness will be able to explain how evolution and the Bible are in no opposition."
Mr. Stewart would, years later, write in his memoirs that he knew he could object. But he'd also received wires from all over since yesterday, and read the newspaper accounts of how his cross had been received by the whole country, and so was looking for yet another chance to even further demonstrate the truth of his cause.
He said, "I could continue to object that it is irrelevant whether evolution contradicts the Bible or not, the law only said not to teach evolution. But I won't. If I had as weak a case as Mr. Darrow, I'd want to substitute quantity for quality, too."
The judge shook his head. "I've no doubt you'd do a fine job on the cross examination of that proposed witness, Mr. Stewart, but I do find it irrelevant. The law said 'do not teach evolution', it made no value judgments on whether this contradicted or supported anyone's faith. In fact, that it specifically is not a law that establishes any one faith is why it is valid in the first place. Witness is not permitted."
Mr. Darrow looked outraged. "But your Honor, you leave me with no case! Surely I can at least call a Bible expert to testify that the teachings of the Bible do not necessarily contradict evolution, for the purposes of showing that no citizen's child was taught anything against the faith of the parents?"
"By calling yet another person from yet another State?", the judge said. "I'm frankly amazed at the number of people you've found who are so desperate to raise our children!" The crowd tittered at this, the judge made as if to raise his gavel, but did not.
Mr. Darrow looked as if he was struck by an idea. He at once said, "Then not by a Bible witness from out of State, your Honor! We'll call one from right here in Dayton!"
"Who?", the judge asked, not for having desired to let that happen, but out of curiosity.
"I call Mr. Tom Stewart!", said Mr. Darrow grandly. The crowd gasped. Mr. Stewart remained impassive. The judge looked angry and said, "No. I will not permit this court to be made more of a circus than you've already tried to make it. Mr. Stewart has - and I say this without offense intended - not been recognized as a Bible expert, and obviously is the very man prosecuting this case."
Mr. Darrow wasn't upset by that. He'd counted on the judge being curious, and now given that the judge had said "no" to which witness he could call, it kind of implied that he could call a witness. In sales, this was "assuming the close", the old "Would you like to pay by check or cash?" when the mark hadn't even agreed to buy the product yet.
The judge recognized this, and cursed inwardly, as the camera was still rolling and he'd have a hard time back pedaling without looking like a fool. He was saved the difficulty of figuring out whether the least evil was denying any witness or letting the trial be delayed while a local witness was found, when Mr. Stewart saved him.
"Your Honor", Mr. Stewart said, "As the Good Book says, 'Let us have a conclusion of this'! I am not so foolish or prideful as to think myself a Bible expert, but this case is about how ordinary people feel about their kids being taught in particular ways. And I care not to win this case, only to have Mr. Darrow then forever go about saying that he could have won if I wasn't too cowardly to take the stand in defense of my faith! Therefore, unorthodox as it is, I agree to take the stand, simply to put this matter well and truly to rest!"
The crowd burst into applause again. And at a far off television studio, the joy was intense, as reports were coming in from all over that while only 23% of the nation personally owned the relatively new televisions, that estimates were that at least 85% of the nation's population was now watching on sets in all manner of public places, even more so than yesterday, as word had got out about how exciting this was.
Only babies, various of the elderly and infirm, and the incarcerated were not watching. The rest of the nation was, as the phrase would eventually be coined, "glued to the screen".
Mr. Stewart got up and went to the witness stand. He was swore in. A fellow DA, Gordon McKenzie took his place at the DA's table, ready to aid him should any questions be posed that were out of order.
Darrow: "So, you're an expert on the Bible?"
Stewart: "I am at the least an expert in how I'd like my children raised."
Darrow: "But you know the Bible?"
Stewart: "I feel I can say that I know it about as well as any in my town do."
Darrow: "How about 'the Origins of the Species', you know that one well?"
Stewart: "I cannot say that I know it at all, I've never read it."
Darrow: "Then how can you be prosecuting this man for teaching against the Bible, if you don't even know if he has? How can you know if it really contradicts the spirit of Genesis at all?"
McKinzie broke in to object here, but Stewart waved him down. The judge looked inclined to grant the interrupted objection, and had even picked up his gavel, but Stewart shook his head no at the judge, and the gavel was set back down.
Stewart: "I prosecute the defendant not over whether evolution contradicts the Bible, but because the law said 'do not teach evolution'. Yet for myself, I do know whether evolution contradicts Genesis, because without having read Charles Darwin's rather large book, I have heard that it speculates that the higher orders are descended from the lower orders, such that all life started with very simple 'blobs of jelly' many millions of years ago, and over time became us. Genesis on the other hand speaks of God creating man and woman, and every other plant and animal, at once, in a given time period of six days. Fully formed. Not evolved."
Darrow started to speak but Stewart raised his hand. Darrow stopped.
Stewart: "You must at least let me answer fully. The last part to address is that you speak of whether evolution contradicts 'the spirit' of Genesis. Which means you already know that it contradicts the letter of it. Because no man speaks of 'the spirit' of the Bible or the Law unless he already knows that it contradicts the letter of it. But I will go even further and state that it also contradicts the 'spirit' of it. Not just the letter."
Darrow: "You know that there are many good and decent people who believe that the six days can be seen as six epochs, that each epoch represents some aspect of the evolution of life?"
Stewart: "I pass no judgments on how good or decent such people are, that is for God to determine. But the Bible does not say 'epoch', it says 'day'."
Darrow: "The sun wasn't created till the fourth day, so couldn't the other days have been longer or shorter?"
Stewart: "From how I understand things, a day is a day. Even the first one was described by the phrase 'and the evening and the morning were the first day'. Which tends to indicate a day as we think of it. Yet I know this - never will you see me force any child of yours into thinking as I do. Can you make the same claim?"
Darrow: "I'm not on the stand, Mr. Stewart. Can you tell me how it serves anyone to have their child go to school to learn biology and be taught such absurdities as Jonah being swallowed by a great fish or try and learn physics and be taught that Joshua had the sun stop during a battle?"
Stewart: "None of our schools teach those things. We teach reading and writing and arithmetic, Mr. Darrow. And history. When it's biology, we teach of biology, just not the part that contradicts Biblical truths. And when we teach physics, we full well know that the sun does not go around the Earth, but the verse in the Bible simply said the sun stopped - presumably in it's perceived motion through the sky visible to those below. That could obviously be done by an all powerful God, and in any manner He cared to - but it's not part of the physics class. At least none I've been to."
Darrow: "You've an answer for everything, eh? Tell me then, where'd Cain get his wife?!"
Stewart: "My guess would be that she was one of his sisters or nieces or cousins. The Bible does not claim to have listed every single descendant of Adam and Eve. But guess what? Whether I know where Cain got his wife or not, I still will never go to Chicago or Baltimore to kidnap children and make them think as I do!"
Darrow: "See that rock on my table? A professor of geology at Yale says that it's ten million years old. What do you think of that?"
Stewart: "I think you've managed to slip in scientific testimony after all, or scientific testimony so called. How old did scientists think that rock was 100 years ago? How old will they think it 100 years from now? And would either answer mean that God could not have simply created the world 'old' in the first place? And would any of this change how irrelevant it is to the matter we're here for?"
Darrow: "We're here for the purpose of keeping a bunch of bigots and ignoramuses from controlling the education of the United States!"
Stewart: "So that you who dismiss the majority of Americans as 'bigots and ignoramuses' can control it instead?"
Darrow: "No! So that scientific truth can control it - "
Stewart: "Control what? What our kids are taught? Please, share with us the part in the Constitution that gives scientists the right to control our children!"
Darrow: "I mean for the scientists to control what is taught - "
Stewart: "Taught to who?"
Darrow: "The children!"
Stewart: "They are not yours to concern yourself with! Go to Chicago, advocate to your school board and your city council and your State legislature as you will! But don't dare to come down here and presume that you can take our very children and - with all the contempt for us that you so richly display here today - teach them to hate our views, despise our beliefs and reject our God in the name of what you foolishly think of as progress! I am progressive myself, and have voted for President Bryan every time, even when he lost, and I do not dare to think myself educated enough to tell another man how to raise his children! How dare you, under the name of progress, try and do such?"
Darrow: "You would drag us back to the 16th century, to the Dark Ages!"
Stewart: "It was the Dark Ages that thought children belonged to the Lord or the King, it was our nation that knew that freedom was every man thinking for himself and choosing his own path for he and his family! We don't need you down here to think for us! We don't need you and your 'experts' to tell us how to raise our children! We don't need you to save us from ourselves! You'd cry out in rage if any of us dared to show up in Chicago to take over your schools! How dare you do such here?"
And turning to the camera full on, Mr. Stewart asked, "How dare we let any man with such contempt for us and our faith and our God do this here? Is this not America? Are we not free?"
And with that the crowd exploded like it had not come close to before! Up out of their seats, yelling and whooping and cheering and clapping! The old bailiff and two Sheriff's deputies surrounded Mr. Darrow and Mr. Scopes and hustled them out a door in the rear to the basement, where they were locked up for their own safety.
Jimmy was breathless as he found himself floating about various cities of America again. The demonstrations, that had hardly died out from yesterday, were larger and grander now! Signs demanding freedom of education, local option, and no outside interference, were everywhere! Similar signs in favor of God and the Bible, and against Evolution and Darwin, were also present!
A dizzying montage showed Jimmy various places of discussion, such as a legislator's home in Ohio where a bill forbidding the teaching of anything that could violate the conscience of a local community was being proposed. Or other bills in other back rooms, speakeasies or state house lobbies, all with the effect of keeping the residents of other states from dictating how those in a given state raised their kids.
And moreso, various other bills making it county level, so that even Tennessee's state law would be invalid, and only what the local parents of a given county voted on would apply. It was starting, as Jimmy well knew, the movement that eventually led to the Freedom of Education Act in which every parent was given a voucher for each child they had, said voucher to be good for any school the parent cared to send their child to.
This had not ended public education, but had made it more responsive to each local board. And created a great number of private and parochial schools. All in all it had been hailed as one of the key things that took American education out of the 19th century and into the 20th century and beyond. With so much choice, a premium was placed on results and "non-controversy", which ended up with a strong focus on "teaching the child to learn" as opposed to any specific - and thus potentially controversial - "learning".
Oh, most subjects were still the same, reading, writing and mathematics are a constant. As was, to a certain extent, history. Geology - well, it was handy to assume a greater than normal age sometimes, but really, only at the college level was that important. Basic geology could be taught in children's schools without too much controversy in the main.
Or it could just be left off. And before you the reader gasp, what difference would it really make in your life if you'd not been taught the difference between volcanic and sedimentary rock? And can you even remember the third kind of rock? And does it really matter?
Same with biology. The basics were still taught. Even micro-evolution, and the farm kids of the Midwest were far more versed in that then any big city kids. But only specifically secular schools, labeled as such, would dare to teach the highly suspect theories of "evolution". And mostly only in college. Evolution as a legitimate idea passed away, for the most part, with Phrenology and Eugenics.
Day three of court! Jimmy was riveted, sitting very still in his seat, his eyes taking in the courtroom. A hush was over the crowd. Mr. Darrow and his client looked subdued. Mr. Stewart, back at his desk, looked confidant and determined. The judge entered. It was a mark of how into this story he was that young Jimmy himself got up with all the characters and remained standing till the judge motioned all to take their seats.
The judge looked at Mr. Darrow and said, "I assume you are done with your last witness?". The judge's tone said that Mr. Darrow had better be done. Mr. Darrow got up, and said with no appearance of nervousness, "Your Honor, I do have just one more question, and I'm sorry if that offends anyone, but like Mr. Stewart said, let's have this thoroughly done."
The judge scowled, but Mr. Stewart gave a closed mouth smile and nodded assent. He rose quietly and went to the witness stand. The camera took it all in. The nation watched.
Darrow: "You said that you believed that evolution violated the spirit of Genesis. Many, especially in the big cities, believe that it does not. It can be fairly said that the Modernist and Fundamentalist schism is just that - a schism, with half of Christendom on each side. Can you then tell us why you feel it is right for half the Christians to define Christianity for the other half? Can you tell us why you can say that evolution does violate the spirit of Genesis?"
Stewart: "I do not claim to speak for all Christians. I only prosecute those who break the law. But further, I do admit that I am opposed to people like you who clearly have presumed to speak for all others, especially in regards to limiting their freedom of religion and conscience."
Darrow looked like he was to interrupt, but Stewart held up a placating hand.
Stewart: "But to fairly answer you, with what I claim only as the answer for myself, I believe that Evolution is opposed to the spirit of Genesis, because it does nothing less than make meaningless the sacrifice of Christ!"
A loud murmur sprang up in the crowd, the judge lifted his gavel in warning.
Stewart: "You see, Christ died for our sins, and it is written that we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That's in Romans somewhere. But how could we all have sinned were we not born sinners? And how is it that we were born sinners, if we had not inherited it from our ancestors who fell? In Genesis, it tells of how the two ancestors of all mankind, Adam and Eve, fell. That they did, and that we descend from them, is why Christ had to die. But if they did not exist, and we evolved, then why would Christ have needed to die?"
Darrow: "Perhaps because even if we evolved, we could yet sin?"
Stewart: "But that then has God evolving us wrongly. Of He having set in motion evolution and it going so disastrously wrong that He had to send His son to die to atone for His own error! And that is against all the principles of Christianity, in that He then is no longer infallible or all good! Mark this well, a man is free to believe in evolution, but in doing so he cannot - with any logic on his side - claim that Christ's death had any meaning. And a Christianity without Christ dying for our sins is no Christianity at all!"
Darrow: "I see. And it may surprise you to know that I actually do see. Others, before you, should have lead with that. It might have stopped the schism before it started. But are you truly going to be content with Tennessee remaining as an educational backwater, with your kids being forced to learn of miracles while other people's kids learn science?"
Stewart: "I'm going to take that as a concession. We have come full circle. Where you assume your side is right, and express your view as nothing but a concern for our children. The crucial point you should take away is that they are OUR children. And I suspect that we faithful, we who believe in God, we who count among our number John Locke and Sir Isaac Newton and most all of the great thinkers and philosophers of all history, will muddle through in teaching our kids how to think!"
The crowd broke into applause again, not a wild and unrestrained applause, but a measured and sincere applause that was the more meaningful in this situation than a more boisterous demonstration would have been. The judge briefly banged his gavel and silence fell.
Darrow said, "I'm going to forgo any closing argument, beyond asking the jury to consider what this law does to retard the progress of the State of Tennessee. Upon the rock of science and logic, I ask that my client be acquitted. The defense rests."
The judge raised his eyebrow, and looked at the DA. Mr. Stewart said, "Technically that was a closing argument, so I could give a close also, but I'll just say that my own rock is faith, not science or logic that changes with the changing of each generation. And so it is upon this rock of my own faith that I ask that we not descend to a state where a man cannot raise his own child, but must give him over to the dubious care of others, especially others so far away. Find Mr. Scopes guilty, as even he acknowledges that he is, and let us go home, with renewed love for our precious children, and a renewed resolve to see to it that none shall harm them."
The jury took but nine minutes to deliberate. And most of that was the time in getting them to and back from the upstairs jury room. They, to the surprise of no one, found Mr. Scopes guilty.
The judge asked Mr. Scopes to stand, and he and Mr. Darrow both did. The judge started to say, "Having been found guilty of violating the law of the State of Tennessee by a jury of your peers, this court - "
But here Mr. Darrow said, "Objection! My client has not been afforded an opportunity to speak in his defense before sentencing!"
The judge looked discomfited, but said, "I think you'll soon see why I overlooked that part, but by all means, you may have your client address me before I continue."
Mr. Scopes said, "Your honor, I feel that I have been convicted of violating an unjust statute. I will continue in the future, as I have in the past, to oppose this law in any way I can. Any other action would be in violation of my idea of academic freedom - that is, to teach the truth as guaranteed in our constitution, of personal and religious freedom. I think any punishment is unjust."
The judge sat and looked at him for a few seconds. As those seconds passed, the idiocy of the words, in light of how the trial had gone, became apparent. Clearly this was a rehearsed speech, but one probably wrote before the trial, and not modified to take into account how some of the fallacies of the defendant had already been exposed.
Mr. Scopes blushed a bit. A brief chuckle was heard from someone in back of the courtroom. The judge took off his glasses, rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger, and placed his glasses back on.
"Mr. Scopes", the judge said, "It is not unjust for citizens to pass a law for the protection of their own children. It is unjust for one man to presume to break it for the supposed good of those people's children. You may oppose this law to your heart's content, even in 'any way you can', but today I tell you that you will never teach in the State of Tennessee again. That is not my sentence, that is just what I am given to understand by the Tennessee State Board of Education. To continue to address your speech, your idea of 'Academic Freedom' is absurd. The State of Tennessee is in no way keeping you from offering classes in Evolution privately. Or teaching it in college. Or in private schools that already exist. Or even in private religious schools if you can find a faith that finds that acceptable. You were only told that if you accepted a job as a public school teacher that you could not teach those kids that which their parents did not wish them to be taught. You violated that, and it was the 'academic freedom' of the parents and children that YOU violated."
Mr. Scopes was shaking his head "no", and Mr. Darrow was laying a restraining hand upon his shoulder.
The judge watched that for a moment then continued, "It is no part of the constitution to guarantee any right to "teach the truth" as you put it. You may offer what you imagine to be the truth, that is all, others are free to accept it or reject it, whether that makes sense to you or not. There is no personal or religious liberty for you to force your beliefs, in any form, upon a fellow citizen, let alone their impressionable children. You took a job of trust, and you violated that trust. Innocent citizens, paying their taxes and following the law, sent their kids to you, and you, in your arrogance, thought that it would be decent to betray that trust and teach those children to ignore the teachings of their parents. It is thus very just to punish you."
Mr. Darrow said, "We understand, your Honor. May it please the court - " but the judge was putting his finger to his lip. Mr. Darrow fell silent.
"It does not please the court", the judge said. "To have a case made up by the defendant and his volunteer lawyer and backed by a disruptive ACLU, bought and paid for by our enemies in Moscow, to tie up this court with nonsense on how 'freedom' is in letting one man tell all others how to live and think. Or for one side to not be content with controlling schools in their big cities, but insisting that it must be that way for the least rural hamlet. I am not pleased with this being a spectacle, a circus, more for entertainment than any rule of law. By the rule of the law, you are, Mr. Scopes, guilty. But by the mercy of the Savior who did die for the sins of all of us - including Adam and Eve - I am setting aside the jury's verdict and finding you 'not guilty'."
Angry muttering could be heard throughout the courtroom! Mr. Scopes looked puzzled. Mr. Darrow looked puzzled...then angry! Mr. Stewart only smiled and got up. "Your Honor!", Mr. Stewart called out. "I am not disagreeing with you, but could you aid those here and those watching nationwide, by elaborating on your decision?"
The judge said, "It was a made up case. There is strong doubt that this substitute teacher ever truly taught evolution, or just read a brief bit out of a book to try and make himself qualify for this 'test case'. It is also not this court's intention to manufacture martyrs for some perverse and anti-Christian cause. I therefore dismiss this, as the defendant has no chance of ever being able to commit the offense again, and his backers and handlers now have no cause to carry this any further so as to generate more publicity for themselves. The law still stands. The day someone violates it for real, if any are so sick in their head or their heart as to try that with innocent children, I will be ready to imprison them. But as for these charlatans, I dismiss the case so as to rob them of any more excuse to waste all of our time."
The crowd applauded, with much relieved laughter heard throughout. Then everyone was coming over to congratulate Mr. Stewart, who while he'd technically lost, was generally regarded now as the greatest legal mind of the nation, the one who had made a mockery of the famed Clarence Darrow, and the one who had exposed the hypocrisy of a movement that while claiming to value freedom, had really tried to dictate to an entire nation how their children must be taught.
Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom, Mr. Stewart said, "To take a man's child has always been a delicate enough proposition, in spite of all the good that we can perceive that it does. But to then make the father pay for the child to learn that the parents are fools? It offends the sensibilities. It goes too far. If we say that society has a right to expect all children to be educated, we must at least leave intact the right of each parent to choose that education."
On the opposite side of the courthouse lawn, Mr. Darrow, various members of the ACLU, some of the "experts" and a reporter known for his agnosticism were trying to whip up a rally. And being jeered at by the crowd. A tomato came out of no where and hit Mr. Darrow in the face. Turning away to make his way to a waiting car, he clutched his chest.
The ambulance arrived quickly, the crowd made way for it at once, none wished the man any harm. But it was too late. Historians debate to this day whether it was the shock of the loss - though he had technically won - that caused the heart attack or not. But dead he was.
A man in the crowd called out, "Good riddance!" and at once Mr. Stewart whirled around to address him. Not seeing who called that out, he addressed the crowd. "Mr. Darrow was a great man! And has in the past done much for the cause of Progressivism! He chose to base his life upon the shifting sands of science rather than the rock of faith, but he was my brother in Christ all the same! Let us take this victory, and it was, regardless as to the verdict, a victory, and be magnanimous in it! Let us be about peace and reconciliation, and freedom of thought for all! Let us be as Christ would wish us to be, and never wish ill on another, even though he try and harm us!"
A deluge of "Amens!" poured out of the crowd, and history records that it was then that Mr. Stewart started on the path that would make him a national force in the decades to come.
Jimmy turned off his Enhancer and took a deep breath. He checked the time, and three hours had passed, that was one absorbing VR play! He dialed up some food and drink, and idly snacked while staring out the port window. Seeing the moon in the distance let him know that it wasn't a real window, but a telescreen to let him see the progress the ship was making towards it.
He was glad he had that out of the way now, he didn't think it would be any trouble writing an essay on all that! It wasn't at all as boring as he had thought it would be! In the meanwhile, though -
Back to Narnia!
