Religion

Clarence Darrow Statue Draws Ire Because 92 Years Later, People Are Still Stupid

He's a legendary attorney, and the people here hate him.

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Clarence Darrow

Almost a century after a Tennessee town hosted a show trial to convict a science teacher for teaching science, one would think the country would view the incident in the same spirit of embarrassment they levy against other tragic national missteps. Yet, an effort to install a statue of Clarence Darrow, the famed attorney who unsuccessfully tried to drag Tennessee out of the Dark Ages, has some in the town up in arms.

This is a story in 2017, folks!

The town of around 7,000 makes a lot of its connection to the Scopes trial. There’s an evangelical institute named after William Jennings Bryan, the bloviating politician who spat out the Christian equivalent of the “Sharia Law” people like to pretend is invading courthouses. That school already placed a statue of Bryan on the courthouse grounds. Now there’s finally going to be a statue, paid for in large part by the Freedom From Religion Foundation, commemorating the other side of the historic trial and that’s got people miffed:

“I oppose it because it doesn’t belong there. That is sacred territory, where people from all over the world came to see these idiots that didn’t believe that God created the world and man,” Griffin said last week at her store in North Dayton. “They came from Oklahoma, Texas, in wagons. They traveled to see such a strange creature that would not believe the Bible.”

I’m… not sure a courthouse is sacred territory. In fact, I’m pretty sure it’s the opposite of that. But seriously, can you imagine taking a wagon to Tennessee all the way from Texas? What an ordeal that would have been. If only there were airplanes or cars or some other fruit of demonic “science” available to make that trip easier.

NPR heard from others opposing the statue.

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They’re also unhappy the Freedom From Religion Foundation has worked to stop Bible distributions in public schools and now is putting up this statue.

There are a lot of hard lines to draw in religion cases. Public schools handing out Bibles isn’t one of those hard cases. Nor is asking fundamentalist college students at the aforementioned Bryan College to teach religion in public schools starting in kindergarten, which is something Dayton actually did in the 21st century.

At least the opposition to the statue isn’t universal:

But Rachel Held Evans thinks most people here don’t view it as an imposition. She’s a best-selling Christian author who wrote a memoir about her faith evolving in Monkey Town.

Oh. I get it.

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The statue will be dedicated tomorrow barring a lightning bolt from on high.

Statue Of Scopes Trial Lawyer Sparks Debate In Tennessee [NPR]
Clarence Darrow statue planned for Dayton gains opponent in well-known local activist [photos] [Times Free Press]

HeadshotJoe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

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