If you thought that Bible-thumping, holy rollin’, Confederate flag waving, southern-fried, “come to Jesus” religion was a thing of the past, think again.
If you haven’t seen it recently, rent the DVD of “Inherit the Wind,” starring Spencer Tracy and Fredric March. This Oscar nominated movie recreates the events that surrounded the so-called “Scopes Monkey Trial” in the late 1920s.
Tracy, playing a character based on the famous attorney and agnostic, Clarence Darrow, takes on March, who plays a character based on famous orator and presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan. It is an entertaining battle of wits, logic, and Bible knowledge between two men who, in real life, had the utmost respect for each other.
Events taking place outside the courtroom frame the trial inside and add to the drama, as local Southern Baptist, Methodist, and Assembly of God true believers march and carry on at a fevered pace. They sing Civil War era church songs, wave their copies of the King James Bible, and carry signs denouncing the theory of evolution and asking God to condemn Tracy’s character to a fiery Hell.
The jurors, simple folk who are members of the local churches, are afraid to take a stand against local customs or the mobs outside. The judge just wants to get the trial over, is under heavy political pressure to find the defendant guilty. The odds do not favor either science or reason.
That was in the 1920s. Average Americans would probably assume that those kinds of behavior and extreme religiosity would have disappeared at least fifty years ago – but average Americans would be wrong.
These are Sarah Palin’s “real Americans” – gun-toting, rebel yelling, Bible thumping, “holier than thou” evangelicals who believe every single word in the Bible as being from the mouth of God himself.
These are the very people who hate President Obama and oppose gay rights, gun control, stem cell research, health care reform, and any politician from states north of the Potomac and west of the Mississippi.
“If churches would stand for the Word of God (King James Bible) and kick the sorry heretics out the door with their false doctrines that don’t believe that the Bible is the Word of God every Word of it without error, the deity of Christ, that Hell is a literal lake of fire, that Jesus was born of a virgin, that there is only one way to heaven that’s through Jesus Christ alone, and God created the earth in six literal 24 hour days not thousands of years. If our country would put God back in the White House and the school house [sic]…” (Amazing Grace Baptist Church website)
I suggest you do two things: Watch this recent news video from AP. Then later, when you get an opportunity, rent “Inherit the Wind” (1960). Discover for yourself how far some folks in the south have come in the last 100 years – and enjoy a really good movie.
Church burns Bibles…
Obviously this ignorant yokel pretending to be a religious authority doesn’t realize that the King James Version of 1611 was written in Elizabethan English, a dialect that was only spoken within 50 miles of London and for less than 100 years. Yes, it was the language of Shakespeare, but Jesus and the Apostles spoke in first century local dialects of Greek and Aramaic. Their “Bible” was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The 17th century English pronouns “thee” and “thou” never crossed Jesus lips during his lifetime. Why would God select that particular version over all others as his only true “holy book” ?
This is a perfect example of the “blind leading the blind.”
I wonder what political party these people will vote for next election…
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Logic prevails again. Thanks John. I was unaware that the King James version was coming back. I thought the churches had gone on to the new “softer” versions that eviscerate such parables as the rich young ruler, to their own greedy ends. I love the King James for its art, not content. Too bad it is being used wrongly.
I love listening to some of these preachers on late night radio, as they dissect the Bible by word and syllable, taking is supposedly back to the Greek, and extracting hilarious meanings from simple verses. I believe they will eventually make the book completely meaningless, even on an artistic and cultural level.
My impression is that Sarah Palin’s “real Americans” are hard working, hard driving, church going, patriotic Americans who are sure what they believe in.
I believe in the hard working part along with you and Sarah, but the next two are personal choice, and the patriotic is subjective. That’s what I believe in.