Relg 222

Scopes Trial

  • John Scopes - Defendant, taught evolution in Dayton, TN

  • Clarence Darrow - Defense attorney, Christian, pro-science, saw himself as defending education against ignorance

  • William Jennings Bryan - Prosecutor, saw himself as defending religion against atheism

  • Media - painted trial as science vs religion, controlled narrative

    • How did the media control the narrative?

      • They used vocabulary liked “yokels” and “hicks” for religious people

  • Climax: Darrow called Bryan to stand as an expert on religion, got him to admit to seeing days in Genesis as metaphorical

    • Took Bryan’s credibility with larger population and fundamentalists, humiliated him

  • Scopes was convicted, Bryan won, but lost the court of public opinion

    • Bryan died 5 days after the trial

  • Resulted in fundamentalists pulling out of wider culture, forming their own institutions

    • Example: Liberty University

Charles Keating

  • Roman Catholic

  • Formed Citizens for Decent Literature

  • Skilled organizer

  • Produced Perversion for Profit

    • Anti-porn documentary

    • Used unsubstantiated claims as fact (Ex: 70-90% of porn ends up in children’s hands)

    • Presented legal recourse as best solution

    • Included barely censored salacious material

  • Methods:

    • Unsubstantiated claims as fact

    • Grassroots focus

    • Screening Perversion for Profit

    • Mailout fliers with light censorship

Ronald Reagan

  • Supported anti-porn movement

  • Ignored AIDS crisis for years

Abe Fortas

  • Supreme court justice, attacked by CDL for being too liberal, nomination withdrawn

Richard Nixon

  • Took office 1969

  • Appointed Keating to Presidential Commission for Obscenity & Pornography

Strum Thurman

  • South Carolina senator

  • Segregationist

  • Used anti-porn as a Trojan Horse to oppose civil rights

    • Overt to covert racism

Henry Loeb

  • Memphis mayor

  • Used anti-porn to preserve Supreme Court as enemy against “moral society”

Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography

  • Studied effects of explicit material on behavior

    • Debunked claims of porn leading to crime, homosexuality, etc.

  • Report was rejected by Nixon, Keating, and the Supreme Court

New Right

  • Emerged under Reagan

  • Emphasized traditional Christian values

Roe v Wade

  • Supreme court protected right to abortion

3 Stages of Conservative Christians Adopting Pro-Life Gospel

  1. 1973 - Roe v. Wade, No consensus

  2. 70s-80s - Whatever Happened to the Human Race?, anti-abortion movement picks up speed

    1. Human life sacred b/c image of God

  3. 80s-90s - Local congregations take pro-life stance

C. Everett Koop

  • Surgeon General appointed by Reagan in 1982

  • 1986 - Made a report on AIDS, rejected by Reagan

    • Reported that condoms were good for STD prevention and sex ed should be promoted to discuss safe sex

    • Anti-obscenity laws prevented the spread of information (No say gex!!!)

    • White House made their own report in ‘87

  • 1988 - Understanding AIDS mailer sent out

    • Advocated abstinence, monogamy, condom use, sex ed, love and support for those with AIDS

William Bennett

  • Made White House AIDS report

    • Promoted abstinence, anti-sex ed, mandatory testing

Ryan White

  • Straight high school boy, got AIDS from blood transfusion

Israel

  • Viewed by conservatives as strong military force to look up to

  • Exodus - film about founding of Israel, Paul Newman starred, Jews were repositioned as white

    • “Americanization” of Israel story

  • Six Day War - Israel took over all of Jerusalem, established strong military model

    • Conservatives looked at it in comparison to Vietnam— military success vs failure, America should’ve acted like Israel, fast & concise rather than slow and unmotivated

Late Great Planet Earth

  • Apocalyptic book using real-life events as evidence for prophecy coming true

    • Israel’s reestablishment

  • Premillenial vs postmillenial dispensationalism

First Amendment Clauses

  • Free exercise clause - protects right to exercise religion freely

    • Limited - exercise cannot interfere w/ laws or public order

  • Establishment clause - US cannot establish an official religion

Warner v Boca Raton

  • Plaintiffs

  • Experts

    • Michael Broyde - Orthodox rabbi, expert on Jewish law for plaintiffs. Emphasized no stepping on graves, leaving markers after visiting a grave, and no diminishment of grave status

    • Winnifred Sullivan - wrote the book, supported plaintiffs, did not define religion but emphasized relationship with death and memorializing

  • Outcome - plaintiffs lost, were ordered to remove vertical grave markers