William Jennings Bryan earned a permanent place in American history nearly nine decades ago in the Scopes trial, when he stood in a courtroom here and successfully prosecuted a case under a state law that banned the teaching of evolution in public schools.\u00a0<\/span> William Jennings Bryan earned a permanent place in American history nearly nine decades ago in the Scopes trial, when he stood in a courtroom here and successfully prosecuted a case under a state law that banned the teaching of evolution in public schools.\u00a0While not quite \u201cthe fantastic cross between a circus and a holy war\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/span>While not quite \u201cthe fantastic cross between a circus and a holy war\u201d that captivated the nation in 1925, as Time magazine put it, a similar debate is again playing out in Dayton, this time at an evangelical Christian college named for Bryan, which is being sued as part of a controversy over its own stance on the origin of humans.\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>The continuing debate at Bryan College and beyond is a reminder how divisive the issues of the Scopes trial still are, even splitting an institution whose motto is \u201cChrist Above All.\u201d Playing out at a time when the teaching of evolution remains a cultural flashpoint to a degree that might have stunned its proponents in Bryan\u2019s era, the debate also reflects the problems many Christian colleges face as they try to balance religious beliefs with secular education.\u00a0<\/span>
<\/span>Since its founding in 1930, Bryan College\u2019s statement of belief, which professors have to sign as part of their employment contracts, included a 41-word section summing up the institution\u2019s conservative views on creation and evolution, including the statement: \u201cThe origin of man was by fiat of God.\u201d But in February, college officials decided that professors had to agree to an additional clarification declaring that Adam and Eve \u201care historical persons created by God in a special formative act, and not from previously existing life-forms.\u201d<\/span>
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