DAYTON, Tenn. – 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 teacher who broke the law by teaching evolution in a public school.
While not quite “the fantastic cross between a circus and a holy war” 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.
The continuing debate at Bryan College and beyond, in a way that might have stunned proponents of evolution from Bryan’s era, is a reminder of how divisive the issues of the Scopes trial remain, even splitting an institution whose motto is “Christ Above All.” The debate also reflects the problems many Christian colleges face as they try to balance religious beliefs with secular education.
Since Bryan College’s founding in 1930, its statement of belief, which professors have to sign as part of their employment contracts, included a 41-word section summing up the institution’s conservative views on creation and evolution, including the statement: “The origin of man was by fiat of God.”
But in February, college officials decided they needed to go further, announcing that professors had to agree to an additional clarification, declaring Adam and Eve “are historical persons created by God in a special formative act, and not from previously existing life-forms.”
For administrators and many members of the governing board at Bryan, the new language is a buffer against what they see as a marked erosion of Christian values and beliefs across the country. But for critics, the clarification amounts to an assault on personal religious views, as well as on the college’s history and sense of community.
Two longtime faculty members this month sued the college, arguing the board of trustees was powerless under the college’s charter to change the statement of belief.
