Scoping out past, present: 5-5-11

In some ways, the so-called culture wars have their roots in this date -- May 5, but not 2011. Rather, in 1925. For it was on May 5, 1925, that Tennessee biology teacher John T. Scopes was arrested for teaching the theory of evolution in a public school classroom.

Naturally, the "Monkey Trial" that came next had many religious overtones because of the refusal of some people of faith (then and now) to believe that Darwin's (well, Darwin and others) theory of evolution could be credible because it seemed to undermine their version of biblical Christian faith.

I don't want to suggest that there aren't still some questions about evolution or that a modern alternative, Intelligent Design, is nothing more than Creationism in disguise. But for people of faith to continue to dismiss macro evolution in its broad sweep is not unlike suggesting that Albert Einstein got nothing right or that Barack Obama is a Kenya-born Muslim.

The fundamentalist approach to evolution, which, technically, prevailed in the Scopes trial, soon was driven from the playing field, though it eventually returned, though what returned has evolved into several varieties, some of which have made basic accommodations to modern evolutionary theory.

In many ways, you can continue to see the divisions evident in the Scopes trial in our culture today, and much about these divisions goes back to how one interprets scripture. As my associate pastor has said more than once, you can read scripture literally or you can take it seriously, but you can't do both.

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MORE SAINTHOOD QUESTIONS

The recent beatification of the late Pope John Paul II continues to stir up commentary. This column notes what the writer thinks are various failures of JP II. But it seems to assume that sainthood is based on the whole of someone's life, whereas it seems to me the process is more narrow than that. At any rate, are you among the huge majority of Catholic and non-Catholic Americans who approve of making JP II a saint?

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P.S.: My latest National Catholic Reporter column -- about reaction to the death of Osama bin Laden -- now is online. To read it, click here.