Yet Another Trial of the Century

Have you ever heard of haliography? (Watch the spelling, it is not about salt.) This was a new word for me, and the definition was regarding somebody writing about lives of the saints. But the next definition fits: someone is the subject of glowing terms in in biographical material.

Gregg Jarrett coauthored a book called The Trial of the Century with Don Yaeger, and apparently they want to elevate Clarence Darrow to the level of secular sainthood. Daryl was the hero of the fictionalized version of the Scopes Trial titled Inherit the Wind. People have acted like the movie is a documentary, but that is the opposite of the truth. Now secularist jasper's come along and decided to try to sanitize history — again. Neither history nor science are told accurately.

Clarence Darrow, 1913, Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

How many times is something called "the trial of the century?" Many of these have raised a great deal of attention, but have fallen by the wayside.

Clarence was portrayed as a noble free thinker, taking up causes that needed his expertise. However, he was antagonistic toward Christianity: he rejected it because he was a "thinker", and for some reason, "thinker" or "freethinker" means denier of God. Which is absurd if you study on it a spell, because there are — and were — many great Christian thinkers.

In the introduction, he says that “Darrow’s commitment to the principles of the First Amendment remains timely today. Almost one hundred years after the Scopes Trial, questions about free speech persist in higher education and social media . . . Darrow defended the right of free thinking in the classroom and advocated the benefits of science exploration. He believed that progress was dependent on uninhibited expression.” He then notes that “free speech is particularly relevant amid today’s struggles over partisan censorship in political discourse, polarizing disinformation campaigns, accusations of classroom indoctrination, a sometimes punitive ‘cancel culture’ under the guise of social justice, and, for example, the movement on college campuses to adhere to a particular orthodoxy that excludes diversity of opinion and opposing views.”

To read the entire article (and gain a few "Sure, Pal" moments), click on "Trial of the Century: Bad Science and Bad History." I reckon that Darrow was a hero to some people because he was obstreperous in his rebellion against God.