The oddest thing about this post is, why would a community college think to schedule a performance of “Inherit the Wind” with involvement of a director and support by a religious college, Martin Luther College, in the first place?
After seeing the poster for the audition, several MLC professors raised objections about the play’s subject to the administration.
…
“We felt it was not compatible with what [the school] teaches the Bible says about the universe and the world,”? said [MLC’s VP of Student Life Jeffrey] Schone. “This is a ministerial school. People employing our students need confidence about their views.”
Blogger Hemant Mehta, posting this story, responds,
I love that final line. As if what potential employers seek from these students is not a weakly-held truth but a confidently-held lie. Students won’t be employable if we keep challenging their firmly-held and completely-discredited views! So stop making them think! (Though I guess the statement makes sense, given what pastors say from the pulpit on a regular basis…)
I read the play Inherit the Wind in my teens, saw the movie a couple times, even saw a stage performance at UCLA when I was a student there. It’s dismaying that society has not much progressed in all these decades. The battle between faith and science is still being played out. And may forever play out. It’s part of inescapable human nature.
