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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (April 7, 1999)
Opinion 2 Wednesday, April 7, 1999 TT he CI ac I camas P rint Scopes dichotomy The clash of Faith and Reason, of Religion and Science, has cap tured the imagination of this cen tury, as evidenced by the 1925 “Scopes Monkey Trial” and the that when you create a straw man to tear down, his defeat is likely to become a hollow victory. The famed critic H.L. Mencken’s caricature of Bryan, the “old buzzard” who “has been oozing around the country since his first day here,” has been soundly humiliated. The real William Jennings Bryan, the Great Commoner, that fi ery crusader for the rights of the masses, the resonant orator whose faith en riched his life and inflamed his sense of justice, has been left untouched and forgotten, lying under inches of dust that few care to uncover. A wide brush is always danger ous, no matter who is painting with it, and bigotry has two faces on its coin. If it is a danger to distrust science as heresy, it is equally deadly to discount religion as idi ocy. The fact that so many scien tific innovators throughout West ern history have been Christian in either profession or paradigm is a significant clue. One of the most famous of these, Galileo, is known for having been tried and persecuted by the Church for his views in an affair ostensibly similar to the Scopes Trial. But Galileo in fact was tried not for science which challenged Biblical doctrine, but for attempt ing to demonstrate that Copernicus’ discoveries were compatible with Scripture! The Church was threatened because he contradicted ideas of Aristotle and Ptolemy which had entered Chris tian dogma through Thomas Acquinas. Hie basic dichotomy between science and religion often leads to confusion. Hie two disciplines are not opponents, because they deal with different things. Faith must accept that the study of workings of the physical world is healthy and good in a universe created by of AN. IhkNOWN Cod TI he AI tar JOEL P. SHEMPERT Copy Editor 1951 drama it inspired, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s Inherit the Wind. With last term’s pro duction of Inherit the Wind by the Clackamas Theater Department, this issue has been dragged to the surface of our con sciousness once again. I take the play’s bias, that devout Christian ity is ignorant and oppressive, to be a grievous and prejudicial er ror. This is not a slight against the play, or its stellar performance by Clackamas’ students and faculty. Indeed, I contend that the very ex cellence of craft in Inherit the Wind is a part of its danger. Inherit paints the picture Lawrence and Lee intended, and paints it masterfully, in fact. But in so doing, an entire point of view, along with one of its greatest cham pions, is left by the wayside. I allude, of course, to Christian Fundamentalism and Scopes pros ecutor William Jennings Bryan. Though the play makes no claim to accurate representation of the facts, the damage is done for those millions who saw “the movie” without ever reading “the book,” ironically enough given the play’s message. Bryan, in the person of “Matthew Harrison Brady,” is now a raving bigot and Fundamental ism the oppressor of reason. The attacks against Bryan and Fundamentalism in the course of the trial are too numerous to be dealt with here, but suffice to say The Clackamas Print aims to report the news in an honest, unbiased, pro- fessional manner. The opinions ex- pressed in The Clackamas Print do not necessarily reflect those of the student body, college administration, its faculty, or The Clackamas Print advertisers. Products and services ad- vertised in The Clackamas Print are not neccesarily endorsed by anyone associated with The Clackamas Print. The advertising rate is $4.75 per col- umn inch. All signed letters to the editor should be 300 words or less and will be considered for publica- tion if submitted by 1 pm the Friday prior to publication. The Clackamas Print is a weekly publication and is distributed every Wednesday except during Finals week. The Clackamas Print Copyright 1999. a reasonable God, and Reason must realize that no amount of physical discovery will ever ne gate the presence of a higher real ity. In C.S. Lewis’ Voyage of the Dawn Treader, third in the Narnia Chronicles, the heroes meet an old man who is a retired star, for in Narnia stars are living beings. Eustace remarks in puzzlement, “In our world, a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.” “Even in your world, my son,” the star replies, “that is not what a star is but only what it is made of.” In other words, things are more than they seem. Physical reality does not negate metaphysical re ality. I serve a God who is unafraid of science because He has set in mo tion the processes which it stud ies. Christianity suffered a terrible blow at Dayton in 1925, which I hope to have some small part in setting right. I humbly ask the reader to consider a relationship with a God of both Faith and Rea son. I show you a more excellent way. Associate Editors: News Editor: Angie Daschel Karl Katzke Shelbi Wescott Mandi Linstrom Robert Schoenberg (x2576) Feature Editor: Jeremy Stallwood Sports Editor: Cartoonist: John Thorbum Advertising Manager: Kristina Brooks (x2578) Copy Editor: Joel P. Shempert Photo Editor: Timothy A. Bell Design Editor: Megan Oldenstadt Secretary: JoAnne Gale Advisor: LindaVogt(x2310) Israel Gunderson DJ Cole Staff Photographers: Sarah Welch Toni McMichael Melissa Leone Staff Writers: SalenaDeLaCruz James Khosravi Chamaine Larson • a Maria Raymond Leah Chapin IP»'* Susan Abe Stef Smith Randy Parsons 19600 S. M o I a LL a A ve . O regon CiTy, O re q on 97045 (505) 657-6958 ext 2509 • CCCpRiNT@C I A C k A M AS . C C . O R . U S The true face of war Joel Shempert’s March 3 piece on Iraq and the atrocities of war was absolutely great. To know that Dean Darris is continuing to present the facts about this na tion is out standing. We have a charge to educate and en lighten students. No one does that better than Dean. However I find it very alarming that we have to put war in its proper context. Bruce Willis wracks up the body count and there are no children. Sly Stallone surfaces in a swamp and saves half the world. Steven Segal breaks the limbs of anyone pointing a weapon of destruction at him. Arnold has saved America from a hostile world. He has even conquered a few aliens when he is not busy being a bad ass. Demi Moore can cause the best of the Navy SEALS to clutch their fam ilyjewels. Geena Davis is a won derful housewife by day and a trained assassin by night. Meg can just flat fly that chopper. Isn’t this how war really is? In this nation we certainly wouldn’t glamorize war then feed it to the youth of America. The atrocities of this nation in the last 40 years go way beyond George Bush. He was only one member of the class of'46. That class had some of our greatest leaders. LBJ, known for the Great Society, which included the use of napalm on children, is one striking example. The leader of the free world’s strategy of draft the kids from our ghettos was pure genius. Protecting the middle class white boys with school deferments is another stroke. Or is it a form of ethnic cleansing? However, this is the greatest nation on ehrth. Doesn’t everybody know that? Our citi zens surely adopted all those de fleshed children and gave them good homes and the finest of medical care. Just like we do our own. I must be stupid to think we would let our poor and un derprivileged fight our wars. Iraq wasn’t about the price of gaso line. It was this nation’s state ment about hu man rights. I hope I am not coming across as some draft dodging anti war activist of the sixties. I am simply a guy who has had to wrap a towel around someone’s head because their brains were leaking out and they still had a heartbeat. Spending Christmas Eve changing bandages and I Vs on a double amphtee who hadn’t told his wife about his injury, is a wonderful way to get into the holiday spirit. Everyone should get a chance to dangle from a he licopter cable and try to get to a downed pilot as Charlie is trying to use your red cross as target practice. This nation loves to la bel and name things like Rambo, Terminator or Top Gun. Other names that come to mind are Tet offensive and My Lai massacre? "So simply label me," and those I served with, as VICTIM OF L ehers to t I- ie EdiTOR THE UNITED STATES CON GRESS 1970-1974, So, gentlemen, keep getting the word out. As this nation passes out of the barbaric hold of the class of'46, maybe there is hope. Who knows? The life you save may be your own son or daughter. If your students and readers really need to see a war movie for entertainment, can I suggest Saving Private Ryanl I really like the scene on the beach when Tom Hanks is towing a young GI and a mortar shell blows him in half. It brought back such wonderful memories. Respectfully Submitted on Be half of a New Generation, Tom Laugle Faculty President
