A federal judge has ruled that a 51-year tradition of teaching Bible classes in the county where the famous Scopes trial was held must end.
U.S. District Judge Allan Edgar in Chattanooga, Tenn., ruled Feb. 8 that classes in Rhea County violate the First Amendment’s clause separating church and state.
In his decision, Edgar said that county officials “acted with both purpose and effect to endorse and advance religion in the public schools.”
About 800 students in the county’s three elementary schools attended the weekly 30-minute classes.
A couple with two children in the schools sued over the Bible classes, which were taught by students from Bryan College, a Christian college.
The school is named for William Jennings Bryan who was on the opposite side of a 1925 courtroom battle with defense lawyer Clarence Darrow during the prosecution of schoolteacher John T. Scopes for teaching evolution instead of creationism. Scopes was found guilty, but his conviction was thrown out by the Tennessee Supreme Court on a technicality.
(RNS)
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