A History of Christian Doctrine #3 - Online Christian Library

Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism
preacher, organized the American Council of Christian
Churches (ACCC). In 1948, the International Council of
Christian Churches (ICCC) came into being as a counterweight
to the World Council of Churches. Today, the ACCC
supports another international organization instead of the
ICCC—the World Council of Biblical Churches.
The ACCC is the largest association of historic
Fundamentalism today, but it is relatively small. In 1987,
its member organizations claimed a total constituency of
only 1.5 million, compared to 40 million for the National
Council of the Churches of Christ and 5 million for the
National Association of Evangelicals. 228
In 1925, the Fundamentalists received national notoriety
as a result of the so-called Scopes Monkey Trial.
Tennessee had recently passed a law forbidding the teaching
of evolution in the public schools. John Scopes, a high
school biology teacher in Dayton, was put on trial for violating
this law. Scopes was convicted by a jury, but the
real significance of the trial was in the debate between
two of the most prominent lawyers in America and the
resulting press coverage.
William Jennings Bryan, a three-time Democratic
presidential candidate, aided the prosecution and upheld
the biblical account of creation. Clarence Darrow, a
famous criminal defense attorney, represented Scopes. In
an unusual maneuver, Darrow was allowed to call Bryan
as a witness for the defense and subjected him to harsh
attacks and ridicule. By asking questions on science and
biblical interpretation that required expert knowledge, he
was able to make Bryan look somewhat foolish, and he
called the proponents of creationism “bigots and ignoramuses.”
The national press painted a distorted picture of
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