The Role Of Modernism In The 1920s

In the 1920s America had adopted new values and changed the definition of freedom to include woman. Woman had won the right to vote and were enjoying their new sexual freedom. The majority religion was changing away from Protestantism to other religions because of immigration. Although many Americans known as the modernists embraced these not everyone did. Americans who believed in traditional values and were very religious, opposed the new change in anti-modernists movements. The modernists believed that science and religion could be integrated, that Christianity should change with the times and embrace the new secular culture. The in anti-modernists rejected this idea because they believed in the literal truth of the bible. The conflict between the modernists and the anti-modernists movements or fundamentalists, defined the 1920 and was the

The modernists thought that evolution was true and didn't conflict with Christianity. This would come to head with the scopes trial in Tennessee 1925. John Scopes was a teacher in a Tennessee public school and was arrested for breaking one of the state's laws that prohibited teaching the theory of evolution. The trial reflected the two definitions of freedom in America. The fundamentalists believed that evolution was against the word of god and should not be allowed to be taught. The modernists thought scientific inquiry, free thought and the free exchange of ideas was impotent and didn't conflict with Christianity. Scopes would be found guilty by a lower court, but the Tennessee Supreme Court would later Overrule the decision. Shortly after the trial the leader of the anti-evolution laws movement, William Bryan, died and with his death the fundamentalists give up for the time being and retreated to private school where they could teach what they