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July 10
Mary McLeod Bethune, John Calvin, Bloody Sunday, the Scopes Trial and a victory for same-sex unions.
David Barnhart
July 10, 2025
Okra bloom, 2025. Photo by Angela Barnhart.
Today marks the day, in 1921, when violence between Irish Catholics and Protestants erupted in Belfast, where faith had become entwined with political identity. It was referred to as “Bloody Sunday,” one of many such Bloody Sundays throughout history.
Today in 1925, the Scopes “Monkey” Trial began in Dayton, Tennessee.
On this day in 2012, the Episcopal Church voted to approve the blessing of same-sex unions.
Today is the birthday, in 1888, of Toyohiko Kagawa, Japanese Christian pacifist. He was an advocate for women’s rights and cooperatives. He was jailed for his public statements of apology for Japanese occupation of China.
On this day in 1875, Mary McLeod Bethune was born. (I wrote about her passing on May 18). She was the fifteenth of seventeen children. Her parents were formerly enslaved persons who recognized the importance of education and how it could open doors of opportunity for people of color. Her excellent performance at school earned her a scholarship to North Carolina's Scotia Seminary, which served as a springboard for a distinguished career as an educator and activist. In 1904, She opened the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School with just five students. The institution eventually became the Bethune-Cookman College in 1929 after a merger with Cookman Institute. She also founded the National Council of Negro Women in 1935 to enable Black women to participate in efforts to promote social justice and human rights and was an influential advisor on "Negro affairs" to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1974, she became the first Black leader and first woman to be honored with a monument, a statue located in a public park in Washington, D.C.
Today is the birthday of John Calvin, who came into this world in 1509, and I cannot tell you how much I want to make a predestination joke right now but I will spare you. Not my favorite theologian, but I do know some lovely Presbyterian folks!
Reflection:
Clarence Darrow, defending John Scopes’ right (and scientific obligation) to teach the theory of evolution, became a villain in the minds of many literalist Christians. He was an agnostic and they perceived him as a threat. But his humanistic ethics were far closer to Jesus’s own than the hateful theology of so-called traditionalists then or now. He said:
“When we fully understand the brevity of life, its fleeting joys and unavoidable pains; when we accept the facts that all men and women are approaching an inevitable doom: the consciousness of it should make us more kindly and considerate of each other. This feeling should make men and women use their best efforts to help their fellow travelers on the road, to make the path brighter and easier as we journey on. It should bring a closer kinship, a better understanding, and a deeper sympathy for the wayfarers who must live a common life and die a common death.”
Because Jesus hung on a cross between two thieves, killed as an outlaw, I believe God is on the side of those who are outcast and vilified. Again, Darrow’s words strike me as closer to Jesus’s own:
“To be an effective criminal defense counsel, an attorney must be prepared to be demanding, outrageous, irreverent, blasphemous, a rogue, a renegade, and a hated, isolated, and lonely person - few love a spokesman for the despised and the damned.”
Mary McLeod Bethune was a force of nature. When I read miracles about God parting the Red Sea or Moses getting water from a rock, I’m reminded of the way she essentially created a college out of scraps. Her students even made their own desks and pencils, and she grew the institution into a major force for education and liberation.
I read in a book that a man called Christ went about doing good. It distresses me that I am so easily satisfied with just going about.
Prayer: God, may your Christians aspire to be as honorable as virtuous agnostics. May your liberators be willing to work miracles from what we can salvage. Amen.