“He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart” — Proverbs 11:29

In the 1920s, the nation was in a philosophical chaos. The Great War was over, but at home the conservatives, fearing the social changes happening all around them, were driving a fundamentalism agenda across the country. Young people were enjoying Jazz and sidestepped prohibition. “Younger modernists no longer asked whether society would approve of their behavior, only whether their behavior met the approval of their intellect.”

The Theory of Evolution, as developed by Darwin nearly 75 years earlier, became a focus of this upheaval. The southern conservatives manipulated the situation in Tennessee, where law had passed to reject teaching Evolution in the public schools, and forced the issue to a climax with the Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton Tennessee.

The case brought out the most famous of lawyers in the country at the time, liberal Clarence Darrow and conservative William Jennings Bryan. Newspaper wrriters such as H.L Menken became household names.

Evolution was not the real issue. It was a case of philosophy. The older victorians afraid of losing their way of life were challenging the young, new generation. Big business was taking advantage of the situation to “put Dayton on the Map.”

Massachusetts has become the new Dayton, Tennessee.
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Blogs all over the middle east seem to be talking about a crypt that was found nearly 27 years ago, and James Cameron’s efforts to determine whether it is the the true resting place of Jesus, Mary, Mary Magdalene, and a number of others including “Judah, son of Jesus”.

A press conference, including a description of DNA and associated research is planned for Monday, and the Discovery Channel will soon have a movie explaining the situation.

We’ve seen what the fiction book, The DaVinci Code, did to religion a few years ago. I wonder what effect this will have.

Update: Discovery Channel will premiere its movie “The Lost Tomb of Jesus” this Sunday, March 4 at 9:00 pm

Ted Koppell will host  a forum following the movie 

Cardinal O’Malley appoints new pastor in Haverhill, The Pilot   By Father Robert M. O’Grady

Posted: 2/23/2007

BRIGHTON — Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley has announced the appointment of Father Robert W. Murray from parochial vicar at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Boston to pastor of St. James Parish, Haverhill. The appointment was effective Feb. 12.

A Lowell native who grew up in Dracut and is a son of St. Michael Parish, Father Murray is an alumnus of The University of Massachusetts at Amherst and St. John’s Seminary. Cardinal Bernard F. Law ordained him to the priesthood at the cathedral on June 25, 1988. Following his seminary studies and deacon year at St. Malachy Parish, Burlington Father Murray’s first priestly assignment was as a parochial vicar at St. Mary Parish, Lynn.

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