Some trustees quit college named for fundamentalist crusader after it makes Adam and Eve article of faith

Four of the 12 trustees of Bryan College, a small, Christian, liberal-arts college in Dayton, Tenn., have resigned, saying they are unhappy with recent developments at the college, which include President Stephen Livesay's decision to amend the school's statement of faith "to say that humanity descended only from Adam and Eve," Tim Omarzu reports for the Times Free Press in Chattanooga. (Press photo by Dan Henry) 

While board members said they resigned because of poor leadership by Livesay, not the amendment, which they helped write, one wrote in his resignation letter, "The ongoing narrative from the president's office presents interpretations of facts that differ significantly and regularly from what I believe to be true. Second, I do not believe I could contribute anything substantive to the board that would be heard. . . . Third, the president indicated that those on the board who do not support his presidency should resign."

Another said he "didn't have a problem with the doctrine supporting creationism, but he didn't like the manner in which the clarification was made," Omarzu writes. The trustee told Omarzu, "In my opinion, it was pushed through at a time when it didn't need to be pushed through."

Bryan College was named for William Jennings Bryan, a presidential candidate who in the 1920s "led a fundamentalist crusade to banish Darwin's theory of evolution from American classrooms," getting the practice banned in 15 states, says the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. Bryan was part of the prosecution in "the monkey trial" of 1925 in Dayton, in which John Scopes was found guilty of illegally teaching evolution. The verdict was overturned on a technicality, and Bryan died six days after the trial ended. (Read more)