15. Fundamentalists Quietly Grew
Sociologists like Max Weber had previously theorized that society was on a historical progression from being dominated by religion to being governed by science and reason. This school of thought was known as the secularization thesis. The idea was that before the European Enlightenment, the Roman Catholic Church dominated both public and private life. Following the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment, governments came to assert their authority independently of the church. Society became progressively more secular and, in all likelihood, would continue its progression towards a nonreligious organization. America seemed to be the last stronghold of religion, but with the Scopes trial, this bastion came crashing down.
Outside of the purview of what they viewed as the liberal state, fundamentalists in exile quietly grew their numbers through evangelism or getting other people to convert. They trained people in the fundamentalist worldview at their schools, which came to include not only elementary and secondary schools but also universities, such as Bob Jones University and later Liberty College (later Liberty University). Graduates of these schools emerged with worldviews profoundly shaped by rhetoric that they viewed as being entirely at odds with the broader culture. With the movement’s growth through evangelistic conversion, these schools grew, producing an educated class of fundamentalists who would not be able to accept the status quo of the liberal state.