Evangelicals built a self-contained subculture after ridicule at the Scopes trial

Evidence

But American evangelicals lost decisively in the larger courtroom of public opinion. They were ridiculed, by Mencken and others, as backwoods country bumpkins. … Symbolically, the Scopes trial was a turning point. In the course of the 1920s and 1930s, American evangelicals doubled down on their rejection of the larger culture. Having already embraced premillennialism, the doctrine that Jesus would return to earth at any moment to rain judgment on the unrighteous, evangelicals set about to construct the evangelical subculture, an interlocking network of congregations, denominations, Bible camps, Bible institutes, colleges, seminaries, missionary societies, and publishing houses. The broader culture was both corrupt and corrupting, they argued, and the subculture provided a safe space, a refuge from the dangers of an increasingly secular society. — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith, 68

Categorization

• XREF: The insular institution-building here connects to the reader’s prior interest in how media and institutions shape culture (Communication as Culture). — connects to: Institutions built for withdrawal later enabled evangelical political reentry; Conservative evangelicals achieved dominance partly through control of Christian consumer culture — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White…, 21; The Scopes humiliation drove evangelicals into a self-imposed cultural retreat. — Randall Balmer, Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the…, 69

Related

• The Scopes humiliation drove evangelicals into a self-imposed cultural retreat. (similarity 0.91)
• Evangelical institutions built in the 1930s later powered their 1970s political reentry. (similarity 0.80)
• Conservative evangelicals achieved dominance partly through control of Christian consumer culture (similarity 0.79)
• Institutions built for withdrawal later enabled evangelical political reentry (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Conservative evangelicals achieved dominance partly through control of Christian consumer culture #expands (0.72) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 21