One hundred miles of Bible belt separate Dayton, Tennessee from Cobb County, Georgia. But 80 years of fundamentalist faith unite these two communities in the fight to protect their children'�s Christian beliefs from the "ravages" of the theory of evolution.

Dayton was the site of the 1925 trial of John Scopes who was convicted of violating the Butler Antievolution Act, which prohibited teaching any theory that denied the story of divine creation as revealed in the Bible.

In January 2005 a federal judge ordered the conservative Christian-controlled school board in Cobb County to remove antievolution stickers from its biology textbooks. He ruled that the stickers were tantamount to an endorsement of "Christian fundamentalist or creationist" beliefs. The school board is appealing the decision.

To understand the significance of these "monkey trials," one must look beyond the legal decisions to the hidden agendas.  This long view is crucial, especially now with school districts in 40 states under attack by creationists and with the reelection of an evangelical president who wears his religion on his political sleeve and who believes that "God did create the world."

The original "monkey trial" was rife with hidden agendas. Dayton civic leaders accepted the ACLU's offer to challenge the antievolution law hoping the publicity would "put their town on the map."  It was they who convinced Scopes to become the defendant, despite the fact that he could not recall actually having taught evolution.

The World's Christian Fundamentalism Association, an active supporter of the Dayton prosecution, was more concerned with the increasing encroachment of modernism into mainline Protestant denominations than it was with the teaching of evolution, which it viewed as just one more symptom of theological backsliding. For the WCFA, the Dayton trial was a national pulpit from which to "denounce modernism as the product of Satan's lie."

One hundred miles south and eighty years later the defense in the Cobb County "monkey trial," maintained that the school board put the antievolution stickers on biology textbooks to encourage its students to develop critical thinking skills. This is the same board that supported the decades-old policy allowing teachers to tear out of biology textbooks all the pages that addressed evolution. The school board's agenda is about as hidden as the proverbial elephant in the parlor. Yet no one is questioning the pachyderm�s presence or how it got through the door.

The magic behind this elephantine parlor trick is best illustrated by considering the upcoming "monkey trial" in Dover, Pennsylvania, whose school board is requiring its teachers to tell students that evolution is an unproven theory and has ordered them to include intelligent design creationism in their biology curriculum.

Intelligent design is the latest retooling of the Christian creation story. This version maintains that all life was designed by a supernatural intelligence. However, reference to God as the designer is studiously avoided.  This tactic is designed to give intelligent design creationism immunity from First Amendment challenges.

But the hidden agenda of intelligent design's high priests has little to do with understanding the origin and development of life and everything to do with insinuating a fundamentalist Christian ideology into the public square via the public school.  Their plan for creating God's kingdom on Earth is known as the Wedge Strategy. Behold, Elephas maximus.

The Wedge Strategy (accessible on the Web) became public in 1992 following the publication of Philip Johnson's book, Darwin on Trial. Johnson, a law professor and born again Christian, is the Wedge�s chief architect and proselytizer.

The Wedge�s professed goal is to "see intelligent design theory as an accepted alternative in the sciences". But its not-so-hidden agenda is exposed if one reads the document through to its final 20-year goal, which is to "see design theory [fundamentalism] permeate our religion, cultural, moral and political life."

Owing to an unsurprising dearth of scientific evidence supporting intelligent design, the Wedge�s three-phase plan relies instead on generating public controversy over the supposed weaknesses of the evolution theory. The Wedge Strategy's widespread influence is evident in the creationist-initiated "teach the controversy" debates now roiling school districts across the country.

The "teach the controversy" debate is the thin edge of the "wedge" that Philip Johnson hopes will split the wall between church and state and secure fundamentalist beliefs a captive audience in public schools. As Johnson told an assembly at a conference entitled, Reclaiming America For Christ, "The objective is to convince people that Darwinism is inherently atheistic, thus shifting the debate from creationism vs. evolution to the existence of God vs. the non-existence of God.  From there people are introduced to the truth of the Bible and then the question of sin and finally introduced to Jesus."

The Wedge Strategy's base of operation is the Discovery Institute�s Center for Science and Culture, a Seattle-based fundamentalist Christian organization.  In press releases intended for the general public, the CSC describes itself as "the nation's leading think-tank researching scientific challenges to Darwinian evolution."  But in press releases for brethren only, the CSC assures them that it "seeks nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its damning cultural legacies."

Overthrowing secular society is expensive.  The Discovery Institute depends on financial support from individuals like Howard Ahmanson, whose Fieldstone & Co. had $47 billion in assets in 1997. Ahmanson, a dedicated Christian Reconstructionist, is uncharacteristically candid about his agenda. "My purpose is total integration of biblical law into our lives."

Much of the Discovery Institute�s funds are spent maintaining a stable of authors who write creationist books for the popular press. William Dembski, whose sobriquet is "God's mathematician," is arguably the Wedge�s leading intellectual. His book, the Design Inference, is the screed most often cited, but least read or understood, by letter-to-the-editor writers attacking evolution. But even Dembski's agenda is recoverable from the labyrinth of his text. He writes, "Indeed, intelligent design is just the Logos theology of John's Gospel restated in the idiom of information theory."

If there is a lesson to learn from these "monkey trials," it is in recognizing and confronting the "intelligent design" of the hidden agendas. These trials are not about establishing a place for alternative scientific theories in public schools.  They are about establishing a fundamentalist theocracy on the public's dime.

Bob Weitzel resides in Middleton, Wisconsin.  His essays regularly appear in The Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin.  His work is  also published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Freethought Today and on Axis of Logic.  He can be reached at: debraw@chorus.net