The sun shone on another day of Summer Session on campus in a small college town. In a large yet somewhat stuffy lecture hall in one of the oldest buildings, the professor had reached a favorite part of his lecture on this period in European history. His voice didn’t drone on—it rose as he bent to his subject:
“It is commonly held that life in medieval times was materially deprived, miserable to most people, and that the life of the mind was narrow and limited by superstition, fraught with fear of the Forces of Darkness. This negative view can be summarized in the name often used for these times: The Dark Ages. Yet, consider this: Religious life in the Christian world was at its peak. Almost everyone, from highest lord to lowliest serf, built his life around a community centered at the local chapel or cathedral as well as the Master’s castle. The very roots of the music we now call classical can be traced, at least in part, to the sacred music played and sung in the churches. Indeed, man’s spiritual life reached its greatest heights of expression during this period … ”
My memory almost certainly has some inaccuracies, but that was the drift. I remember considering the professor’s words at length. They had left me feeling uncomfortable. No doubt the professor of my class in Europe from Ancient to Modern Times would have been happy to know this, for I was at least thinking, hopefully achieving a deeper appreciation of history. And I did enjoy the history classes I took. However … life without benefit of modern medicine? Life without the many benefits of modern science and technology, the freedom to express ideas without fear of being tortured to death, of being burned at the stake for heresy? Western culture is most certainly enriched by its heritage dating back to the medieval times. Nevertheless, the thought of living a re-enactment of those times left me with a chill.
And then, years later, I happened upon this.
I’m indebted to the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) for finding the above Wedge Document on the web site of what is probably the nation’s most active creationist organization. But now the chill is back and this time it signals a very real threat. The Wedge Document is nothing less than a master plan for the transformation of our society from its present base in materialism to one based wholly upon the spiritual. That is, spiritual in the medieval sense as my history professor propounded upon years ago (but I am sure never intended as a model to be duplicated in our time). The term “wedge” refers to the strategy for this transformation, for the initial phase is the insertion of a “wedge” into our culture by destroying its foundation, “materialistic science”. The leading thrust of this phase is an attack on the Theory of Evolution, discrediting it in the public mind and replacing the teaching of it in the schools with a fundamentalist view of divine creation. In the longer term the idea is to see our society replaced by a culture that is essentially medieval. And within this culture a life of the mind severely limited.