According to The Mankato Free Press, Inherit the Wind is a fictionalized version of the Scopes Monkey Trial that pit evolution against creationism. All but one of the students were persuaded to drop out of the play due to it's controversial storyline. The students received many emails and letters objecting the play which assisted in persuading them to drop out. According to The Mankato Free Press, on September 16th, the New Ulm Actors Community Theatre board voted to indefinitely postpone the performance because there wasn't enough time to replace the cast before the October premiere.
The college's Vice President said that the administration thought this would be a minor change for the theater group to take on. Although, he did acknowledge that the administration could have possibly 'timed its actions better'. The college's Vice President of student life, Jeffrey Schone, stated that 'this is a ministerial school. People employing our students need confidence about their views'. As a rebuttal, the students stated that they should be allowed to form their own views that aren't necessarily the same as Schone's.
Martin Luther College is owned and operated by the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, which is a conservative denomination that believes creation happened within the course of six consecutive days of normal length. Which is intriguing, as the play seemed to portray a different opinion.
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