It might be hard to believe, but there was once a time when the general public was very interested in what preachers had to say.

No, I don’t mean the sermon delivered by Alexander Campbell to a joint session of the US Congress. I mean the man (and woman) on the street, the everyday barrel maker and tanner, cobbler and seamstress. You know, US! There was a time when portions of sermons were reprinted in newspapers, and it was about that time that there be giants!

Or rather, some big name preacher gave a sermon about them. And then a lot of other preachers were asked to talk about it, and the country was abuzz with the topic. A fellow named George Hull decided to play a little hoax on the “scientific community. He noticed dark blue streaks similar to veins running through gypsum in a quarry in Iowa, and bought himself a large slab of it, about 12 feet long, four feet wide, and two feet thick.

Now, he trucked it to Chicago at great difficulty and expense. There he had a local craftsman carve it under a contract of secrecy in the image of a giant who had supposedly died in a painful way, clutching his middle. Then he had it stained with acid and dyes to soften its features and make it look aged. The cutter crisply carved in toe nails, skin wrinkles, and even tapped pores into the skin to increase the realism.

Having finished the giant, George shipped it back his native New York and buried it, where it would be “discovered” and he was careful that those who found it were credible witnesses. The country was awash in dinosaur mania, and it didn’t take long for the scientific community to declare it to be an amazing prehistoric statue or, as he had desired, to be a genuine giant!

On the farm it was found the farmer charged 25 cents a head to see it, quite the sum in those days. Demand got so high he raised his price to 50 cents! Finally a group of bankers lead by David Hannum purchased it and moved it to a hall in Syracuse, raising the cost to $1. Tens of thousands of people gladly paid the price, and on a day an agent for P.T. Barnum went there were 3000.

Blah blah blah, that’s a fine Americana story Randy but what’s the point? Where are we going here? Well, first off I wanted us to note that it was preaching that put all of this into action! People had faith, and they believed. Secondly, while we might chuckle at the gypsum giant it demonstrates the determination some have to grasp anything that might prove – or disprove – the bible. Our faith shouldn’t be blind faith that refuses to give science its due, any more than science should not diminish the power and presence of God. We shouldn’t have to lie or trick folks into rejecting theories that discount God, and sensible folks grasp not everything can be isolated and put into a test tube while we close our minds to God as if he was just superstition.

Ah but there’s another lesson here. Barnum tried to buy the giant and offered a huge amount of money for it. Hannum refused. Not to be outdone, Barnum simply had his own carved, and then had it circulated in the newspapers that Hannum had sold him the original giant and the one Hannum was showing now was a fake! Losing money overnight while Barnum started raking in the cash, a desperate Hannum took Barnum to court only to lose. Why? Because Barnum could not be sued for calling Hannum’s a fake – it was!

People getting all worked up over a couple stone giants. But in the end, it was all about the money. Hannum eventually said, out of frustration, “There’s a sucker born every minute” because he was deriding those everyday people – most of us – who were going to see Barnum’s “fake” instead of his “authentic” one. It turns out Hannum was the biggest sucker of all. Even though he sincerely believed his stone giant was real, he was sincerely wrong. Consider those who believe there is no God because the scientific community tells them so. They are making a “colossal” mistake! Who’s the sucker? Think about it.

Randy