Madalyn Murray O'Hair - An American Hero

[Zhade]

I'm just learning about this woman's life, and I must say, I'm impressed by her courage - and outraged at the man who murdered such a strong voice for freedom.


From wikipedia:

In 1960, Murray filed a lawsuit (Murray v. Curlett) against the Baltimore, Maryland School District in which she claimed it was unconstitutional for her son William to participate in Bible readings at Baltimore public schools. She further went on to claim that her son's refusal to partake in the Bible readings had made him the victim of violence from other classmates, violence that she claimed was overlooked by administrators. In 1963, this suit (amalgamated with the similar Abington School District v. Schempp) reached the United States Supreme Court which voted 8-1 in her favor, effectively banning "coercive" public prayer and Bible-reading at public schools in the United States. Madalyn Murray became so controversial in her opinions that, in 1964, Life magazine referred to her as "the most hated woman in America." Before Life, Robert Anton Wilson had written an article with the same title for Fact Magazine. It was the article in Fact, in fact, that had prompted Life to run their article.

She was right - coercive (why the scare quotes, I wonder?) prayer IS wrong, and a blatant violation of the separation of church and state.

She went on to form an essential group dedicated to preserving the right of atheists like myself to not participate in religious rituals in which we don't believe:

Following the Supreme Court decision, she founded American Atheists, "a nationwide movement which defends the civil rights of non-believers, works for the separation of church and state, and addresses issues of First Amendment public policy." She acted as its first CEO before later handing that office on to her son Jon Garth.


But her life wasn't without controversy - even her own son found fault with her:

In 1980, her son William converted to Christianity and was "born again" at a Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, where he took up work as a preacher. In sermons, he accused his mother of using him as a tool in her crusade, claiming she had lied about her reasons for filing the lawsuit against Maryland, and that he had never been the victim of any kind of violence at the hands of his Christian classmates. He said that the true reason for his mother filing the suit was her deep personal hatred for followers of Christianity. He said her zeal against Christianity was so great that it had taken over her life and rendered her incapable of seeing other people (himself included) as anything but either enemies or people who agreed with her every ideal.

Human, and flawed, like us all, but dedicated to freedom of the nonbeliever - a very important freedom. Then she disappeared. She was slandered, Christians were suspected, but in the end one of her colleagues ended her fight for liberty:


Ultimately, a murder investigation focused on David Roland Waters, who had worked as an office manager and typesetter for American Atheists and who had previous convictions for violent crimes and also one for stealing $50,000 from the organization. Police concluded that he and his accomplices had kidnapped the O'Hairs, forced them to withdraw the missing funds, and then murdered them. Waters eventually pled guilty to reduced charges. Subsequently, in January 2001, Waters informed the police that the O'Hairs were buried on a ranch in Texas, and gave them the exact location of the ranch and the bodies. When the police excavated there, they discovered that the O'Hairs' bodies had been cut into dozens of pieces with a saw. The remains exhibited such extensive mutilation and successive decomposition that identification had to be made through dental records, by DNA testing, and in Madalyn O'Hair's case, by her prosthetic hip.

She was denounced as abrasive, derided as deluded, and hated as much for her atheism as her fierce adherence to the separation of church and state. She was even blamed, urban legend-style, for the demise of the oh-so-important "Touched By An Angel" (gag) television program.

All in all, a fascinating individual, one I've really only just begun learning about.

(EDIT: typo!)

[Suich]

1. She was completely villified

by the media, in her day.

[Zhade]

4. Something tells me she would be today, too.

NT!

[kskiska]

2. I remember her well

She was certainly straightforward, militant, in her atheism. She appeared on many, many TV shows back then in the 50s and 60s, like the David Susskind show. Of course, they were more civilized, not the shoutfests they are today. She was very abrasive and wouldn't take any guff from anyone. Newdow is a pussycat compared to her. I have to wonder how she would fare today.

[Prophet 451]

3. I like her son's comment

"her deep personal hatred for followers of Christianity"

Asw usual, the fanatical Christians are incapable of understanding that anyone might have a philosophical or ethical disagreement with Christianity, it has to be a personal issue.

[Zhade]

5. True. Just because I find the religion superstitious and silly...

...that does not mean I dislike Christians. I'm friends with a number of them.

[liberalhistorian]

6. Actually, with her it WAS deep and personal

hatred toward ANY Christian, or anyone who had the slightest belief in anything spiritual. She even hated her own son, who became a Catholic. He wanted to continue his relationship with her, but she considered it a "betrayal." Like he didn't have the right to make up his own mind.

I applaud her stance against any religion or prayer in schools or the public sector and her courage in doing so at a time when you just didn't do that, the consequences could be horrendous. Hell, even now, the non-religious catch tons of shit.

HOWEVER, she went way too far, IMHO. She tried to erase all religion from life, period, and that's just plain wrong. People have the right to believe what they want spiritually without being called a lesser form of being and an idiot because of it. She was like the atheist version of Falwell and Robertson. I may be a liberal Christian, but I'm not an idiot.

[Prophet 451]

8. OK, maybe she's a bad example

The point about militant Christians refusing to see anything as other than personal still stands though.

[Zhade]

10. Considering the climate, I don't blame her.

I don't condone her actions toward believers, but I can certainly understand them, especially with rampant violations of the separation of church and state going on at the time.

But she needn't have alienated potential allies.

[kskiska]

7. She knew how to hate

(snip)

Throughout her life, O'Hair worked tirelessly to obliterate the concept of God and everything pertaining to Christianity. She founded of a nonprofit group dedicated to the separation of church and state: the American Atheist Organization, which advocated (among other things) free birth control and the taxing of churches. She wrote numerous articles, including a Hustler magazine piece on the benefits of Masturbation. Long before Larry Flynt was offering cash for information regarding the sexual peccadilloes of United States congressmen, he was a friend and confidant of Madalyn, and his name appears several times in her diaries.

O'Hair was tough, an angry you'd-think-she's-a-dyke-but-she's-just-a-loudmouth kinda broad. A force to be reckoned with, she once yelled at a woman during a PBS talk show for promising to include O'Hair in her prayers that evening. O'Hair enjoyed hating "stupid people," and she wrote of her passion for contempt: "What's the matter with hating? It's treated as a leper among the emotions. Why in the hell should we go on exuding sweetness and light? There is no God. There's no heaven. There's no hell. There are no angels. When you die, you go in the ground, the worms eat you." These views made her "controversial" enough to be Phil Donahue's very first guest.

She delighted in insulting Christians, regarding nuns as "poor old dried-up women lying there on their solitary pallets yearning for Christ to come to them in a vision some night and take their maidenheads. By the time they realize he's not coming, it's no longer a maidenhead; it's a poor, sorry tent that nobody would be able to pierce -- even Jesus with his wooden staff. It's such a waste." Her magazine, also titled American Atheist, was proud to interview the likes of Hitchhiker's Guide author Douglas Adams, and other professed radical atheists.

more…
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/misc/madalyn-murray-ohair/

[kiahzero]

9. ... ok

I certainly someone who could write this: "O'Hair was tough, an angry you'd-think-she's-a-dyke-but-she's-just-a-loudmouth kinda broad" to be a reliable source about anyone.

[Zhade]

11. Yeah, it's a great source.

:eyes:

I guess she gets villified even in death, and even on DU. Sad.

[Zhade]

12. Douglas Adams a "radical atheist"?

Now I KNOW that source is full of shit. He was about as kind and unassuming an atheist as you could meet.

[Prophet 451]

15. WTF?

Adams was about a million miles from a radical. In fact, as I remember him speaking on the subject, he was a "weak" atheist (i.e. he did not believe in a God, rather than outright saying there was no god). If Adams was a radical, Terry Pratchett (also an atheist, of the "strong" variety) must be a maniac.

[Nabia2004]

13. Madalyn Murray O'Hair - One of my hero's

Her untimely passing still saddens me. I thank her for helping to bring to me enlightenment.

[liberalhistorian]

14. She had every right to demand that

prayer (mainly Christian prayer) and other forced religious expression in public schools and in the public sector be banned; they don't belong there and government has no business pushing any religion on citizens.

She did not, however, have the right to try to remove Christian programming from TV and radio (mass for shut-ins,etc.). That's the same as the theocratic fundie nutballs demanding that anything they don't like be taken off airwaves or bookshelves, etc. There's no difference. If she didn't like the religious programming, she could turn it off. She didn't have the right to make that decision for everyone else, just like the fundie nutcakes have no right to do the same.

And not all of us who are in any way religious deserved to be painted with her broad brush. She could be, and often was, just as hateful as the RW fundies.

[AzDar]

16. She was very courageous, no matter what her personal motivations were.

Organized religion is a cancer upon the Human Race.