There is a new biography out of Madalyn Murray O’Hair, which I have been unable to check out of the library, as I know it will annoy the hell out me no matter which tack it takes.
As an atheist, I am annoyed and embarrassed that she was the “best-known” advocate of atheism. Honestly, though, I don’t know that much about what she actually accomplished in the way of separation of church and state: I’ve heard that she was actually a rather minor figure in getting prayer out of schools–though a loud one.
Did she do more harm or good to the cause? She certainly gave us a terrible public image, being an abrasive, hate-filled, humorless harpy.
I think of Chick as a bad artist with an obsession for fundamentalist dogma and a twisted mind. He wants to convert all people to his narrow thinking, and has no compromise.
I think of O’Hair as a strident crusader wanting to be left alone by the Jack Chicks of the world and wanting to have the separation of church & state concept taken more seriously, and she wouldn’t compromise.
Hmmm.
But that’s just my opinion. I’d sure like to read that book, but the only chance MY library will ever stock it is if I buy it for them.
I wonder if her opponents even realize she’s dead. My mom’s church was still passing around the FCC petition to keep Ms. O’Hair from having all religious programming (including Touched by an Angel) yanked of the airwaves after she had been missing for years.
Madalyn Murray O’Hair is, at this point, more in the nature of a children’s nursery hobgoblin than a real person in the minds of the Christian Right. I’m sure that 100 years from now they’ll be calling on the specter of MMO’H to justify whipping up the troops for whatever new Church/State outrage they’ll be trying to pull.
In other words, it hardly matters to conservative Christians what state she’s in, living or dead or reanimated zombie.
O’Hair was a hell-raiser who unfortunately did not care how she was perceived, as long as she was driving her opponents nuts.
I don’t recall her specifically promoting hatred of religious people, or suggesting that they were doomed to eternal agony - so whatever negative things can be said about her, equating her with Jack Chick is not justified in my view.
I see Madalyn O’Hair and Jack Chick as opposites. O’Hair was mad as hell and not going to take the bullying of schools anymore, but it seems to me her thrust was towards getting the religious establishment to leave the non-religious alone, not in converting religios into atheists.
Chick, on the other hand, wants to convert as many people as possible to his own narrow view and consign all the others to the ultimate cruelty. I’d have no problem having someone like Madalyn O’Hair for a neighbor, but if Jack Chick moved next door he’d be about as welcome as a registerd pedophile.
Good luck even then. I doubt the library here would even accept it as a gift. To give you an idea of how conservative this area is, there is no book by or about Robert G. Ingersoll in the entire San Bernardino County library system. Officially, he never existed, even though he was one of the best known people of his time.
You might be surprised, DesertGeezer. My local library had several linear feet of books on graphology and astrology, but not a single one was skeptical. I purchased and donated a hardback copy of Beyerstein’s The Write Stuff, and donated it to them with the provisio that it not be discarded for at least 5 years (they regularly remove books that don’t circulate much). I check to see if it is still there occasionally, and so far it is, ten years later.
I also offered to pay for a magazine subscription for a periodical that I thought was needed to round out their selection, and they accepted. Every three years, they just forward the renewal notice to me, and I pay it.
Another way to get needed books onto the shelves may be to join (or form) a “friends of the library” group to raise money and lend a hand. Ours takes the discarded library books plus other donations and has an annual sale.
Well, no, unfortunately. I ssaw a good many interviews with her, and I was on her mailing list, and she was a hate-filled woman who did indeed want to stamp put all religion, had no compunction about calling it a crutch for the feeble-minded, and did not want to live and let live. Which is why I never joined her organization–I found her to be just as single-mindedly bigoted and intransigent as the worst of the Fundies.
I guess, though, reading these responses, most of her biliousness never reached the ears of the public at large, which is a good thing.
Also, I don’t think she printed millions of small, simple-minded atheist messages and distributed them far and wide. I don’t think any atheist has done this. As far as I can see, atheism does not have a Jack Chick equivlent.
Nor, to get a bit off topic, have I ever encountered atheists standing on street corners with bullhorns, shouting simple-minded exhortations at passers by.
Atheists have a long way to go to be as annoying as Christian prostilizers.
But as far as I know, she never printed millions of small, simple-minded atheist messages, and distributed them far and wide.
I guess this is slightly off topic, but I would say that atheists in general have a long way to go before they’re as annoying as christian prostilizers. No tracts, no shouting into bullhorns on street corners. Nor do atheists go door to door, asking people, “have you kicked Jesus out of your life yet?”
Guin, it’s likely to be the other way around. Her son became one of the loud, obnoxious, Christian Right breed of Christian from the get-go. Even if it were her who intiated the break in communications, I can’t blame her. If I remember correctly, he spent a LOT of time denouncing his mother in the media in some of the vilest rhetoric.
Yes, Guin, AFAICR the in-action of that son do not endear me much to him, he took his sweet time to put a lost family member report, before that, I heard there was nothing much authorities would do, or bother to do, for the then disappearance of O’Hair. It is true that they were not talking to each other, but so much for Christian forgiveness.
IMO it was O’Hair’s paranoia that did her in, my theory of what happened was that the murderers kidnapped O’Hair’s granddaughter and MMO, already distrustful of local authorities, decided to save her granddaughter herself, the kidnappers got a hold of the ransom money (I think it was gold coins) and decided to kill all witnesses.
IIRC it was the same son on whose behalf O’Hair originally went to court to get prayer removed from the schools. Apparently religious fanatics are born, not made.
To make this truly some kind of debate, Eve, why not provide some specific examples of just how "she was a hate-filled woman who did indeed want to stamp (o)ut all religion, had no compunction about calling it a crutch for the feeble-minded, and did not want to live and let live. "
For starters, what plans did she have to stamp out all religion? Was she working to close down churches, prevent free worship, stop people from buying Bibles, or what? Or did she just have a nasty tongue?