Posted by Fred Askew on January 09, 1997 at 13:00:42:
In Reply to: Madalyn Murray O'Hair Petition (?) posted by David Naughton on January 08, 1997 at 19:40:12:
: Someone was handing out the following letter at work.
: Does anyone know anything about this? Is this letter
: outdated? I thought that Madalyn Murray O'Hair was
: still missing.
: IMPORTANT NOTICE
: Madelyn Murray O'Hare [sic], the celebrated Atheist,
: whose efforts successfully eliminated the use of the
: Bible reading and prayer from All public schools
: fifteen years ago [What was the date?] has been granted
: a federal hearing in Washington, D.C. on the subject of
: the petition, R.R. 2493, which would in effect pave the
: way to make reading of any gospel (religious material)
: on the air-ways of american radio or television
: [illegal]. She has taken a petition with 27,000
: signatures to support her efforts.
: If HER attempt is succesful [sic], all Sunday worship
: services being broadcast either by Radio or Television,
: will STOP. Many of America's, as well as the rest of
: the World's elderly and shut-ins, as well as those whom
: are restricted by hospitilization and recouparation
: [sic] from illnesses, who depend on the media of
: television and radio to fullfill [sic] their worship
: needs every week [?].
: Madelyn is also campaigning to remove all Christmas and
: Jewish Programs, songs, and carols from public schools.
: This time you can HELP! We need 1,000,000 signed
: letters to defeat Mrs. O'Hare's efforts and show that
: there [are] many God worshipping Americans alive and
: well, and concerned about our country. Madelyn is also
: trying to remove the statement "IN GOD WE TRUST" from
: all the currency in this country.
This sounds like the sort of made-up stuff that fundamentalist groups pass around to scare people (except for the trying to remove "In God We Trust" from money). The odds are very high that it's an urban legend or a twisted version of some real event.
As other people have pointed out, O'Hair vanished some months ago. A lot of her organization's money is also missing. Did she take the money and run? Nobody knows. Her born-again son has filed in court to take over her assets, but there are rumors that she has more debts that assets. O'Hair has been living here in Austin TX for many years, so we're getting all this stuff as local news.
I've always thought of O'Hair as being the atheist version of Jimmy Swaggert. I think that mainstream atheists are as embarrassed about her as mainstream Christians are about TV evangelists. It would probably be a boon to American atheists public image if she never came back.
Fred Askew
Austin TX