I probably never heard much about atheism until I heard about Madalyn O'Hair and all about her disappearance. This is when I started my search For Me. Here is Wiki on O'Hair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madalyn_Murray_O'Hair#:~:text=Madalyn Murray O'Hair (née,Jon Garth Murray succeeded her.
Yes and my father would have been crucified if he had spoken about his beliefs during his life, and he finally came out to me on his deathbed at 95.
Hedi, didn't I know you as Gloria? Sorry if I'm mixing up 2 separate people. Your avatar reminds me of Gloria Mitchell.
I remember hearing about her but not a lot about her........ In 1980, she publicly rejected her estranged son Bill, when he announced that he had converted to Christianity. Her son William J. Murray became a Christian in 1980 and later a Baptist minister, publishing a memoir in 1982 about his spiritual journey. Murray O'Hair commented, "One could call this a postnatal abortion on the part of a mother, I guess; I repudiate him entirely and completely for now and all times ... he is beyond human forgiveness. What kind of mother disowns her son just because he doesn't agree with her?????!!! O'Hair endorsed Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election because of Carter's opposition to mandatory school prayer, his support for sex education in public schools, and his stance on ecological matters. I never knew this about Carter.
I don't disagree with him but knowing him to be deeply religious man, I'm a bit surprised that he would be against school prayer. I don't remember ever having prayer in school when I attended. It may be that I have just forgotten. I remember the Pledge of Allegiance but no prayer. I'm not exactly against sex education in school but I tend to think that that is better left to the parents. I don't know his stance about ecological matters.
I think the key word in what you posted is "mandatory" school prayer. Maybe he didn't believe it should be mandatory. I believe it was changed to something like "a moment of silent meditation" so the kids could pray or not. We had sex education when I was in school; thinly disguised as a "health" class, but I learned a lot more from that than from my mother's embarrassed stuttering. I don't know anything about his stance on ecology, either.
I liked his Brother better than Jimmy, especially when he was photographed taking a whizz on the tarmac. My Brother kept some of his beer for years before losing memory of where he had stashed it. Now Jimmy was a pretty smart man and was a Capt on a Nuclear Sub. You think he would have made a better President than he did. After his debacle over the loss of Iran we started a fast rebuilding of our Navy's fast reaction forces. At the time we had nothing to move special forces with when needed to rescue Americans from kidnapping as they were in Iran. There were a lot of ships refitted just for transporting a lot of men and force. The shipyard in San Diego as well as all the others all up and down the Pacific coast were busy with Naval contracts refitting all these ships. Jimmy pretty much was the cause of the loss of Iran and the problems of today, we are facing a dilemma with what to do if they get a nuke in Iran. We can all thank Jimmy for turning his back on an friendly country and one that was using all our latest hardware and equipment. In 74 I applied for a job in Iran with Bell Helicopter as a cobra armorer who would be working on a new airfield on the Iranian and Iraq border. They had purchased our best Cobras to have stationed on the airfield. I did not get the job because I was not married and they were pretty strict at the time not wanting young men drinking and chasing the women. It was strange because Bell gave the orientation to a room full of people waiting to hear if they were hired or not. It would have been a cool job because all that I would be doing was rearming the cobras and taking care of the ammo dump. Years or decades after that I met the Father of the farmer here that I was working for and his Father worked as a cost consultant for a large German petrol chemical corporation that was building refineries there in the same area the airfield was located. His Father told me that he was sitting at his desk the morning the Iraqi air force bombed the plant they were building. He told me he had not signed up for that and grabbed his bags and left on the first flight out of Iran. ;0) It's such a small world and we don't even realize it.
Never think much on her or atheist, I tend to let people believe what they want as long as they do not try to convert me to their ideology. There is enough wack jobs out there without adding me to the mix. It is what it is.
I don't dwell on her, but she's a big part of the conversation. And I believe she turned up missing or dead due to her beliefs and speaking out. My father would have been crucified if he had spoken what he believed and didn't believe.
From everything I have seen or read about Madelyn Murray O'Hair, it seems that, besides being perhaps an atheist, she was a real wackadoo and con artist.
Which conversation is she a big part of? She's been dead for a long time, and as I recall she and her son were murdered by a previous employee who stole a large amount of money from them and killed them.
Schools are for education prayer is for home or church. There is a good reason for separation of church and state. Kids are forced to go to school, but church is personal choice made by parents.