"The Most Hated Woman in America" trailer -- about the leader of the "American Atheists"

[True Dough]

I'd never heard of Madalyn Murray O'Hair, founder of American Atheists. Anyone else familiar with the background?

I might make a point of watching this movie on Netflix one day.

[JenniferJuniper]

1. She was quite a character and an important historical figure.

Her lawsuit (I think combined with one or two others) led to the Supreme Court deciding forced Bible reading in public schools was unconstitutional.

Although I think I'd prefer a documentary about her life. It was colorful enough all on its own.

[trotsky]

21. Yeah, people can go ahead and smear her personality or style all they want.

Strong women have put up with that kind of shit for thousands of years.

The fact remains, she didn't back down from an issue on which she was RIGHT. She made this country a better place for non-believers AND believers.

Why people feel the need to beat up the corpse of someone that important in American history, I don't know.

[JenniferJuniper]

22. An obnoxious guy who accomplished the same things would

likely be considered a brave, bold albeit eccentric pioneer. A woman is never cut that kind of slack.

[trotsky]

23. You got that right. n/t

[Heddi]

24. Ain't that the fucking truth

I love how her public persona is being "credited" for turning her son into the "very thing she hated" (or whatever similar words were used). How insulting. Maybe her son was just an asshole from the get-go and her personal persona, parenting style, etc, had NOTHING to do with it.

I mean, surely only Atheists are the only people who raise children who turn into horrible adults, amirite?

[guillaumeb]

2. Interestingly enough, her son is a Minister.

He turned from atheism and became a Baptist Minister. Did he have a road to Damascus moment?



William J. Murray III, a Baptist minister, author, and the son of infamous atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, said that just as some people in the past sacrificed infants to the demonic “god” Moloch for “financial luck,” so too do some people “sacrifice babies to Moloch today” through abortion “for the financial good of the family,” and call it “family planning.”

http://www.cnsnews.com/blog/michael-w-chapman/madalyn-murray-ohairs-son-we-sacrifice-babies-moloch-today-money-reasons-call

[tonedevil]

6. I don't want...

to form an opinion of someone based on one article, but the comparison of killing a baby and putting it under your doorstep for luck with having an abortion is disgusting.

[guillaumeb]

7. I am certainly not saying that I agree with his positions on anything.

But it is interesting how he seemingly rebelled against her by becoming what she fought against.

Was his rebellion a protest against what he might have seen as her indoctrinating him?

[tonedevil]

10. Reading the other...

article I can't say his mom sounds decent either.

[guillaumeb]

17. Perhaps a dysfunctional family where the beliefs are secondary. eom

[guillaumeb]

3. More on Bill Murray:

For a long time now I have felt like a man with a deep, dark secret: I have believed in God.

For the elder son of America’s foremost apostle of atheism, Madalyn Murray O’Hair, the statement is an agonizing declaration of conscience. William Murray, 34, had been his mother’s obedient servant for much of his life: as plaintiff of record in her 1963 Supreme Court case, which helped to outlaw prayer in public schools, and more recently as the financial brains behind her organization, the American Atheist Center (AAC). But since the late 1970s Bill Murray has harbored quiet doubts about atheism and experienced disquieting flickers of religious faith—intimations so unexpected he kept them even from his wife. Furtively he attended a few Unitarian services, and last year began drafting a repudiation of his mother’s school-prayer crusade in the form of letters to newspaper editors that he never mailed.

http://people.com/archive/the-son-of-atheist-leader-madalyn-murray-ohair-turns-away-from-mother-to-god-vol-13-no-22/

Interesting how people's thinking can evolve.

[tonedevil]

8. This doesn't make him...

much more sympathetic except his mother seems hateful as well. They seem a very sad family.

[guillaumeb]

9. Agreed. Perhaps her personality was so dominating that peole around her

accommodated for the sake of family peace. A sad story all around.

[tonedevil]

11. It appears...

neither religon nor lack of it insures you will be a good person.

[guillaumeb]

18. No argument. Eom

[okasha]

30. Equal and opposite reaction

between kids and parents happen in all directions. The only thing unusual about Bill Murray is that he was a late bloomer.

[TexasProgresive]

4. I have one personal anecdote.

This was a few years before the deaths of her, her son and granddaughter Robin. Robin was the same age as our son and they attended a strings camp at Sam Houston University in Huntsville, TX. The last day of camp a concert was held so the parents could hear what great things the children had learned.
My wife and I were walking to the hall from the parking lot and there was this older woman and man walking behind us carrying on a conversation. It was the most vulgar I have ever heard. I don't mean cursing but just really crude. When we were seated in the hall and perusing the program I saw the name, Robin Murray O'Hair and pointed it out to my wife. She said look to your right and there they were the people who had been walking behind us.

I have nothing against her for being an atheist but I just didn't like her. It is sad that these 3 were murdered, especially Robin who was so young.

[WhiteTara]

5. I remember the controversy and have always

been grateful to her for removing "Under God." I myself leave that out every time I am demanded to recite the pledge.

[safeinOhio]

12. Late 70s or early 80s

she had a weekly TV show I use to watch.

[The Blue Flower]

13. I heard her speak--she was hateful and vulgar

Seemed like a miserable, horrible person and I always felt sorry for her son. She would have been a poor representative for any point of view.

[no_hypocrisy]

14. She stayed true to her convictions.

Unfortunately, she was also a hard woman to get along with. My employer, an attorney, had her as a client and told me she was easy to anger and would not consider anything but what she wanted.

She also "ex-communicated" Anne Nichols Gaylor, the first president of The Freedom From Religion Foundation.

Her son became a fundamentalist Christian.

And she met her end with members of her family.


Look her up on Wiki.

[True Dough]

15. I'm surprised

by the six degrees of separation (or much less, in some cases) from the DU forum members here. Good stuff.

[Warpy]

16. Women in her time were supposed to be sweet, simple and girlish

keeping house without complaint and being silent and decorative while the menfolk decided everything important. She was none of those things, which is one reason I liked her. She was rude, crude, loud, vulgar, and refused to back down when she knew she was right. I think I'd have gotten a kick out of her even if I believed a word of religion.

She always said the only reason she feared death is that she was afraid some Christian would shove a crucifix up her arse in her coffin. I think she'd be relieved to know that didn't happen, that she'd been murdered for money and not a god she didn't believe in.

I only knew her from her writing and a television show I'd only seen a few times. I do know she was rather hard on the people around her.

[murielm99]

19. She was quite famous when I was younger.

She appeared on a lot of talk shows, too. Early in her career, whenever they would put her on a show with a minister, she would talk circles around whomever it was. She seemed to make sense.

Later, she became bizarre and seemed confused. Her life was a mess, and her disappearance was quite the mystery.

This looks like an interesting movie.

[juxtaposed]

20. i was a big fan of hers back in the day. remember going to one of her family talks 30+

years ago. I liked the stories of her working for the US gov. during the Eisenhower Administration.

[littlemissmartypants]

25. Refreshing

To see it's not a movie about Hillary. Thanks for the post, True Dough. ♡

[True Dough]

28. Actually

I think it's entirely possibly that Fox News, Breitbart and InfoWars might be collaborating on such a movie with the same title about Hillary.

[JHB]

26. Well, I think of my scale for needless obnoxiousness...

...as "the O'Hare scale". I'm an atheist too, but the few times I saw her on Donahue and other talk shows, wow, that knocked me back on my heels. Always needed to dig a knife in and twist. That would have been Between the end of the 1970s and thru the 80s. From what I understand she was better spoken in the early 60s.

Most ready match in terms of absolute vileness these days would be Steve Bannon.

[True Dough]

27. Bannon?

Wow! That tells me I wouldn't have been a fan of hers, for sure!

[JHB]

29. Like I said, I only knew her from tv talk shows later in her life...

...so other people's mileage can and will vary. But by that time she clearly had left any tact and subtlety behind.