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Henry Morgan: Henry is on the board of directors and the Michigan State Director.
Frank Zindler: Frank is on the board of directors and is the Editor of the American Atheist Press.
Ann Zindler: Ann is a member of the board of directors and is the Associate Editor of the American Atheist Press.
Chris Allen: Chris is a member of the board of directors and is the Utah State Director.
Richard Andrews: Rich is on the board of directors.
Noel Scott: Noel is on the board of directors.
Karen Sundberg: Karen is the newest member of the board of directors.
The rest of our State Directors are:
In Pennsylvania Liz Burcin is our state director.
In Texas, Randall Gorman, is our state director.
In Tennessee Carlie Sims, is our state director.
In Florida, Greg McDowell, is our state director.
In Idaho, Susan Harrington, is our state director.
In Maryland, John Obst, is our state director.
In New Mexico, Barbara Reiland, is our state director.
In North Carolina, Wayne Aiken, is our state director.
In Washington, DC, Chris Prokop, is the director.
In Arizona, Monty Gaither, is our state director.
In New Jersey, David Silverman, is our state director.
In Massachusetts, Gil Lawrence, is our state director.
Kathleen Johnson is head of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers
Thank-you all.
I also want to introduce Jim Heldberg, who is our Affiliation director.
I want to introduce Charles Terrano, who is our Youth Outreach Director.
All of these people are part of our family of American Atheists which is also what I want to talk to you about today, Atheist youth and families in America and one such family in particular.
But first, as a parent, I am duty bound to share an anecdote with you about my son Max, who is now ten years old. Since it is Easter weekend I thought I would give you his explanation for what Easter is when he was six years old. When he was 6 he explained Easter to me this way, “A guy got shot and they buried him and he rose up and they call him the Easter Bunny.”
I am a second generation Atheist. When my two sisters and I grew up here in New Jersey we were not taught to be religious. Everything that my parents said and did reflected an Atheistic approach to life. I don’t know if my parent would have called themselves Atheists back then. They just had absolutely no interest in, or use for, religion. My sisters and I grew up in the late fifties and sixties and back then I don’t think that anyone taught their children to be Atheist per se, because back then one didn’t know much about Atheism, just like homosexuals back then didn’t talk openly about living a homosexual lifestyle. These were things that didn’t have a name back then, but I knew from my earliest recollections that I was an Atheist and my Atheism is something that I hold very dear to my heart. It has enriched my life and made me a better person which is probably why I have spent the last twenty years of my life working to “share the good word or good news of Atheism,” to put a twist on a typical relgious phrase. Although my parents are home and not here today, I want to say how deeply grateful I am to them for the Atheist approach to life that they instilled in me. For those of you who rear your children as Atheists I know that someday they will thank you for it as well. It is one of the greatest gifts you can give to them.
Now some of you have had a religious upbringing and some of you had an Atheistic upbringing. Most of you have had the former, in which it took years of struggle to find your way out. In some cases it was very painful and agonizing, but you did it.
From cradle to grave religious superstition pervades our lives and it is not by accident my friends. And in some cases when the end of your life comes, your religous family, who have hated your Atheism, will see to it that your friends think that you accepted Jesus as your personal savior as you lay dying and don’t think that it doesn’t happen. Oh, it is probably true. I am sure that many an Atheist has unwittingly accepted Jesus, while under heavy doses of morphine and totally blitzed. To the religious relative that’s good enough. Let me tell you of the most recent example of this involving one of our Life Members named Leslie G. Cook. Leslie was born on February 11, 1945 and died on July 11, 1998. Leslie was a generous donor to American Atheists and never once was there any indication that he was anything but a lifelong Atheist. The fact of the matter is the incidence of Atheists becoming religious is about as frequent as that of homosexuals going straight. Last month we received a letter from his family which said in part “Several churches in many states were praying for Les. Countless individuals were praying, some for many years. Even strangers, who where told of Les’s struggle, stopped their day to pray for him. Amazing stories like this could be told by many. There was a great outpouring of love toward Les everywhere he went. God used every prayer, and every good thing that was done, in some way to save this soul He loved. Surely, god did complete a work in Leslie. On June 10th, 1998 the pastor said that Les no longer displayed any hostility toward God. Then Les prayed with him, the following prayer; (Of course the prayer included wanting Christ to come into his heart, blah, blah, blah.)” Unfortunately god didn’t see fit to keep Les alive, but that’s another issue.
Well, the family made sure that I received this letter. Leslie was probably on morphine when this happened. Don’t think it won’t happen to you if you have religious relatives who have pestered you all your life. We have heard of these things before.
The Public Schools
Every week I hear from young people who are struggling with their nascent Atheism. Not only are they up against religious families and friends, but they also have to deal with religiousity in their schools as well, and not just in the parochial schools. I am talking about the public schools. Our public schools are a battleground in which our children are the spoils of the religious right. Over the past thirty years the majority of state-church separation cases have been concerned with the public schools. Why? Because of the empty pew syndrom. Attendance at church has never been over 50% of the American population. America’s families just do not care enough to take their children to church. So where are the religious supremacists going to recruit new customers for their product? If Mohammed won’t come to the mountain, then the mountain has to come to Mohammed.
They are going after our children where they are away from their parents in the public schools.
In 1963 in the Supreme Court decision of Murray v. Curlett, the founder of American Atheists, Madalyn O’Hair won her case to have organized prayers and mandatory Bible recitation stopped in the nation’s public schools.
Unfortunately, Christians in America have less regard for the United States Supreme Court than they do for their god. There has been organized praying in the public schools ever since 1963 and almost every year since has seen legislative attempts to overturn Murray v. Curlett.
Another reason for this assault on the public schools is that Christian children are being exposed to ideas that threaten their religious notions about the world, such as sex education, and evolution.
A non-profit group and some Colorado lawmakers are complaining that government funded schools are detrimental to student’s religious values.
One thing is clear, the saturation of the schools with religion does not emanate from the students themselves, as they would like you to think. “Student initiated” is never that. If you scratch the surface you find that the local church is always involved in attempts by students to orchestrate prayers and worship services in the public schools.
Incredibly, prayer advocates really thought that the concept of “student-initiated” and sometimes “student-led” was their ace in the hole. They really thought that an unconstitutional activity could magically be made constitutional as long as students decided to engage in the activity. Well, hey, I can’t wait to see their reaction when “student-initiated” marijuana smoking is proposed. High school students cannot determine what is constitutional and what is not. It is that simple.
The notion of student-initiated or student-led prayer consists of simply replacing the minister or school administrator with a student, resulting in the exact same situation as prior to Murray v. Curlett, - organized religious services, including prayers, songs, and scriptural readings occurring in the schools.
“Solemnization”
Now the prayer advocates want you to swallow the idea that it was students who have created the following justification for organized prayer in schools, it’s called “solemnization”. It is claimed that students alone created the concept which they define as “a way for them to formalize and dignify school events and activities without stepping on anyone’s religious convictions. Do you really buy the idea that high school students main concern is formality and dignity at school events, the very same students who go to schools with rings in their tongues and lips. Oh puhleeeze. “Solemnization” is twenty-five dollar term probably dreamed up at some right wing religious think-tank in Colorado Springs, Colorado and peddled via newsletters to churches around the country.
And when it comes to dignity it sometimes seems like religious students show less of it than their fellow Atheist students. When was the last time that an Atheist student went up to a religious student and told them they were going to be punished for their religiosity? When was the last time that an Atheist student shunned a fellow religious student merely because they were religious?
“Christian Athletes”
Groups of Christian Athletes form gauntlets at the entranceways in the public schools where all the students have to pass by them as they are urged to “accept Jesus Christ as their personal savior” etc, etc. You all know the drill. The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is a national organization that runs sports camps all over the country. Since the Federal Equal Access Act was passed by Congress the FCA now has bases of operations right in the public schools, for what? ---for RECRUITMENT.
Let me tell you about what was happening in 1996 in Houston, Texas. There a group of high school athletes and parents won an agreement from the school board of a small town near Austin that would separate religious activities and sports. Part of the problem involved the posting of prayers on lockers and religious music being piped into the locker rooms. The Athletic director was leading prayer sessions before and after games, and the athletes were under pressure to attend meetings of the FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) whose activities were even promoted on the school district’s stationary. In addition, two speakers were invited to the school on separate occasions who led the athletes in prayer, discussed religion with them and asked for a show of hands from those who were Christian.
Last January in Florida, the FCA’s, in a high school skit read Bible verses and sang a song with the refrain “the only hope for America is Jesus.” School officials determined that the play was inapropriate and offensive to Jewish students and apologized over the school public address system. Incredibly, a Christian Legal group called “Liberty Counsel” had the audacity to sue the school, claiming that it made the participating Christian students feel like they did something wrong, when, they claimed, it was the fellowship’s teacher-sponsor who was really to blame. The hypocricy here is that the Fellowship of Christian Athletes recruits and trains students to do exactly what they did and then they have the gall to blame the school for not knowing any better. This is one of many examples where exuberant prayer enthusiasts do not have the self-control to do what is right. They need secular society to step in and tell them to behave appropriately.
CHORUS
Now, if an Atheist student wants to sing in the school choir, you’ve got another problem. Jewish and Atheist students have been complaining about the overabundance of Christian worship songs for years--to no avail. In Salt Lake City, Utah, a Jewish girl named Rachel Bauchman, lost her case against Utah’s West High School, when the United States Supreme Court let stand the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding dismissal of her lawsuit concerned with the Christian songs that the students were required to sing “praising Jesus as the Lord, Savior, and King.” The choir teacher added some Jewish songs but Rachel was still uncomfortable with the religious songs. The choir teacher suggested that she sit in the library during practice and he would give her an “A” anyway. (Does the phrase separate but equal ring a bell?)
Additionally, non-Mormon choir members objected to organized field trips in which the students were asked to witness about Jesus Christ and sing Mormon devotionals.
Rachel Bauchman’s situation is a familiar one to American Atheists. From New York to California, public school choirs are making students sing hymns of praise to Jesus. In Rachel Bauchman’s school they were also scheduling performances at churches. Some public schools even have gospel choirs. Jeremy Kraut, a Jewish student from Long Island, New York also objected to the selection of songs in his choir and so did the Bazydlo family who are Atheists, in upstate New York. In both cases the schools ignored them for years and so the practice will continue.
Secret Ballot Approach
One of the more innovative approaches to undermining the First Amendment Establishment Clause vis-a-vis the public schools, has recently come out of Texas--big surprise there. The Santa Fe School District had a policy of allowing graduation ceremony prayers if, by secret ballot, graduating seniors choose to allow a benediction and prayers. Once again, public school students are being allowed to determine what is and what is not constitutional. It seems that some public schools are offering students internships as ministers and judges.
See You At The Pole
Another example of religious advertising in the public schools involves the See You At The Pole exhibitions. SEE YOU AT THE POLE originated at the Texas Baptist Convention in 1990, and on the third Wednesday of every September, Christian students gather around the school flag pole before school to what?? to be seen and heard by people entering the building and passing by. Of course. This event would never occur in their churches or in their homes where they would not be seen by anyone. God requires a metal pole and the participants require an audience.
Last September, a fifteen year old Christian student at Ross High School in Fremont, Ohio wrote to me saying that, “See You At The Pole Allows Christians to try and witness to their classmates and teachers, as well as an occasional passer-by.” The symbolism of marrying of the American flag and Christian prayer is not lost on American Atheists. Maybe they should go inside instead and read the United States Constitution.
A young Christian wrote to us wondering what was the harm in the See You At The Pole events. I’d like to read Ron Barrier’s response because it was, as always, right on the money.
He replied in part: “Prayer is an act of submission. Prayer promotes dependency on invisible things. Prayer removes from the individual the capacity to act on his/her own volition. As Atheists we teach our children to be resourceful, independent, and we try to cultivate critical thinking in our children. Is it reasonable to assume that we, as humans, need or desire assistance from beings that are essentially non-human, invisible, and incomprehensible? No. SYATP is a uniquely Christian event disguised as a free speech exercise with the express purpose of being seen by others. This is also an attempt to create a christian nation atmosphere on small children. There is no sincerity in such a display, and its very nature insults other creeds and nonbelievers who attend the same schools. I went to a Catholic school and we never had to gather around 30-foot pieces of steel tubing to pray. I believe that SYATP’s main purpose is to exploit the already extant peer pressure that is in the schools for the express purpose of “putting on a show” to the rest of the students. If churches really cared about the spiritual well-being of it’s children, then they should provide enough guidance that children should be able to go to school confident and relaxed - not filled with fears, irrationalities and dependencies....Just like other school prayer fiascos, this is designed to coerce students into accomodating and accepting, if not in participating, in what I interpret to be a conjuring experience. I do not accept and totally reject the efficacy of prayer and the concept that ancient, dead, invivible beings have to be continually massaged in order for humanity to find its way through this magnificant universe, or even, just to have meaning in life.”
James Dotson of the Baptist Press calls the events “student-led.” They may be student-led but they are outside-organized. Consider this, they are coordinated by the North American Mission Board and the National Network of Youth Ministries. These Christian groups are actively using students to recruit and proselytize in the public schools.
Bible Clubs
Under the Federal Equal Access Act, students are permitted to form religious clubs if non-curriculum related secular student groups are permitted in a high school. There are now over 10,000 student religious or Bible study groups operating in public schools. We see no reason why students should not enjoy this right of free speech, whether it involves religious expression and study, or some other area, from chess to politics, yet the nature of these bible and prayer clubs is
cause for concern. First hand observation and additional anecdotal evidence reveals that these are not student “clubs” in the traditional sense. Rather, they consist of religious ritual, scriptual readings, songs, prayers and similar activities usually reserved for the church setting. In effect, these clubs become satellites of the local church for proselytizing and recruitment in the schools - a fact that should give pause to civil libertarians and parents everywhere.
One of our members related the following events at her Oak Ridge High School in Conroe, Texas. “A new club called ‘The Cross’ held their meetings in the French teacher’s room Fridays at 4:30 where they would discuss scripture and the teacher would offer her interpretations. They would also meet during lunch in the Latin teacher’s room - he was an ordained minister.
“Christian clubs are allowed free use of the public address system and they are allowed to post flyers and posters around the building. I have been handed several flyers encouraging me to be ‘saved by Jesus’ or to attend a Christian punk rock show where , it is rumored, bouncers prevent you from leaving until you stand on stage and claim to have been ‘saved.’”
Other attempts at proselytizing occur when such religious clubs hold their meeting in school lobbies, lunchrooms, and hallways - venues not normally used by other student clubs when attending to their special interests.
What else is going on in and at the public schools?
In 1998, in Montgomery, Alabama, a bus driver told a boy to take part in Bible readings on the way to school or find another way to get there.
In 1995, at the Magna Elementary School showed the film “Where Jesus Walked” which, obviously included religious doctine.
In New York, a teacher was recently dismissed for leading her sixth-grade students in prayer and healing services. She gave students who did not wish to engage in this activity the “option” of spending time on a classroom computer instead, but her actions were nevertheless highly inappropriate.
In Dunn, North Carolina, Laurey and Rick Wyble received harassing phone calls were called communists, and were driven from their home for protesting sectarian bible classes in their son’s public elementary school.
And here is some of the mail that I receive from our young Atheists.
Peter H. writes, “My mother and classmates have literally shunned me for my Atheist beliefs and I won’t give up. I keep on saying you can’t go poof and make a planet but no one cares. I’ll never give up but I could use a little help.”
From Ken H. “There is a situation at my son’s PUBLIC school. He is in first grade. His music teacher has the kids singing songs regarding god. I visited the principal and complained, and the principal seemed very concerned and reassured me that it would be looked into and that it would be stopped. It hasn’t. That was about 6 months ago, and my son tells me that the teacher also “talks” about god. What should be my next step?”
From John: Hi, I have a question regarding a teacher in my school. I am an 18 year old senior in a small town in the Bible belt of central Pennsylvania. I am openly Atheist whenever it comes up in conversation, or religious issues are discussed. There is a 10th grade biology teacher in my school that teaches creationism, and I was wondering if this is illegal and how much trouble he could get in, if any at all. He gives out worksheets, has a test I believe (I didn’t have them, I know students that did), etc. He also teaches evolution, but openly discusses his opinion of it. He also fails to teach genetics, which is a part of the curriculum. (The other 10th grade biology teachers do teach it.) The teacher is real nice, outgoing, friendly, and most people around here agree with creationism, so no one has reallly complained. I was wondering if you know the legal facts about this teaching creationism in my public high school. Thanks.
Hi, I’m a seventeen year old Atheist who lives in a conservative fundamentalist den in northern Pennsylvania. I just found this website, and I must say that it opened my eyes to the extent of hypocrisy inherent in our society. I go to a school where the fundamentalists are a veritable cult. I was constantly harassed and told I was damned by people I considered my friends. It is refreshing to know that I am not the ones who finds their tactics both ridiculous and slightly amusing. Thank-you for that.
The situation has gotten so out of control in the public schools that on August 21, 1998 I addressed the United States Commission on Civil Rights urged them to do something. I told them that in order for our children to be free from religion in the schools and the attendant harassment that comes with it, some changes needed to be made in America. The Establishment Clause does not protect Atheist’s rights to be free from religion -why- because it can be ignored. There are no penalties, save a slap on the wrist from a court and a cease and desist order, but the religious just move on to the next town and the next law to be ignored. They have the political clout and the money to do it.
Since Congress has enacted laws, with significant penalties, against sexual harassment - it needs to enact similar legislation, with penalties, protecting all students against religious harassment and discrimination in our schools.
In addition, Atheists must be included as a protected group in the Federal Civil Rights Act.
Atheist Parents
I think that it is the Atheist parents and guardians who are going to make these changes happen in America. Many of you have had the luxury of hiding your Atheism all your lives because it didn’t affect anyone but you. Today, we have generation of Atheist parents like myself who refuse to stand by as their children come up against religion--mostly. When you mess with our children you are asking for a fight. So I look to you to protect our future generation of Atheists. I have felt so strongly about the needs of young Atheists that I chose “Supporting Our Atheist Youth and Families” as this year’s theme. Over the next two days, our speakers will help us to better understand what our youth are up against and what we can do about it.
In the future American Atheists will be expanding our outreach to our families. Later today you will hear from our first Youth Outreach Director. In the future we will publish books and articles for the family. There is a need for this and more and American Atheists will be there, with you, to meet the challenge.
The Murray-O’Hair Family
I must take a few minutes to talk about three people who were like family to me, of course I am talking about the Murray-O’Hairs. Much has been written about them, my dear friends, in the past three years, mostly negative, that I think that it is necessary to remind ourselves of the people we knew instead of who the press wants us to think they were. The same I knew them for eighteen years before they disappeared. Many of our new members are unfamiliar with who they were, other than the fact that they disappeared with some money. So I want to remind everyone just who this first family of Atheism is.
Madalyn O’Hair’s credentials are given in many issues of Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World, Who’s Who in Religion, The World’s Who’s Who of Women, The International Who’s Who of Intellectuals, Dictionary of International Biography, International Who’s Who in Community Service, Notable Americans, and in Personalities of the South. Radcliffe College and Harvard University placed her name in the National Women’s History Week in March 1982.
Madalyn O’Hair has lectured at every major university in the United States over the past thirty years.
Madalyn O’Hair has served, as a well-known Atheist, on the board of directors of the ACLU of Hawaii, which group she founded and on the national board of directors of the American Humanist Association.
She is an honorary discharged veteran of the Army of the United States, having served as a commissioned officer in combat zones as a cryptographic security analyst with the Signal Corps, detached from the Women’s Army Corps for special assignment, at the Supreme Allied Headquarters in Africa, Italy, and France, the Eurpean Theatre of Operations in World War II during the period 1943-1946.
Madalyn-O’Hair, her son Jon Murray, and her daughter Robin Murray-O’Hair have been honored, by invitation, to speak at Atheist meetings in England, France, Switzerland, Norway, Germany, Austria, the U.S.S.R., Iran, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, India, and China as well as many universities in Canada.
Madalyn O’Hair founded the first American Atheist Library and Archives to collect, preserve, and utilize Atheist history and publications. This library is internationally known, with an extraordinary collection valued at $3 million.
Madalyn O’Hair founded the “American Atheist Radio Series” in 1980 as the first - and only - regularly scheduled Atheist broadcasts ever to be made in the United States and broadcast over 123 stations for a dozen years.
Madalyn O’Hair founded the American Atheist Forum in 1980, the first - and only - regularly scheduled television broadcasts ever to be produced, directed, and broadcast by Atheists.
She founded the first network of Atheist chapters ever established in the United States.
Madalyn O’Hair founded the United World Atheists which banded together Atheist groups in the world. She also founded the system of WAM or World Atheist Meets. American Atheist conventions have had Atheist speakers from England, Finland, West Germany, Austria, India, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand so that American Atheists could be educated as to what goes on in the world with Atheism.
She founded the American Atheist Press, which publishes Atheist books and an Atheist magazine.
She established a method of production of the first audio and video cassettes of Atheist materials ever produced in the world.
Madalyn O’Hair originated the American Atheist annual conventions. Would that she could be here for the twenty-fifth. We must drink a toast to her tomorrow night.
She promoted the celebration of four natural holidays (Vernal Equinox, Autumnal Equinox, Winter Solstice, and Summer Solstice) in order to emphasize that there are rhythmical, natural events that transcend religious, geographical, and national boundaries and unite all humans under natural laws. She aided in the origination of a new Atheist symbol.
Besides the original Murray V. Curlett case, she has been involved in at least thiry major suits having to do with state/church separation, many of which reached the U.S. Supreme Court level. Chief among those cases were challenges to the payment of chaplains with taxpayer funds in the federal Congress; and state constitutions’ impediments to Atheists holdilng elected or appointed offices in Texas, Mississippi, Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. She also began the attempts to require public libraries to receive and display Atheist literature; to obtain tax exemption for Atheist educational institutions; to obtain a classification for “Atheism” in the library systems of the nation; to stop prayers in government at city, county, state, and federal levels; to include Atheist symbols on headstones in federal memorial cemetaries; to terminate discrimination against Atheists in employment; to stop “oath taking” for witnesses, jurors, and judges in courts or for government employment; to stop “belief in god” requirements for passports; and to enable Atheists to adopt children.
It was difficult for her to accomplish what she did, particularly in the early years, as Jon Murray once related in 1986. He said, “As a woman she has never been fully accepted in the traditional male role of a cause organization leader. It is indeed unfortunate that Atheists, who pride themselves on their liberal attitudes, would allow the specter of sexism to retard the progress of their chief spokesperson, but such has been the case.” Jon continued, “Dr. O’Hair always accepted that the Atheist cause must live beyond the individual. For this reason she has always emphasized the importance of an organization of Atheists with a variety of spokespersons. Being familialr with the history of previous Atheist groups, she knew that all too often an organization died with its founder. Wishing to avoid this patern, she encouraged the formation and growth of a sustaining trust fund for American Atheists in the hopes that its financial base would be secure regardless of its leadership. But she also realized that there must be a continuation of leadership.
With all that in mind, on April 19, 1986, at the members’ banquet at the Sixteenth Annual National Convention of American Atheists, Dr. O’Hair announced that she was stepping aside from the presidency of American Atheists and its affiliates. At the same time, she introduced new leadership which she hoped would, with its youth, lead American Atheists into the next century.”
That was the year that I was elected to the board of directors.
Madalyn O’Hair spent her adult life working for the cause and we all owe her a debt of gratitude that we can never repay. Let’s not forget our friends, for they are the reason that we are here today.
If time permitted I would talk about Jon Murray and Robin Murray-O’Hair and all of their contributions and accomplishments to the cause as well.
But make no mistake about it, whether it is a member like Leslie Cook, or our leaders like the Murray-O’Hairs, I will not stand by and allow the families or the media to trash their memories. And I would do the same for all of you because we are family.
Finally, Herman Harris mailed me this beautiful mug with Atheist pansies on it, that he bought a long time ago to give to Madalyn and he wants me to have it since I am here and she is not. Well, thank-you Herman that is very kind of you, but I still think that I will see my friends again and I will continue to think so, until I have evidence to the contrary, so if it’s alright with you Herman I will put it back into the box and save it for her so that you might be able to give it to her yourself when she returns.
Thank-you.
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Copyright
© 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 by American Atheists.
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