The Atheist: Madalyn Murray O'Hair

3 “The Most Hated Woman in America”

3 “The Most Hated Woman in America” THE PUBLIC RESPONSE THE DECISION IN Murray/Schempp affected a majority of the nation’s schools. According to a New York Times report, 41 percent of the nation’s public school districts—in thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia —required Bible reading and/or recitation of the Lord’s Prayer. Those districts, however, included a high proportion of large systems and a majority of schools.1 Many school officials accepted the decision and took steps to comply with it. Typically, Calvin Gross, New York City’s superintendent of schools, appealed to the State Education Commission for instructions on how to proceed, but he made it clear that he intended to obey the law. He noted: “I think the handwriting is on the wall.”2 Several church groups—mostly mainstream Protestants and Jews—accepted the decision or even welcomed it. The National Council of Churches asserted that the decision served as a reminder to all citizens that “teaching for religious commitment is the responsibility of the home and the community of faith . . . rather than the public schools. Neither the church nor the state should use the public school to compel acceptance of any creed or conformity to any specific religious practice.” Such a policy, it added, “endangers both true religion and civil liberties.” The Synagogue Council of America, representing Orthodox, Reform and Conservative Judaism, through its president, Rabbi Uri Miller, said: “We fervently believe that prayers, Bible readings and sectarian practices should be fostered in the home, church and synagogue, and that public institutions such as the public school should be free of such practices.”3 94 Some of those who disagreed with the United States Supreme Court’s ruling in Murray/Schempp argued that it had come about as the result of a misreading of First Amendment provisions regarding religion. Originally conceived to prevent the establishment of a state church and to assure the free exercise of all faiths, they reasoned, the First Amendment had come to be interpreted by “humanist judges” as requiring the removal of religion from public institutions. The result was that the judges acted to limit prayer in the public schools, while at the same time refusing to protect the rights of religious groups against the state. Moreover, they contended, the courts had in effect established another religion, the religion of the secular state, or secular humanism.4 Mark Murphy, vice-president of Citizens for Educational Freedom, charged that the decision established “Godless schools” and was “another step toward the elimination of God from all public American life.”5 Monsignor John Voight, secretary for education of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, observed that the decision came as no surprise. He continued: I deeply regret the court action. I say this for two reasons: One, because it will bring about the complete secularization of public education in America, which to me represents a radical departure from our traditional and historical religious heritage; and, two, because it completely disregards parental rights in education and the wishes of a large segment of America’s parents who want their children to participate in these practices in public schools.6 Critics of Murray/Schempp sought to restore school prayer as a means of restoring traditional values. Charles Boehm, Pennsylvania’s superintendent of public instruction, recommended that “an inspirational period ,” silent meditation, and readings on the role of religion in history and literature be adopted in that state. He predicted that the Schempp ruling would be interpreted in Pennsylvania “to mean the elimination of religious services and ritual, but God and religion will remain in the school.”7 Even before the Murray decision was handed down, the Maryland state legislature introduced a law that would require a silent meditation period each morning in school. In the preamble to the bill, however, they criticized the U.S. Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, it read, “THE MOST HATED WOMAN IN AMERICA” 95 has drastically curtailed the right of the people in this country to hold brief religious exercises in their public schools. They . . . are taking away the right of a free people to give some belief and nonsectarian acknowledgement of their reliance and belief in their God. The bill passed the lower house of the legislature by a vote of ninetyfour to twenty-five in March 1963, but the Senate refused to consider the bill. Several senators saw as...