Professional Documents
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FREEDOM
UNDER SIEGE
by Madalyn
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Religion
Murray O'Hair
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F,EBRUARY 1976
Volume 18
No.2
N THIS ISSUE:
rank Sinatra & Religio
Different Rules for Diff
COMPULSORY
EDUCATION AND
AMISH
THE
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February
1976/American
Atheist-
Zip:
Date
Dear Madalyn,
Have just read your article on W. F. Jamieson
and note your closing bewilderment as to why
Jamieson's efforts failed.
4
5 thru 16
Editorial
C.A.W
".17
18
Short Stories
That Old Bogey Fear
Different Rules for Different Fools
Bible Contradictions
22
25
28
Poems
Human Kind
29
Book Review
Compulsory Education and The Amish
30
RELIGION IS REGARDED
BY THE COMMON PEOPLE AS TRUE
BY RULERS AND THE CLERGY
AS USEFUL
BY THE WISE AS FALSE
1976/American
on page 20)
Atheist
NEW
For many years the 'secular' community in the
United States has been saying to your editor that
one of the motion picture greats, who was an
Atheist, was Frank Sinatra. There was a story that
he had openly said this very thing in a major magazine publication, years ago. Therefore, seeing that
FRANK
S
we had a major American Atheist meeting coming
up in April, 1976 -- the sixth annual national
American Atheist Convention -- I decided to write
to Frank Sinatra and ask him to appear and/or
give a benefit performance at the Convention in
behalf of the American Atheist community.
I
received the following reply:
SINATRA
December
9, 1975
Inc.
Ms. O'Hair:
I will not attend or perform
contribute
to your Atheist
Convention
or
to be
on April 9th,
FS:du
February
1976/American
Atheist-
Sinatra:
Remember that leering, cursing lynch
mob in Little Rock reviling a meek, innocent little
12 year-old Negro girl as she tried to enroll in
public school? Weren't they -- most of them -, devout churchgoers? I detest the two-faced who
pretend liberality but are practiced bigots in their
own mean little spheres. I didn't tell my daughter
whom to marry, but I'd have broken her back if
she had big eyes for a bigot. As I see it, man is a
product of his conditioning, and the social forces
which mold his morality and conduct -- including
racial prejudice -- are influenced more by material
things like food and economic necessities than by
the fear and awe and bigotry generated by the high
priests of commercialized superstition. Now don't
get me wrong. I'm for decency -- period. I'm for
anything and everything that bodes love and consideration for my fellow man. But when lip service
to some mysterious diety permits bestiality on
Wednesday and absolution on Sunday -- cash me
out.
Playboy:
But aren't such spiritual hypocrites in a
minority?
Aren't most Americans fairly consistent
in their conduct within the precepts of religious
doctrine?
1976/American
Atheist-
Sinatra:
I've got no quarrel with men of decency
at any level. But I can't believe that decency stems
only from religion. And I can't help wondering
how many public figures make avowals of religious
faith to maintain an aura of respectability.
Our
civilization,
such as it is, was shaped by religion
and the men who aspire to public office any place
in the free world must make obeisance to God
or risk immediate opprobrium.
Our press accurately reflects the rei igious nature of our society,
but you'll notice that it also carries the articles and
advertisements of astrology and hokey Elmer
Gantry revivalists. We in America pride ourselves
on freedom of the press, but every day I see, and
so do you, this kind of dishonesty and distortion
not only in this area but in reporting -- about guys
like me for instance, which is of minor importance,
except to me; but also in reporting world news.
How can a free people make decisions without
facts?
If the press reports world
about me, we're in trouble.
Playboy:
THE BICENTENNIAL
In NEW YORK
CELEBRATE
Sinatra:
No, let it run I've thought this way for
years, ached to say these things. Whom have I
harmed by what I've said? What moral defection
have I suggested? No, I don't want to chicken out
now.
at
C'ITY
the
AMERICAN
ATHEIST
CONVENTION
APRil
9 - 11 at
the
HOTEL
1976/American
Atheist
-6
information
and reservations
contact
Jon G. Murray
Society of Separationists,
Inc.
P.O.Box2117
Austin,
TX 78767
NEWS
million;
A $1.2 million printing plant at 2548 S. Federal, headquarters of the sect's newspaper;
eA
February
1976/American
by
Ali
Atheist
at $46
Explaining
that the sect frowns on investment
for profit, Ali stated, "We pray five times daily, do
not smoke or drink alcoholic beverages. We believe
in clean, modest and conservative dress for both
men and women."
He also noted that the word
Muslim means "submitter".
This means, Ali stated, that the sect believes in peace and in nonviolence despite its black separatist ideals.
The ideals, all based in a "religious" philosophy, are therefore eligible to take a free tax ride
on all these "religious businesses," and "religious
investments. "
They pray and you pay. Theirs is the green (of
the tax free dollar); yours is the red of the taxpayer's debt.
(source:
Chicago
Daily
News 8/23/75)
JOSEPH COVENEY
MONUMENTAL GALL
A recent visitor from New York City found
himself some fifty miles southwest of Kalamazoo
in the town of Buchanan, Michigan and asked his
business associates there if there was anything
worth seeing in Buchanan. There was indeed, and
on a freezing winter morning he was taken out to
the town's cemetery to visit one of the most remarkable monuments in the United States.
When in 1870 Joseph Coveney, a respected citizen of the town, planned to erect a memorial
monument, the Common Council of Buchanan
granted him the best space in the cemetery. Rumors had it that the stone was going to cost three
thousand dollars and would be one of the most
beautiful monuments in southwestern Michigan, a
source of considerable civic pride. Imagine, then,
the general outrage and consternation
when in
1874 the monument was unveiled to reveal graven
on its surface what a local newspaper called "slanderous inscriptions
. . . against Christianity."
People were particu lartv baffled because the
author of the violent Atheistic sentiments on the
stone had a great reputation for generosity and
love for his fellow man. This sort of dichotomy is
perhaps less puzzling today, but to the Christian
citizenry of Buchanan in the 70's it was completely
inscrutable.
But Joseph Coveney had early in his life witnessed some of the grimmer effects of ChristianFebruary
1976/American
Atheist-
8'
FREE RELIGION
The more Priests,
The more Poverty.
Nature is the true God.
Science the true religion ...
On the west face of the monument
was
FREE SPEECH
The more Religion,
The more Lying ...
The Christian religion begins with a dream
and
ends with a murder.
And on the south face was
RELIGION
FREE PRESS
The more Saints
The more Hypocrites.
Heritage
BUSINESS
Sunday Reading
(source:
AS A PHONE(Y)
healers.'
..'
'.
'.
.,{
Aug/1975)
Press)
Further, he asked, "If we agreethat the Christian Science practitioner is a bona fide practitioner
of the healing arts, isn't a requirement that the
patient and practitioner occupy the same room
during the treatment no more than the imposition
of an unnecessary and arbitrary inconvenience?"
Therefore, he ruled that the insurance claims
submitted to the Southern California Retail Clerks
Unions and Food Employers Benefit Fund must be
paid even when they are for treatments by telephone.
February
1976/American
Atheist-
Medical doctors are not normally paid for medical advice given by phone, and most doctors insist
patients visit the office for treatment or advice.
The umpire, however, said that Christian
Science is unique in its reliance on spiritual in preference to secular curative measures,and to not
pay the practitioners for those treatments would
constitute religious discrimination.
Los Angeles
Times,
12/18175)
REWARD UNCLAIMED
The $1 ,000 reward offered to anyone who
could provide scriptural proof that Jesus Christ
was born on December 25th remained unclaimed
into January, 1976.
Mrs. Marian Slape, who made the offer, reported at the beginning of the year that she was not
worried that there would be any claimants. "There
is no such scripture," she said.
Mrs. Slape's offer had drawn telephone calls
from Tennessee, Illinois, Pennsylvania and other
parts of the nation, "and ~II are favorable. They
are all agreeing with me" she said at her home in
Jerome, Idaho.
Mrs. Slape said that some of the callers claimed
to have literary works to prove dates of Christ's
alleged birth but rnosfwere for dates other than
25th December.
When asked how long she intended to maintain
her cash offer, she said, "There is no need to recaII
it."
CHRISTIAN TOLERANCE
Following the publication in respect to Mary
Kelly Housman and Mike Housman which was
printed in the Ft. Myers (F lorida) News-Press,and
reproduced in the American Atheist/Vol.
XVII,
No. 12, page 20ff, the following "Letter to The
Editor" appeared in that newspaper.:
MAKE ATHEISTS LEAVE AMERICA
Editor, News-Press-If Atheists do not believe in God, they should
leave America, as Americans believe in and live under "one God". American money has printed on
Jt "I n God We Trust"; if they do not believe in
God they have no right to spend or earn American
money.
, I, too, am a born-again Bible believing Christian and looking forward to a much better life with
our Lord JesusChrist.
Donna Walczak
Punta, Gorda, FL.
February
1976/American
Atheist-
10'
THERE'S HOPE
For a country which only four years ago imposed a one-year jail sentence on those who publicly
advocated contraception)
Italy has done a complete about-face. A billl was recently approved
which provides free contraceptives and birth control advice to all Italian Citizens.
(Source:
American
Family
Practice,
Nov/1975)
peal to the flesh" a Baptist minister began a campaign to put the torch to records by Elton John,
Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones -- and lesser
rock stars.
After labeling the music immoral church officials
of
the
Lakewood
Baptist
Church
threw
about $2,200 worth of records into a bonfire,
The pastor and youth director of the church
said that he had seen statistics which showed, "Of
1,000 girls who became pregnant out of wedlock,
984 committed fornication
while rock music was
being .plaved." He said he could not rember the
source of the statistics.
--
"We have exchanged those God-inspired principles upon which this once mighty nation was built
for a mess of shoddy values." he said. "America has
a spiritual foundation,"
he exclaimed. "Her wellsprings are religious. Our need is for greater spirituality, ..."
Seattle
Times,
POLITICS
11/19/75)
<
rock music
(Source:
,-
AND
Miami
ROMAN
News,
11/29/75)
CATHOLICS
1976/American
.Atheist-
11
New York
Times,
11/2/75
p , 7)
1976/American
12
Fundamentalist ministers paraded to the platform to oppose legislation they said would destroy
the family.
"Our religious heritage and Christian faith that is what you are taking away from us," said the
minister of Grace Baptist Church of Bloomington
Indiana.
'
A sore point with a number of Baptist churches
is a provision that would allow police or health
officials to take custody of an abused child for 2.4.
hours pending court action.
"I will resist to the point of death anyone who
attempts to kidnap my child," said the pastor of
the Dyer Baptist Church.
The good pastor never understood that his child'
would be safe as long as he did not batter it. Health
officers were not planning the kidnapping of loved
children but the rescue of abused ones.
.
"This bill condemns the abilitv of family leadership, since it places the discretion of the state
above the God-given wisdom for family leadership." said the president of the Indiana Fundamental Baptist Fellowship. \
The bill, a product of a joint legislative committee provides, also, for more comprehensive record keeping on elusive child-beatjng parents,
penalties for physicians who do not report casesof
battered children, and county child-abuse agencies.
(Source:
Seattle
Times,
12/8175)
11/17175)
"On May 3, 1675, a law was passed in Massa~husetts requiring church doors to be locked durIng t~e service. Reason? Too many people. were
sneaking out before the sermon was concluded.
February
1976/American
Atheist13
PRAYERS
AGAIN!
When school started in September, 1975, in Okaloosa County, Florida, the School Board there decided to reaffirm a policy of mandatory daily
prayers and Bible-reading in the public schools despite opposition by teachers and the 1963 Murray
vs Curlett ban by the U.S. Supreme Court.
After several dozen pupils crowded the Board
Meeting to support classroom prayers, the board
voted 4-1 to reaffirm its policy.
Almost
immediately
the Florida
Education
Association and the Okaloosa Teachers Association
filed suit in a Federal District Court to halt the
prayer and Bible-reading.
"The purpose and effect of the policy is the advancement of religion which denies the rights of
teachers and their students, guaranteed by the
freedom of religion provisions in the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution,
" the suit said.
The President of the Teachers Association said
that teachers were being intimidated, harassed and
threatened with dismissal if they did not obey the
school policy. One teacher had classes monitored
by the principal to detect if board policy was being
followed.
"School officials may have good intentions, but
a policy mandati-ng teachers to force religious exercises on students is not the proper way to renew a
moral commitment" he said.
Schools with public address systems were having devotionals each morning which included Bible
readings, a moment of silent prayer and the pledge
of allegiance to the flag. In schools without a PA
system, teacher conducted the service in each classroom. Students were allowed to leave the classroom if they did not want to participate in the devotionals.
The President of the Teachers Association concluded,
"The real problem is the inability of a school
board and school authorities to understand the
fundamental principle invoved in this controversy.
"The principle is separation of church and state,
and that is as American as apple pie."
February
1976/American
Atheist
14 .
(Source:
San AntonioEExpress
1/28/76
February
1976/American
Atheist-
15
(Editor's
each
Item
rnacazine.
none of
SOMEWHERE
HE STANDS
note:
which
our
best to authenticate
to the
American
Atheist
We do
is sent
We have received
which
indicate
the
cident
happened,
presumably
occurred
or
in
three
town
of
in
the
date
December,
the following,
which the inon
1975.
story,
which
it
Please
however,
is too
PANDERING
;" "',(\f
"~~1
,,~;>;
I~~;
FOR
VOY"ES
\
J
EDITORIAL
~tfAW
~
COMMITTEE
of ATHEIST
WOMEN
the idea developed and became deep rooted that the earth was a throw-
pop bottle.
The "real"
in the hereafter"
through
all "eternity",
and our ancestors spent all of their lives preparing for death, with endless prayers, supplication
to god,
our present life was a "vale of tears" through which we passed to the ulti-
clutter,
ephemeral inconveniences on our way to the glorious clouds where the Angel Gabriel reigned.
Because of this contempt
sprawling,
for
haphazardly,
with
the growth
As Atheists we should insist that the Garden of Eden is here and now. We should demand that
every place we shop, or do business is an accomodation
Therefore,
in your neighborhood,
Then pick out one business street, or one area which the city
can have trees planted so that the cars are sheltered by shade, and from bad weather.
If the name of
the game in the United States is capitalism, and it is -- then we as the persons who make it all go -have the right to demand that there is emphasis on beauty, convenience, and quality.
If we are Atheist
businesspeople we should attract customers by emphasizing this life style, leading the way for a better
human life.
Start this auxiliary committee
today!
February
1976/Amerlcan
Atheist-
17
American
Program 357
KLBJ Radio
Atheist
30 August, 1975
Austin, Texas
Hello there,
This is Madalyn Mays O'Hair,
back to talk with you again.
American
Atheist,
In the times current of the celebration of the bicentennial of our nation, it might be appropriate
and timely to consider what Thomas Jefferson
really thought about Christianity.
His Memoirs
and Correspondence, edited by his grandson, published in 1829 is instructive.
Let me read just a
few items to you from that work.
In a letter to his nephew and ward, Peter Carr,
Jefferson offers the following advice:
"Fix Reason firmly in her seat, and call to her
tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with
boldness even the existence of a God; because, if
there be one, he must more approve the homage of
reason than of blindfolded fear.
Do not be
frightented from this enquiry by any fear of its
consequences. If it end in a belief that there is no
God, you will find incitements to virtue in the
comfort and pleasantness you feel in its exercise
and in the love of others which it will procure for
you. "
The god of the Old Testament Jefferson pronounces "a being of terrific character -- cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust." (Jefferson's Works,
Vol. IV, p. 325)
In h is letter of advice to Peter Carr, he thus refers to Jesus Christ:
"Keep in your eye the opposite pretentions:
first, of those who say he was begotten by God,
born of a virgin, suspended and reversed the laws
of nature at will, and ascended bodily into heaven;
and second, of those who say he was a man of illegitimate birth, of a benevolent heart, enthusiastic
mind, who set out without pretensions to divinity,
ended in believing them, and was punished capitally fat sedition, by being gibbeted, according to the
Roman law, which punished the first commission
of that offense by whipping, and the second by
exile or death in furea."
His later opinion
February
1976/American
Atheist-
18
!I
Radio
Series
shortly
previous to
'The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father,
in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the
generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.'~
I n the gospel history of Jesus, Jefferson d iscovers what he terms "a qround-work of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstititions, fanaticism and fabrications;" and he says, "If we could
believe that he really countenanced the follies, the
falsehoods and the charlatanisms which his biographers father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations and theorizations of the fathers of the early, and the fanatics of latter ages, the
conclusion would be irresistibie by every sound
mind that he was an imposter." (Works, Vol. IV,
p.325).
For the Christ of theology, Jefferson had nothing but contempt.
What he thought of the doctrine of the trinity, may be gathered from the following:
'The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God, like enother Cerberus, with one body and three heads,
had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands
and thousands of martyrs."
In a letter to John Adams, dated AG-gust 22nd,
1813, he says:
"It is too late in the day for men of sincerity to
pretend they believe in the Platonic mysticism that
three are one, and one is three, and yet, that the
one is not three, and the three are not one. But
this constitutes the craft, the power, and profits of
the priests. Sweep away their gossamer fabrics of
fictitious religion, ana they would catch no more
flies."
His hatred of Calvinism was intense. He denounces the "blasphemous absurdity of the five
points of Calvin," and says that "it would be more
pardonable to believe in no God at all then to
blespheme him by the atrocious attributes of Calvin. "
What Jefferson thought of the Christian system
as a whole, is expressed in the following passage,
found in a letter written to Dr. Woods:
others, his denunciation of the Presbyterian ministers was particu larly severe, as evidenced by the
following:
'The Presbyterian clergy are the loudest, the
most intolerant, of all sects; the most tyrannical
and ambitious, ready at the word of the law-giver,
if such a word could now be obtained, to put their
torch to the pile, and to rekindle in this virgin
hemisphere the flame in which their oracle Calvin
consumed the poor Servetus, because he could not
subscribe to the proposition of Calvin, that magistrates have a right to exterminate all heretics to the
Calvinistic creed! They pant to reestablish by law
that holy inquisition which they can now only
infuse into public opinion. "
A short time before his death, Jefferson made
the following significant declaration respecting his
belief system: "1 am a Materialist." In support of
his Materialistic
creed, he argued as follows:
"On the basis of sensation we may erect the
fabric of all the certainties we can have or need. I
can conceive thought to be an action of a particular organization of matter, formed for that purpose
by its Creator, as well as that attraction is an
action of matter, or magnetism of loadstone. When
he who denies to the Creator the power of endowing matter with the mode of motion called thinking, shall show how he could endow the sun with
the mode of action called attraction, which reins
the planets in the tracks of their orbits-or how an
absence of matter can have a will, and by that will
put matter into motion, then the Materialist may
be lawfully required to explain the process by
which matter exercises the faculty of thinking.
When once ~ quit the basis of sensation, all is in
the wind. To talk. of immaterial existences, is to
talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, God, are immaterial, is to say they are nothings, or that there is no God, no angels, no soul. I
cannot reason otherwise. But I believe that I am
supported in my creed of Materialism by the
Eockes, the Tracys, and the Stewarts. "
These anti-Christian views of Jefferson were for
the most part written after he had retired to private life. When he ran for President, however, the
more orthodox journals violently opposed his election on these grounds. At his inauguration, some of
these journals appeared in mourning, while flags
were displayed at half-mast, in token of grief because an "Infidel"
had been elected to the presidency.
February
1976/American
Atheist
- 19
His administration was probably the most purely secular that the country has ever had. Christians
were accorded the same privi leges accorded to
Deists, Infidels and Jews -- and no more. During his
eight years incumbency of the office, not a single
thanksgiving proclamation was issued. Referring to
his action in this matter, he says:
"1 know it will give great offense to the clergy;
but the advocate of religious freedom is to expect
neither peece nor forgiveness from them. "
Have we been purposely kept from the information? Who has done this? Why? The myth of a
Christian nation has brought to us in our-rimes a
church which feels that it owns the country, I
speak of Christianity. The churches now, indeed,
overtly and covertly, recieve more money per year
from the taxpayers than does the military. At the
.me time we are reading exposes, which creep
LETTERS
to
1976/ American
A theist-
20
Public
L. L
I Ura.ry
<
From:
'The Village
November
February
~/
24,1975,
1976/American
Voice'
page 3.
Atheist
21
That
Old
Bogy
, Fear
IGNATZ SAHULA-DYCKE
Fear of any kind is the number one enemy of
reason. The Western individual, when he speaks of
fear, only rarely if ever realizes how much he contributes to the prevalence of one of its most insidious varieties: the fear of an. imagined God. Man's
intelligence is in many respects arnazinq, but so is
his naivete when he, unthinkingly believing something he hears, depends on it more than-on his own'
judgment. He then behaves in accord with what he
has been told, not intelligently
as he otherwise,
normally, would. In the Western nations this happens to him as a matter of traditional practice. Almost as soon as a child learns to say "mama", it
also hears the word "god" -- and though quickly
learning to associate pleasurable happenings with
words like "mama" and "papa", it as rapidly learns
to couple with the word ~'god" the occasional unacceptableness of its behavior and, at times, the unpleasant experiencing of pain. It persists in memory when the mother, 'saying "MvGod"
or "God,
look what you've done" or such, at the same time
administers a spank to its buttocks -c before
straightening up the mess the child stirred up.
1976/American
Atheist
- 22
<
Although these are less superstitious times, religious dogmatism still prevails, producing the same
old desired result: keeping the people from thinking and reasoning. Two factors contribute to this.
Most of the people don't give the matter the needed reflection, being too busy coping with the problems of making a living, and the rest are spellbound
by the luxuries purchasable by the dollar. Anyhow
-- why think? It's hard work, and when anyone occasionally wonders about life and death, the old religious answers dispense with further thinking - the
very result they were anciently conceived for.
When the individual doesn't look into the validity
of those answers, he is kept from discovering that
1976/American
Atheist
- 23
gotten the power for good Innate in our conscience, cultivatable by meansof education?
- An interesting difference between Christianism
and various Eastern religions exists in that the
latter need no modernizing because in them Deity
is a concept acceptable as much to reason as to
superstition. Most such theosophies deem their
Deity or Deities in one 'or another way related to
man. They nota-bene, encouragethe believer to become not a blind idolater but a thinking, speculating, seeker of possible truths. There's a marked disparity between any religion of that kind and Christianisrn. Christianity forbids him to 'entertain any
thoughts about God other than those it prescribes.
They', challenge him to fearlessly try penetrating
the- riddle of isness -- that Way teachinq'hirn to appreciate the marvelous interaction of cosmic
forces. They do not command but invite. They
do not threaten him, They thus' appeal irresistibly to man's instinctive desire to be at peacewith
all of creation.
, ..To my waY of.thinkinq, all religions are redundant, this of course excluding ethical philosophies
such as those of Confuciusand Mencius. But, hung
up on religion as the West is,what a boon it would
be were it to profess belief .in a rel-igion not commanding as Christian ism does, that the believer not
do this or that becausethe Bible savs.so"- a pretense holding the Bible to be a repository of infallible truths beyond the pale of diacritical examination or man's complete understanding. The difference between Eastern religions and ours is that the
former attempt to condition man to understand
life on the basis of participative, cogitative humility; the latter, ours, insisting that only by obeying
its dogmas will the believer be able to escapethe
wrath of Jehovah.
Every Christian sect today is far more concerned about its flock's belief as materializing, after services, in the vestry's tiller than in the congregation's belief in its superstitious dogmas and precepts. The byword is that whoever brings money,
believes. Having long now relegated the hows and
whys of moral ethics to a minor place in church affairs, all the major Christian sects and sub-sects
should expect their decline. Only one or two of
them have any excuse for existing such as before
A.D. 325 prompted anyone to embrace Christ's
precepts. Practically all of the sectsare beguiled by
the lustre of coinage, are cluttered with property
and obsessedwith and committed to amoral activities, although committed -- they ten us-- to worFebruary
1976/American
Atheist
- 24
'Different
Rules
For
Different
Fools
MORT LEWIS
The November, 1975 issue of "The American
Atheist"
magazine reprinted a news item from the
Chicago Tribune entitled, "Priests to Protest Playboy Promotion."
In synopsis: The Rev. Joseph F.
Lupo, vocational director of the Order of The Most
Holy Trinity, placed an $8-$9,000 advertisement in
Playboy magazine to recruit new members for the
order. Playboy, in turn, used Father Lupo's advertisement to turn out a national promotional advertisement of its own wherein, over the head of a
young man dressed in priestly garb and reading
Playboy,
were the words: "I read Playboy and
found God." The Playboy advertisement copy said,
in part, "When the Order of The Most Holy Trinity
needed new recruits they called on Playboy to do
God's work." Father Lupo's group WqS abashed
and appalled. In a massive miff they contemplated
legal action against Playboy, calling the Playboy
promotion "downright irreverent."
Father Lupo's organization
needed new recru.ts. Father Lupo certainly considered many alternatives before he expended more than $8,000 for
an advertisement in Playboy, much of the content
of which, one would assume, is diametrically
opposed to Father Lupo's heartfelt tenets; yet he
apparently felt no compunction in using Playboy
magazine to further his own ends. It would seem
to be just another case of the end appearing to justify the means -- much like the dictator, while
preaching anti-violence, admonished his people to
"cease all violence immediately, or I will have fifty
of you shot every week until you do." Father
Lupo was trying to capitalize on Playboy's large 18
to 40 year old male readership to serve his own recruiting ends. Nothing wrong with that. But when
Playboy tried to capitalize on Father Lupo's group
to serve its own ends in exactly the same fashion,
there came a collective scream from Father l.upo's
group much as if a marmot had been mounted by-a
moose. In effect the group said: If Father Lupo (in
English Father Wolf) uses Playboy he is to call it a
"proper and strategic use of the 'bad book' to advance the 'good book'." On the other hand, if Playboy attempts to use Father Lupo, Lupo is instructed to screarrifout.'
'dirty pool,' 'downright irreverent,' and legal action is contemplated to stop Playboy from doing what Lupo just did! It would seem
that there are different rules for different fools.
[1j
1976/American
Atheist-
25
1976/American
Atheist
26
~/
,:-:
...
,,",.
..... ~~:::,4
Chicago Sun-Times
December
6,1975,
February
fools.
1976/American
page 31.
Ath e ist-t Z?
Turn
the other
cheek. (Matt.
5:38-39)
Later:
One man esteemeth one day above another; another esteemeth every day alike. Let every
man be fully persuaded in his own mind. (Rom.
14: 15)
5)
God is love. (I John 4: 16)
Later: The earth ... and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (II Peter 3: 10)
On Seeing~
I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved. (Gen. 32:30)
1976/American
Atheist-
Earlier: Nowgo and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not, but
slay both man and woman, infant and suckling. (I
Sam. 15:3)
Does God Tempt Man
God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth
he any man. (James 1: 13)
--Earlier: And it came to passafter these things that
God did tempt Abraham. (Gen. 22:1)
February
28
IV
P 0 EMS
THE HUMAN KIND
by
Thelma Lewis
Bright grows the reed by the river.
Brave stands the grain in the sun.
Oh, endless the deep running river,
Eternal the life-giving sun.
Man's hate is the earth-crawling weasel.
His spite is the hawk in the sky.
(Whatever the sceneon the easel,
Note the red and the vulturous eves.)
His suspicions cloud over the morning.
His doubt is the spectre at night.
His righteousness still is adorning
The self-seeking goal he calls right.
His heart is the hound that is baying
Lorn hope over woodland and bog.
While his wailing and wishing and praying
Are lone hunters enveloped in fog.
He loathes his love while embracing
And kills whom he thinks he befriends;
Flings charity, godlike, in pacing
Toward his own and his ultimate ends.
His birth is but leaflet unfurled ..
His death but the fa II of a leaf.
Yet master and king of the world,
He stands in unseeing belief.
Loose the last poison arrow from quiver ...
Let the hunting and preying be done .
Risesstill the bright reed by the river .
Grows bravely the grain in the sun.
to let us
know,
Or maybe he's forgotten, what he started long ago,
So rather than embarass him with questions face to
face,
Let's make life worth the most we can, and let him
fly in space.
February
1976/American
Atheist-
29
r
Book
Compulsory Education and The Amish, edited
by Albert N. Keim, subtitled "The Right Not to Be
Modern" is a new, hard-back book, issued by
BeaconPressin 1975. It is a 5%" x 8" book comprised of 148 pagesof text, the full 33 pagedecision of the United States Supreme Court in Wisconsin v Yoder, 5 pagesof notes, 17 pagesof Bibliography and 8 pagesof Index. Typeset in ragged
edge, it presentsa distracting format. The price, at
$8.95, is steep, particularly since the binding is
also insubstantial.
The Amish have stubbornly refused to move
into modern times and have insulated themselves
by the utilization of a nineteenth century technological agrarian economy, the German language,
and the Ordnung. The latter is the unwritten Folk
Geist authority for their life, and this is in conflict
with the educational theories of our modern state.
"The purpose of Amish education," says attorney
William Ball, "is not to get aheadin the world, but
to get to heaven." There is an insistance on the
ultimate authority of the New Testament for faith
and life.
The Amish arrived in the United States beginning in the 1720's, bringing with them their
own culture and customs, resisting assimilation into the mainstream of American life by forming
their own communities and strengthening their
Ordnung, which finally came to be known as a
Zaun (a fence) againstthe world.
Being non-affluent, their children were permitted to remain in small, rural public schools,
which were locally controlled (Amish influence
could be felt) and reflected the general Protestant
ethic. By the 1860's somefears were already aroused that such participation (in public education)
would corrupt the children. Isolated casesof noncompliance occurred until 1921 when some litigation started. The culmination of all litigation
came in 1972 in the case of Wisconsin v Yoder.
In this casethe parents of two children, age 14
and age 15 refused to sendtheir children to public
school after the children had completed the eighth
grade.
.
The basis of the litigiation and the interpretations of the Amish religion presented deal with
the right of the state to nuture and develop the
human potential of children in its system through
February
1976/American
Atheist
- 30
Review
the process of state education and the right of
parents to control the type of education that the
child will ingest.
It is Justice Douglas (again!) who seesthat a
child of age 14, 15, might have rights of his (her)
own. He points out that if the parents are upheld,
"the inevitable effect is to impose the parents'
notions of religious duty upon their children.
Where the child is mature enough to expresspotentially conflicting desires,it would be an invasion of
the child's rights to permit such an imposition
without canvassinghis views.... As the child hasno
other effective forum, it is in this litigation that his
rights should be considered.And, if an Amish child
desiresto attend high school and is mature enough
to havethat desire respected,the State may well be
able to override the parents' religiously motivated
objection. "
<
Inc.
1. To stimulate and promote freedom of thought and inquiry concerning religious beliefs, creeds,
dogmas, tenets, rituals and practices.
2.
To collect and disseminate information, data and literature on all religions and promote a
more thorough understanding of them, their origins and histories.
3.
To advocate, labor for, and promote in all lawful ways, the complete and absolute separation
of state and church; and the establishment and maintenance of a thoroughly secular system of
education available to all.
4.
To encourage the development and public acceptance of a humane ethical system, stressing
the mutual sympathy. understanding and interdependence of all people and the corresponding
responsibility of each, individually, in relation to society.
5.
To develop and propagate a social philosophy in which man is the central figure who alone
must be the source of strength, progress and ideals for the well-being and happiness of humanity.
6. To promote the study of the arts and sciences and of all problems affecting the maintenance,
perpetuation and enrichment of human (and other) life.
7. To engage in such social, educational, legal and cu Itu ral activity as wi II be useful and beneficial
to the members of this Society (of Separationists) and to society as a whole.
"Definitions"
1. Atheism is the life philosophy (Weltanschauung) of persons who are free from theism.
predicated on the ancient Greek philosophy of Materialism.
It is
2.
American Atheism may be defined as the mental attitude which unreservedly accepts the
supremacy of reason and aims at establishing a system of philosophy and ethics verifiable by
experience, independent of all arbitrary assumptions of authority or creeds.
3.
The Materialist philosophy declares that the cosmos is devoid of immanent conscious
purpose; that it is governed by its own inherent, immutable and impersonal,law; that there is
no supernatural intereference in human life; that man -- finding his resources within himself -can and must create his own destiny; and that his potential for good and higher development
is for all practical purposes unl irnited.
organiis as an
educational
"watch
dog" o r qaru zar ro n to preserve the pr ec ro u s and viable p rm ci p!e of separation
of state and church.
Membership
IS open
to those who are in accord with our "Aims and Pur,
poses" as above.
Membership
dues is $12.00 per person per v ear . An incident of membership
is
a monthly
copy of "American
Atheists
Insider Newsletter".
We are currently
forming
local
chapters and rn e m b e r sh i p in the National
o r qa n rz at io n automatically
gives you entrance to your
locai chapter,
h:oruary
rl
19'76/Amerlcan
At h erst 31