~-------------=-:~-------~-----

JULY 1976
Vol:

No:
XVII

$1.00

E:~I
::IELL

In This

RELIGIOUS

Issue:

FUND RAISING

THE STRUGGLE
SPEAKING

FOR THE.

FOR WOMEN .

A Journal

of
rJ

Volney's

Ruins

of

This is a rare book. The remaining stock of

this classic (the only one in print) was purchased
in its entirety by our organization. We do not know
when it may be available again - if ever.
In 1833 the first Boston translator of th is
book, written originally in French, declared that
the book evidenced that" It is time to demonstrate
that morality is a physical and geometrical science,
subject to the rules and calculations of the other
mathematical sciences: and such is the advantage
of the system expounded in this book, that the
basis of morality being laid in it on the very nature
of things, it is both constant and immutable;
whereas, in all other theological systems, morality
being built upon arbitrary opinions, not demonstrable and often absurd, it changes, decays, expires with them, and leaves men in an absolute
deprivation.
"It is true that because our system is founded
on facts and not on reveries, it will derive strength
from this very struggle, and sooner or later the
eternal religion of Nature must overturn the
transient religions of the human mind."
The book was published for the first time in
under the title of The French Citizen's
Catechism. It was at first intended for a national
work for the French during the time of their great
political upheavals, but was restated by the author
so that it could become acceptable as general
principle to one of any nation.
1793

Empires
The first translation was made and published
In London soon after the appearance of the work
in French. The work had a rapid and general success (except - in the United States) and soon
found its way to Russia. The empress Catharine,
then, in 1787 sent the author a medal as a mark of
esteem for his talents and with gratitude as a proof
of the approbation given to his principles.
Later Volney purchased a considerable estate
in Corsica and made experiments on tillage of the
ground to test his theories of nature's supremacy.
His sugar-cane, cotton, indigo and coffee soon
drew him the notice of government and he was
appointed director of agriculture and commerce on
the island, where, through ignorance and religious
superstitution, all new methods had been introduced formerly with great d ifficu Ities.
After a ten month stint in the Bastille during
the French revolution,
he undertook
to give
Lectures on History in numerous European cities,
all of which were attended by an "immense concourse of auditors".
In the United States, which he visited, he inspected the country with a naturalist's eye and
later published On The Climate and Soil of The

United States.
He finally died in Paris on 20th April, 1820,
after contributing much to the cause of Deism, the
precursor of American Atheism. (See, review of
book on page 30.)
.-

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THE AMERICAN

ATHEIST

MAGAZINE

Vol. XVII, No.6

ON THE COVER

June 1976

Editor: Madalyn O'Hair

Contributing Editors:

Jon Murray
John Sontarck
Avro Manhattan
Anne Gaylor
Jo Kotula

Cover Artist:

THE AMERICAN ATHEIST is published monthly

by the Society of Separationists, Inc., 4408 Medical Parkway, Austin, TX 78756, a non-profit, nonpolitical,
tax-exempt,
educational
organization.
Mailing address: P. O. Box 2117, Austin, Texas,
78768. Subscription rates $12.00 per year; $20.00
for two years. Manuscripts: The editors assume no
responsibility
for unsolited
manuscripts.
All
manuscripts must by typed, double-spaced and accompanied by a stamped, self addressed envelope.

Marie Sklodowska was born in Warsaw on 7th

November 1867. Her licentiate degree in Mathematics was obtained in Paris in 1893 and her degree in
Physical and Chemical Sciences two years later.
She married Pierre Curie, who had been one
of her instructors, and together they continued
with his studies on piezoelectricity and the magnetic property of bodies.
During the course of experimentation
on the
radioactive properties of uranium (discovered by
Henri Becquerel in 1896) the husband/wife
team
noticed that some minerals of uranium, such as
pitchblende
were more active than the element
itself. The pitchblende was subjected to the process
of fractionation
and by 1898 Marie and Pierre
Curie announced the existence of polonium and
radium.
In 1902 they isolated one gram of radium
salts and determined the atomic weights and properties of both elements.
In 1903 they were awarded the Davy Medal
of the Royal Society and the Nobel prize for
Physcis (jointly with Henri Becquerel).
In 1908 Mme Curie was appointed chief professor of Physics in the University of Paris. In 1911
she received the Nobel prize for Chemistry for the
isolation of metallic radium.

CONTENTS

THIS ISSUE

News
Religious Fund Raising Less Than Lofty .... .4
Letter to the Editor

16

Editorial

17

American Atheist Radio Series

The Struggle for the Child

18

Feature Articles:
Pieces on Religion and Related Concerns .. 15
Bless Me Father, for I Have Sinned
21
The Only Infidel
23
Speaking for Women
Abortions and Doctors

27

rl

Scientific American has noted of Pierre and

Marie Curie that "they afford an example of a
most interesting collaberation, since it concerns a
husband and wife, both of high scientific attainments, who aided one another with their efforts and
- knowledge in the arduous path that finally led to
the production of pure radium."

Madame Curie died in Valence, France, on 4th

July, 1934.
She was an open and avowed advocate of Free
Thought and eschewed any pretension to religion.

thing to minimize the rights of individuals,

m in im izing ourselves."

NEWS
The news presented in these columns which
fills eoproximetelv
one-half of the magazine, is
chosen to demonstrate to you, month after month,
that the dead reactionary hand of religion is always
on you. It dictates how much tax you pay, what
food you eat and when, with whom you have
sexual relations, how often, where, when and of
what kind, if you will have children and how
many, what you read, what plays, cinema and television you may see, and what you should or
should not believe about life.
Religion is politics and, always, the most
authoritarian and reactionary politics.
We editorialize our news to emphasize this
thesis. Unlike any other magazine or newspaper in
the United States, we are honest enough to admit
it.

LARCHMONT

BOARD

CRECHE

ENDS

DISPLAY

The Christmas creche will be missing later

this year from the lawn of the Larchmont,
New
York, Village Hall.
Responding to
dents who objected
municipal
property,
quietly at year's end
tradition.

growing pressure from resito the religious svrnbol on

the Village Board decided
to stop the two-decade-old

The board reaffirmed

its decision, although
somewhat less decisively, at a turbulent
second
meeting.
The board refused demands by several residents to identify those who had sought removal of
the creche. One man condemned this refusal "because when you say 'they' you are creating a divisiveness that will take generations to heal."
A woman who said she was Jewish asked: ,
"Who is that 'vocal and insistent minority?'
The
Jews?"
Possibly,
she said, although
"many
fairminded Christians may join with us in seeing this
as a breach of the tradition separating church and
state."
Mayor Kenneth H. Wanderer spoke of the
rights of minorities and said," When we do someJuly 1976/American Atheist - 4

~/

we are

A bitter discussion that began in the homes

and shops of this old and established community
after the board's initial rejection burst into angry
exchanges at the open meeting.
Rabbi Hershel E. Portnoy,
one of the village's two rabbis, said that neither he nor the other
rabbi had initiated the action. Neverthesless, several Jewish residents rose to say that the creche belonged in churches, homes or on private property,
not on municipal grounds.
Janel Halpern, responding to a letter in the
local newspaper from Patricia 0' Brien asking
"how long [have] these protesters lived in Larchmont ... 20, 30 years?" said she was tired of hear
ing "always in quiet civilized tones of the 'nouveau
arrivistes?' "
"Who are they, these families?"
asked Mrs.
Halpern, who came to Larchmont three years ago.
They are "refugees from the Bronx and Brooklyn,
the newly educated, newly affluent Jews."
"As a Jew," she said, "I have apologized too
long through history for my desire to live free, upright and respected among Gentiles."
The creche, a representation
of the infant
Jesus in the manger, surrounded by Mary and Joseph and other figures, is in Larchmont's
case,
somewhat smaller than life size.
Creches have been displayed
in .churches
from Christmas Eve to Jan. 6 since tne Middle
Ages and have long been a tradition
in Christian
homes. The question of displaying them on town
or village property became an issue in many commu n ities, however, with the debate over the separation of church and state.
Some communities
have quietly abandoned
the practice; others have not. In Scarsdale, where
the population
is generally equivalent to Larchmont's,
with roughly equal numbers of Roman
Catholics, Protestants and Jews, the Town Board
voted again this year to have a creche at Boniface
Circle in the center of the village.
The Larchmont
manger scene would have
disappeared last year, but the board finally bowed
topleas to retain it.
This year, Mayor Wanderer said, "the matter
was discussed with their clergy" and it was "unanimously recommended that this practice be discontinued ," with residents "encouraged to use their

own

premises

for

holiday

religious

dates. Instead, the statement says, "The Church

recognizes the legitimate autonomy of government
and the right of all, including the Church itself, to
be heard in the formulation of public policy ... "

displays."

But scores of petitions were circulated at

stores, homes and at the train station in the last
few days seeking support for an effort to "strongly
urge the Village Board to maintain the tradition of
the creche in the center of our community life."
fv'1rs.O'Brien said 2,400 signatures had been obtained.

In the statement, "Political Responsibility:

Reflections on an Election Year, "the U.S. Catholic Conference says: "The Church's responsibility
in the area of human rights includes two complementary pastoral actions: the affirmation and promotion of human rights and the denunciation and
condemnation of violations of these rights. In addition, it is the Church's role to call attention to
the moral and religious dimensions of secular issues, to keep alive the values of the Gospel as a
norm for social and political life, and to point our
demands of the Christian faith for the just transformation of society. Such a ministry on the part
of every Christian and the Church inevitably involves political consequences and touches upon
public affairs."

A Jewish resident who said that "the creche

is saying to me, 'you're not welcome here: " was
roundly booed.
"It does not represent the community
whole," he insisted.

as a

Someone shouted, "It did once."

Majority for Retention

Some Jewish residents, including Rabbi Portnoy, said the creche did not disturb them, and
some Christians felt it should be removed on constitutional grounds. The majority at the meeting
argued in vain, however, for its retention.

The statement lists eight issues the Administrative Committee holds to be of special significance. They are: Abortion-they
say they SlJPport the passageof a Constitutional Amendment to
restore constitutional
protection of the right of
life for the unborn child. The Economy-support
for an effective commitment to genuine full employment and a decent income policy for those
who cannot work with adequate assistance to those
in need.

A young man asked why a creche could be

installed on the ellipse in front of the White House
and not on the lawn of the Village Hall in Larchmont. Why was the creche differert
from the
Christmas trees, holiday sparkle and festive music
supported by the town at this time?

Education-funding
for adequate education
for all citizens and residents of the United States
and assistance for education in the nation's program of foreign aid. The statement calls for improvement of educational opportunities
of economically
disadvantaged persons, orderly com- .
pliance with legal requirements for racially inte- .
grated schools, voluntary efforts to increase racial .
and ethnic integration in public and nonpublic
schools. The final point made in education is a call

Another argued for giving a menorah "equal

time" on the lawn. Rabbi Portnoy said a menorah
was "a memorial to the historic fact" recalled in
Hanukkah and was thus considerably less central
to the Jewish religion than the creche was to
Christianity. "A creche is a theological statement,"
he said, without, however, arguing either for its
removal or retention.

for equitable tax support for the education of pupils in public and nonpublic schools [editor's em-

He added, however, that "if a creche is as

important to you as a jungle bell, then I feel sorry
for your religion." The remark was warmly applauded by many in the hall seeking retention of
the tradition.
[source: New York Times, 12/10/75]

TAX

MONEY

AND

POLITICS

The Catholic Church in the United States

intends to speak out on political issues. That's
what the Administrative Board of the U.S. Catholic Conference said in. a statement recently.
But the Church does not 'intend to build a
religious bloc, will not endorse po lit i,caI candi-

phasis] to implement parental

education of their children.
,

freedom

in the

Food Policy-the
statement calls for U.S.
world food aid on a global basis with a policy that
separates food aid from other considerations, gives
priority to the poorest nations and joins in a global
grain reserve. The U.S. Catholic Conference also
asks for strong support for food stamps to assist
the needy, the unemployed, the elderly and the
working poor and an extension of child nutrition
programs. It also calls for an agricultural policy
that promotes full production and an adequate and
just return for farmers.

July 1976/American

Atheist - 5

Decent Housinq=the
statement calls for a
housing policy to better meet the needs of low
middle income families, the elderly, rural areas and
minorities.
It calls for reinvestment in central city
and preservation of present housing and concern
for neighborhoods.
Foreign Policy-the
statement calls for the
promotion of human rights everywhere and use of
U.S_ power in the service of human rights. !\1ass
Media--the statement opposes government control
over programming
policy but deplores unilateral
decision-making
by networks.
It urges effective
means to secure accountability
in the formulation
and implementation
of broadcast policy.
Finally, the statement supports "a policy
of Arms Limitation-as
a necessary step to general
disarmament which is a prerequisite to international peace and justice."
[source: Sunday Visitor, 5/2/76J

RELIGIOUS

FUND-RAISING

LESS THAN

Though other financial revelations have embarrassed Catholics in recent years, playing fast and
loose with the moneys of religion is not a uniquely
Catholic proclivity.
When Rex Humbard, the evangelist from Akron, Ohio, found himself in financial
straits in 1973, he was able to ease them by selling
the Real Form Girdle Co. of Brooklyn,
acquired
by Humbard enterprises in 1965.

LOFTY

Religious
fund-raising
is no nickels-anddimes proposition. With the lure of possible divine
favor supplementing
humanitarian
satisfactions
and tax-deduction
advantages, religion dwarfs all
other philanthropic
fields as the beneficiary of individual and corporate generosity in the United
States.
According to the American Association of
Fund-Raising Counsel, religion received 43.1 per
cent of the $25.1 billion in private funds channeled
during 1974 to philanthropic
causes. This is almost
triple the sum that went for health and hospitals,
eight times that for the arts and humanities, and
five times that for social welfare. Of the total
$10.8 billion, 87.7 per cent came from individuals.
Unlike figures for other philanthropic
areas,
however, that dollar amount is an estimate. Under
the "separation of church and state" clause of the
Constitution,
religious institutions
are free from
the usual laws of disclosure and accountability
that regulate nonprofit
organizations.
Forty-four
American church bodies make voluntary
public'
reports, and their figures are the basis for the
Fund-Raising Counsel's projections. The reporting
churches represent some major denominations,
such as the Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church. But they do not include, among
many others, the Roman Catholic and Mormon
churches, or Jewish religious communities. Most of
the 200 church bodies in the United States opt for
privacy.
July 1976/American

It is a situation ready-made for abuses and

financial adventurism.
Currently,
concern centers
about the Pallottine
Fathers of Baltimore,
who
raise anywhere between $8 million and $15 million annually for such causes as the "starving and
naked" of foreign missions, but who apparently
disburse only a fraction of that sum for the needy.
For 1974, this was $746,685 in cash and supplies,
less than half the amount used for postage on their
75 million fund-raising
letters and cards. At the
same time, millions have been invested in business
and in Maryland and Florida real estate; $54,000
even found its way into a loan that was used to
help finance the divorce settlement
in 1974 of
Marvin Mandel, the Maryland Governor.

Atheist - 6

Nor are Jews ready to cast the first stone.

There are a few "proprietary
operations"
lying' around, said Rabbi Paul Kushner, associate director
of the Synagogue Advisory Council. "The Jewish
community
is doing its bloody best to police these
matters internally,"
he added, primarily
through
"moral persuasion and pressure."
I nternal policing is also the preferred Catholic mode, and a policing action that includes Rome
and the Baltimore Catholic chancery is presently
taking place in the Pallottine
case, alonqside a
Maryland state investigation.
But not everyone is
satisfied that such measures can suffice.
In Congress at the moment are several billsincluding a charitable solicitations
act, introduced
by Representative Lionel Van Deerlin of California, and a truth-in-contributions
act, introduced by
Senator Walter Mondale and Representative Karth,
both of Minnesota-thqt
could assign to religious
groups many of the same requirements
as those
binding upon nonreligious groups soliciting funds
from the public. Among other features, the Van
Deerlin bill would require disclosure of how much
is paid to fundraising agents and how much of each
dollar raised actually goes to charity. The MondaleKarth bill would have every charity that grosses
more than $25,000 spend at least 50 cents of each
dollar on charity.
A complicating
factor is that legislation such
as this runs up against the First Amendment
guarantees of free exercise of religion. In their prelim-

inary stages, therefore, neither the Van Deerlin nor

the Mondale-Karth
bill specifically
includes religious institutions
within its scope. Yet there is little doubt where the sights are set. "We'd like to include them in the final version," Richard Halberstein of Congressman Karth's office recently told
The National Catholic Reporter. Representative
Charles H. Wilson of California has, in fact, bitten
the bullet and named religious organizations
in a
bill awaiting action by the Houses's Post Office and
Civil Service Committee.
The reception from religious groups is not
expected to be enthusiastic. Last November, James
Robinson, director of the United States Catholic
Conference's government
liasion office, went on
record against the Van Deerlin bill. "Potential
donors who have questions or doubts regarding the
charitable solicitations they receive can inquire directly of the soliciting persons or organizations,"
he wrote the House Subcommittee
on Consumer
Protection and Finance; "if they are not satisfied
with the answers they are given, they have the
most effective remedy of all: not making the contribution."
Even if, as some believe, there is not much
disorder to begin with and religion is being held unfairly suspect, public confidence has been shaken,
Already one Catholic religious group, the Missionhurst Fathers of Arlington,
Va., has reported a
sharp drop in donations in the wake of the Pallottine scandal. Theirs may be only a momentary
drop. On the other hand, if it is not momentary,
religious institutions
could be playing Russian roulette in fighting measures that would require them
to run tight financial ships and report fully to the
public.
[source:

YOUR
FOR

TAX

New York Times, 3/14/76)

DOLLARS

PROSYLETIZING

A secret group of 20 "concerned

Christian
businessmen"
has launched a Christian embassy
in Washington, D. C., to evangelize high government officials.
The new venture is housed in the Chase mansion at 2000 24th St. N.W., which the group purchased at a cost of $550,000 and completely
refurnished for its purposes.
Rolfe H. McCollister,
a Baton Rouge, La.,
attorney,
who presided at the dedication of the
embassy recently, said the role of the Christian embassy and its staff was to "minister to members of
the executive branch, the Congress, the judiciary,

the military
families."

and the diplomatic

corps and their

He said that 20 "founders"

had each contributed
$50,000 to provide $1 million to make
the down payment on the property, completely refurnish the mansion and provide staff and program
through 1976, and were "expected to participate
(in funding the operation) on an annual basis." He
said the 20 declined to be identified.
A staff of 12 persons has been at work on
behalf of the Christian Embassy even before the
refurnishing of the Chase Mansion was completed.
McCollister said that two youth workers are
assigned fulltime
to the offspring of top government officials. "When a new congressman comes to
town or a new presidential
appointee,
our staff
contacts the family as quickly as possible," he explained. Embassy youth workers strive to involve
the children
with such groups as Young Life,
YMCA, Campus Crusade for Christ, the Fellowship
of Christian Athletes and the Navigators, he said.
Other embassy staff work with wives of 'important
government
figues, encouraging
prayer
groups and Bible study. Still others promote such
religious
activities
among government
officials
themselves.
McCollister
and others emphasized that the
Christian
Embassy is an independent
operation.
"We are not identified with any other group," he
said.
However, he acknowledged
that the entire.
staff, including acting director Dr. Sam Peeples and
the director-elect
Swede Anderson, came to ~p;~
Embassy from Campus Crusade for Christ.
.J'"
Chief speaker at the dedication was Dr. Bill
Bright, who heads Campus Crusade, which he said
has a staff of 5,000 in 82 countries. Bright warned
that America is "in the' midst of the most desperate
crisis it has ever faced ... even greater than the crisis'
200 years ago."
He said America has forsaken god and '~un" .
less there is a great turning to god, god will use a"
great Atheistic power like Russia to chasten us."
v

America, he said "needs a revival of Christian people ... then we'll see the revival of the patriotic spirit that we need so badly."
Two years ago, Roman Catholic Archbishop
William W. Baum bought the 18th century Frenchstyle mansion for his official residence.

July 1976/ American

~/

Atheist

-7

Vehement protests from both clergy and lay

Catholics quickly convinced him that such an oppulent residence was inappropriate
for a religious
leader, many of whose flock live in bitter poverty.
He sold the property to the consrvative group last
year for a $25,000 profit ... tax free, of course.
[source: Capital Times, 3/20/76)

MINING

REPORT

The American
Electric Power Co. I nc. of
New York City, N. Y. has recently issued its 1976
Notice of Annual Meeting and on page 20 we find
under "Mining Report":
The United Presbyterian Church, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, New York 10027, the
Glenmary Home Missioners, Box 46404, Cincinnati, Ohio 452446, the Philadelphia Ethical Society, 1906 Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103, and the Franciscan Missionaries
of Mary, 225 East 45th Street, New York, New
York 10017, each of which states that it holds,
respectively,
20,903 and 300 and 450 and 600
shares of Common Stock of the Company, have
indicated that they will introduce the following
resolution at the Meeting:

Service requesting an investigation of the Catholic

Church and possible removal of its tax exemption.
The I RS code prohibits substantial legislative
and political activity by the church, wrote NOW
President Karen DeCrow, who released the NOW
letter of complaint.
During the organization's
Eastern Regional
Conference, she said the church is violating that
provision by actively lobbying for a constitutional
amendment prohibiting abortion.
In her letter to I RS Commissioner
Donald
C. Alexander,
she said,"The
National
Organization for Women believes that millions of tax-exempt dollars are being used in an illegal and improper manner by the Roman Catholic hierarchy,
and are being funneled into an enormous political
machine."
Among several church statements Ms. DeCrow cited was the November, 1975 statement by
the National Conference of Catholic Bishops that
intended to use all Catholic organizations
to halt
abortion.
.

con-

"Should violations of the law be found, we

ask that the I RS remove their tax-exempt
status,"
the letter said.

It is in material such as this that we can.qet

a peek at what religion does with money.

Ms. DeCrow, a 38-year-old Syracuse lawyer,

told the meeting's general session she hoped to devote time to politics.

[This was followed

by a resolution
cerned with the effects of strip mining.]

The uniform answer is that all religions have

so much money they don't know what to do with
it. Often as not it goes into stocks, and the mostly
idle clergy can then meddle in the concerns of
those companies with whom they invest.

U. S. DAY OF PRAYER
President Ford recently proclaimed
as the 1976 National Day of Prayer.

May 14

"I call upon all Americans to pray that day,

each in his or her own way, for the strength to
meet the challenges of the future with the same
courage and dedication
Americans
showed the
world two centuries ago," Ford said.
[source: Arizona Republic, 3/20176)

NOW

cently

WANTS CHURCH PROBED

The national Organization

for Women rereleased a letter to the Internal Revenue.
July 19761American Atheist - 8

Four more legislatures must approee ERA,

which prohibits
discrimination
based on sex, before it becomes law. She said Illinois will be the
first target.
"We picked Illinois because it is in session,
we only lost by three votes in 1975, and the mayor
and the governor (Chicago Mayor Richard Daley
and Illinois Gov. Daniel Walker) are members of
Men for ERA," Ms. DeCrow said.
Despite an emphasis on politics, according to
Ms. DeCrow, it is unlikely
the organization
will
back a presidential candidate.

nough

"I doubt there will be a candidate good efor us to endorse nationally,"

she said.
[source: Evening Pressand Sun-Bulletin)

METHODISTS

TO DEBATE SEXUALITY

Human sexuality-and
especially homesexuality-will
probably generate the most debate when

the United Methodist Church

Conference in Portland, Ore.

gathers in General

paying attention-at
least not when it came to the
issue of religion in the schools.

But the most controversial part of the issue,

the ordination of homosexuals, seems to have been
shelved.

About five years ago, the Santa Fe camp of

the International Gideon Society asked the Santa
Fe Board of Education for permission to give free
copies of the New Testament to public school
children.

Some half-dozen agencies in the 10.3-million-member denomination petitioned the General

Conference to set up a four-year study of human
sexuality, including homosexuality.
The women's division of the church's Board
for Global Ministries, stated recently: "Nowhere in
the church's consideration of human sexuality is
there more confusion, emb.arrassment and even
self-hatred evident than in the currently dominant
discussions about homosexuality."
It called contradictory the church's stand on
homosexuality spelled out in a 1972 Statement of
Social Principles, which said, "We do not condone
the practice of homosexuality
and consider this
practice incompatible
with Christian teaching."
Said the women's group: "On the one hand
it proclaims an inclusive gospel and an inclusive
church, and at the same time makes exclusions."
Delegates to the General Conference will be
asked to replace the church statement on homosexuality with: "We welcome all persons regardless
of sexual orientation into fellowship and membership."
The "Good News" movement, made up of
evangelical and conservative Methodists, has led the
fight against changes.
And a survey based on returns of 13,000
questionaires printed in the denomination's magazines found little support for even a study of sexuality.
The denomination's
Board for Church and
Society, an advocate for gays, reflected some of
the confusion at a February board meeting.
It reaffirmed support for changing the language of the church statement but rescinded an earlier resolution supporting equal rights for homosexuals, fearing that would imply supporting ordination of homosexuals.
[source: Evening Pressand Sunday Bulletin]

SCHOOLS GET BIBLE LESSON

History is said to be a good teacher, but
the Santa Fe Board of Education evidently wasn't

The board was agreeable to the idea but

wanted to make sure it sidestepped legal troubles.
The members asked their attorney to assure them
that the Bible distribution would not be gounds for
legal action based on a violation of school-church
separation.
The attorney was apparently unable to provide that assurance, the past president of the Santa
Fe Gideon camp, Harold Ratcliff remembered recently. The Bibles were never distributed.
Early this year, Santa Fe Gideons again petitioned the board for permission to distribute the
testaments and received several indications that
their request would be approved.
A representative of the attorney general's
office said however, that the board to allow such
action would be "blatantly illegal."
John Templeton, attorney with the attorney
general's office assigned to the State Department
of Education, said that distribution of sectarian literature through the public schools was a violation
of the constitutional
separation of+church
and
state, and that law suits in New Mexico and elsewhere
had reinforced this point time and time
again.
"This
ton said.

is not

an arguable

Temple-

However, the Santa Fe school board advised

the G ideons to meet with members of the Santa
Fe High and Vocational Technical School staffs
to work out the details of distribution.
Last spring, the Gideons distributed
testaments at the Santa Fe High School baccalaurate
service.
.
The Gideons told the board they are giving
free Bibles to students in all Santa Fe parochial
schools and to those in the public schools in Santa
Rosa, Las Vegas, Pojoaque, Espanola and Tierra
Amarilla. St. John's College, College of Santa Fe
and Highlands University
are also distribution
points for the Gideons.
Ratcliff

said that,

July 1976/American

ri

issue,"

with

a few exceptions,

Atheist - 9

I
the students had welcomed the testaments and that
he had only heard occasional remarks against the
distribution
program.
He said plans had been made with the
schools for tables to be set .up in hallways or the
gymnasium in high schools, with an announcement
made over the public address system about the free
Bibles.
In elementary schools, he said, the Bibles
are given out in the classrooms.
"It only takes a few minutes," Ratcliff said.
"We ask who wants a book and they hold up their
hands and we give them one."
The only hesitation
the Sante Fe school
board expressed about the free testaments was in
the way the distributions would be handled. Board
members noted that they had to be sure no one's
rights were violated and that the free program did
not subtract from class time.
Templeton said however, that the manner of
distribution
would not change the fact that the law
forbids the distribution
of religious literature
in
the schoo Is.
"Not disturbing
a class to do this has no
bearing on the basic question,"
Templeton said.
"School children are a captive audience, and their
protection
is one of the reasons for the constitutional prohibition
against distribution
of religious
literature in the schools.

"If we
can we hand
berg. "I have
or as part of
don't
want
throats."

can't say prayers in the schools, how

out Bibles?" asked Mrs. Joan Goldno objections to Bibles in the library
a comparative
literature class, but I
them jammed down the children's

Mrs. Goldberg said the school board's plan

would be discussed at a meeting of the Santa Fe
temple board and further action decided.
Mrs. Goldberg said that by allowing the Gid
eons to distribute
the new testaments, the board
would be opening the door to all kinds of other
distributions,
from religious to political.
She also noted that many students might
take the free books and then litter the high school
campus with them.
"Parents send their children to the public
schools because they don't want a religious education for them,"
Mrs. Goldberg said. "Giving
out Bibles on campus contradicts
this purpose."
[source:

GOVERNMENT

Santa Fe New Mexican,

PRAYER

3/14/76J

GROUPS

EXPANDING
"One out of every six employed persons in
America works for the 'qovemment.
Hundreds of
these civil servents in the Greater Los Angeles area
are Christians. However, they need to encourage
one another on the job."

F letcher Catron, attorney

for the cu rrent
school board, said that he "could imagine a number of problems" if the board agrees to the Gideon
plan.

That's how the Rev. Hubert Mitc:~ell, 68,

describes
what
he calls "big
government-big
Christ ian opportun itv."

"The guidelines on religions in schools are

not as clear as they could be," Catron said. "It
might be all right for the Gideons to distribute
their free books, but there's just as much chance
that it won't be."

And his organization,

Christians in Government, based in offices in Los Angeles, for the past
several years has established prayer sessions and
Bible-study groups. They meet every working day
in government buildings to pray for personal needs,
the salvation of colleagues, and for federal, state,
county and city officials.

"There are so many fine lines in the law, it's

hard just to say just what is state support of religion."
Catron said he would advise the board to
proceed with caution on the matter until he had investigated it further.
Meanwhile, a Santa Fe mother of the Jewish
faith has called each board member, informing
them of her concern about the legal problems a
Bible distribution
would cause.

July 1976/American

Atheist

- 10

Mitchell, son of the founder of the Go Ye

Fellowship missionary organization,
is no stranger
to personal evangelism among top officials.
Twenty years ago he was founding prayer
qroups in business and government offices in the
Chicago Loop. Noon-hour Bible studies with brokers, bankers and engineers abounded.
Mitchell
taught them from the Book of Revelation.
"I was burdened with prayer for Cook Coun-

tv,"
recalled the graying Open Bible
Churches minister during an interview ..

Standard

But when ivlitchells father, Andrew, passed

away, Hubert came to Los Angeles in 1966 to take
over the '30 Ye Fellowship work.
Soon he repeated the Chicago pattern. Mitchell approached John S. Gibson, Jr., now president of the Los Angeles City Cou nci I, and asked
him if he would open his office for prayer for city
officials.
Gibson agreed, and before long a judge said
he wanted meetings in the County Courthouse. So
did another judge whose office was in the Los
Angeles County Traffic Building.
That made weekly meeting number
and energetic Mitchell was off and running.

three,

Herbert E. Ellingwood,
now special assistant
to the state attorney general, gave Mitchell
the
names of Christians
in the State of California
Building. Regular meetings have been held among
state employees for the past four years.
The word got around to a deputy district
attorney, a Federal Building official, and another
at the Veterans Administration
office.
Soon Mitchell, his wife, Rachel, and his son
Daniel, 37, were unable to lead all the groups. Mitchell is now assisted by a full-time staffer, Charles
Bonson, a retired Air Force colonel who is a member of Lake Ave. Congregational
Church in Pasadena.
Christians in Government is the catalyst for
several dozen known Bible-study and prayer groups
in government buildings. A number of other "twigs
off the branch" have sprouted, according to Mitchell, so that he now is unable to identify all the
groups.
Many meet in the early morning before
the workday
starts; others are during the lunch
hour. Although some draw as many as 25 to 30
persons--men and women--an average is about 8 to

10.
Although Christians in
terned after the presidential,
ors' prayer breakfast groups
fr<?m Washington
D.C., and
Mitchell says his organization

Government
is patgovernors' and maythat have sprung up
across the country,
is unique.

Mitchell,
who is well plugged into evangelical happenings on the national scale, added that

Christians in Government
is completely
"interdenominational,
intergovernmental
and interracial."
"Our main goal, " Mitchell summed up, "is
to reach people for Christ where they live and
where they work ... Ultimately,
it's to encourage
Christian leaders in all metropolitan
cities throughout the world to project this vision ...
"We feel we're just getting started."
This matter, of prayer meetings in California
government,
tax supported
buildings,
has been
turned over to the Society of Separationists, California Chapter, so they can stop this illegal exercise.
[source: Los Angeles Times, 2/27/76)

HOLY SPIRIT GOES TO COURT

It wasn't an ordinary oathtaking
ceremony
when Hugh Goodwin was sworn into office as Fresno's first black judge.
"If you don't want to be caught by the Holy
Spirit, you better get up and leave now," Goodwin
warned the overflow audience of 500 persons who
crowded an auditorium
for his swearing-in ceremony.
Goodwin,
who conducted
weekly
prayer
sessions in his office when he was assistant public
defender, broke the tradition of new judges being
sworn in by their senior colleague at a somber ceremony.
...

Instead, he made it a Christian

praise god and seek his guidance.

celebration

to

A small claims clerk administered

the oath
of a Fresno Municipal Court jurist in a gesture of
humility.
The audience clapped hands in rhythm to
one hymn sung by the Second Baptist Church
choir, and there were shouts of "Amen"
as the
church pastor, The Rev. Matthew
B. Daw, read
- Bible selections.
After taking the oath and donning his black
robes Friday, Goodwin
expressed hope that all
Judges ~nd government officials would begin their
days with prayer and recognize God as the only
authority.
And Goodwin,
54, added that he hopes
"someday the U.S. Constitution
will be amended to
modify complete separation of church and state.

July 1976/American

Atheist - 11

When Goodwin had announced his intention

of having a religious oath-taking ceremony, other
judges in this Central California city of 170,000 expressed concern that it might tread close to being a
violation of separation of church and state.
But after a conference,
Presiding Judge
George A. Hopper announced "the court accedes"
to Goodwin's plans.
"Basically,
a Christian knows the appoint
ment was made by God and not by the governor,"
Goodwin explained. "And I have to give him an
accounting of how I perform that job." This state/
church violation has been referred to SOS of California chapters to investigate.
[source

FATHER

SCHMIDT

Sun Telegram,

vs. THE

GIRL

2/22/76J

SCOUTS

For 64 years, 36 million Girl Scouts, their

parents, and their leaders have been actively committed to the premise that it is perfectly appropriate for young women to pitch tents, shoot rapids,
survive in the wilderness, and otherwise discover
for themselves whatever qual ities they, as female
persons, possessed.
Recent events in Philadelphia have given this
heritage an ironic twist. An effort by the local Girl
Scout Council to prepare Scouts for womanhood
has resulted in a formal split between the Scouts
and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese, a near split
in the council itself, and incalculable pain and disillusionment
on every side. As the dispute enters
its third year, with no resolution in sight, the scales
tip in favor of those who believe that while developing girls into whole persons is a proper function
of Girl Scouting, developing girls into women is
not. Those doing the tipping
include Catholic
leaders, traditionalist
homemakers,
and the Girl
Scouts of the United States of America.
The trouble in Philadelphia began in 1970
with the unremarkable recommendation
submitted
to a Counci I Conference by the Senior Scouts that
the subject of "todav's
woman"
be explored in
Scouting. Board members liked the idea. Not only
did they appreciate its inherent value, but they also'
thought a program in such a timely issue could
help check the decline in local Scout membership.
In due course, with neither fuss nor fanfare, the
board set up a task force to develop a badge called
"To Be A Woman."
A task force was assembled according to prescribed procedures, drawing on local expertise, and
was routinely
monitored
by the board. Its rnern-

July 1916/American Atheist - 12

bers
planned a four-part
program:
Know Our
Bodies, Know Our Heritage, Know Our Situation,
Know Our Opportunities.
As envisioned, "To Be A
Woman" would be a frank, factual introduction
to
the role of women in contemporary
American society-not
sex education,
but education about a
sex. While "Bodies"
would take up such matters
as mastectomy,
hysterectomy,
and abortion,
for
example, it would not deal with masturbation
because, in the words of the task force chair, "We
wanted to write about the things that make women
different
from men." They hoped their materials
would inspire young Scouts to think in new ways
about themselves and their options.
Although
many consultants eventually contributed to the project, most of the work was done
by five women who had professional standing in
the community
and strong Scouting backgrounds.
Ernesta Drinker Ballard, now 54, was a Girl Scout
board member, president of the Pennsylvania Hort
icultural Society, a mother, a committed
feminist,
and the individual most responsible for the genesis
of "To Be." For 18 months the five volunteers
evolve as a vanguard women's studies program for
teenagers.
In May of 1973, there was a sudden change
in the atmosphere: all hell broke loose.
Father Francis
X. Schmidt,
director
of
youth activities for the Philadelphia
Archdiocese,
had obtained a copy of a draft outline of "To Be A
Woman."
He found it unacceptable for Cathoiic
young women. He was furious that he had not
been consulted about its preparation.
Schmidt had wanted to exert an'Tnfluence
on Girl Scout programming for some time. He felt
there was too little religion in Scouting, a belief
shared by the United States Catholic Conference.
National Scout policy is to encourage spiritual values and leave religious instruction
to parents and
religious leaders, and Philadelphia
Scout troops
have been particularly
open to girls of all faiths.
But as Schmidt saw it, several hundred Catholic
churches in Philadelphia were providing facilities
for 8,000 Girl Scouts (not all of whom were Catholic, of course) and were receiving no opportunity
tc influence the program. "To Be" seemed to him
a flagrant example of the Philadelphia Council's
resistance to influence. He called on Philadelphia
Girl Scout President Muriel Lehman.
Lehman tried to allay Schmidt's concerns.
She pointed out that the term "abortion"
was, in
this context, a medical designation. She reminded
Schmidt that "To Be" was in draft stages, that it
would be, like all Scout programs, optional.
She

offered to put the program off limits for Catholic

members. But Schmidt wanted it dropped. He
warned Lehman that if the Scouts kept the program, the Archdiocese would withdraw sponsorship of the 330 troops that were meeting in Catholic facilities.

wanted more control than the Scout charter would

permit. And judging from Schmidt's comments in
verbal negotiations, Muriel Lehman felt the Archdiocese really wanted approval rights over all Scout
programming. In November, 1974, therefore, the
Philadelphia board rejected Schmidt's guidelines.

The next day-May

16, 1973-a story appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer noting that a
new Girl Scout badge suggested that Scouts visit an
abortion clinic. The badge did no such thing. The
error was apparently the result of breaches in communications between a Catholic mother who called
the newspaper to complain that the Girl Scouts
were promoting abortion, the reporter who wrote
the story, and Muriel Lehman. But the story was
picked up by the wire services and reprinted across
the country under headlines proclaiming a Girl
Scout "sex badge." Father Schmidt was quoted on
the subject of sponsorship.

Three months later, on February 18, 1975,

the Archdiocese of Philadelphia terminated sponsership of Philadelphia Girl Scouts. It was according to Father Schmidt, for "religious and moral"
reasons. Though they were a secular organization,
Schmidt told reporters, Girl Scouts had begun to
delve into areas of "important
religious dimensions." Among them were "sex and sin," matters
which, according to Schmidt, should be dealt with
in a religious context.
The Archdiocese had found that Camp Fire
Girls allowed sponsors considerably more lattitude
than Scouts did. Therefore, as of July 1, all troops
wishing to stay in Catholic facilities would have to
switch to Camp Fire. Those wishing to remain Girl
Scouts would have to find other meeting places.

By June the full dimensions of the problem

were clear: if Girl Scouting and Catholic sponsorship were inimical in Philadelphia, they were inimical in Peoria and Portland, too. National Scout
representatives met twice with Philadelphia Council officers and task force members, urging them to
wait for alternate information
on sex materials
being produced by the national office.

This decision triggered storms of outrage.

Catholic women who had given years to Scouts
were furious at the implication that Scouting was
unfit for good Catholics. At a series of spring
"transition"
meetings held by Schmidt, they registered their protest angrily, standing one after another to say, "Father, you're wrong," scarcely believing they were saying it to a priest, but saying
it. And getting nowhere ..

Chastened by the furor, Council officers agreed. They gave their attention to answering the
barrage of mail, placating angry adult volunteers
who wanted no part of a "sex badge," and negotiating further with Father Schmidt. After several
months of waiting for the new material from the
national office, Philadelphia resumed work on "To
Be A Woman," taking it out of the competitive category of a "badge," by restructuring it as an "awareness program" and rewriting the materials to
be used by leaders. Council officers were willing
to modify "To Be." They were unwilling to eliminate it as an option for all Scouts.
In November, 1974, Schmidt submitted to
Scout representatives a set of guidelines summing
up his demands. They provided, among other
things, for a Catholic Committee on Scouting
whose members would be selected by Schmidt
from women nominated by the Scouts. One of the
committee's purposes would be to integrate the
Girl Scouting program into "a comprehensive diocesan program for youth." Schmidt also wanted a
mailing list of Catholic leaders. Since Scouting purports to pay no attention to the religion of its
membership, the Philadelphia Council had no such
list, but even if a list had existed, national Scour
policy would have preluded its release to Schmidt
or anyone else. The Scout board felt that Schmidt
,

The outrage reserved for Council leadership

was more effective. A number of Scout adults believed that Catholic sponsorship had been sacrificed to save a single controversial program. Some
of these women-not
all of them Catholicbitterly opposed what they still thought of as a "sex
badge," feeling that discussions of birth control,
rape, and alternate lifestyles had no place in Girl
Scout meetings. Others didn't mind "To Be" as
much as they minded that Scout adults at the
roots level had nothing to do with its production.
Some protesters sought redress by petitioning
GSUSA (Girl Scouts of the United States of America) for the removal of Lehman and Ballard.
Others organized, and on May 5, got a special
meeting of Philadelphia Council delegates.
In a consensus resolution,
delegates approved the basic concept of "To Be." However,
they said, the name must be dropped, and other
changes must be made by a "revised" task force
which shall "contain a meaningful number" of
"grass-roots people who are organizationally
in
touch with our girls."

July 1976/ American Atheist - 13

hi

To the women who spent three years producing "To Be," the resolution came as a vote of
no confidence. Council optimists insisted that "revised" meant "expanded."
Ballard felt her task
force had been dissolved. She said as much in a
statement
prepared for the press. Lehman took
the statement as a resignation. At its June meeting
the board "accepted the dissolution"
of the task
force.
And there the matter stands. Some optimistic Council members feel it is perfectly possible
for a program with the ambitions of "To Be" to
emerge from a task force comprised of the mothers
and other women who serve Scouting at the grassroots level. Perhaps so. But a revision could take
many months. Furthermore,
a number of adults in
the Philadelphia Council still oppose the program
in any form, and the ardor of the women who
favor "To Be" does not begin to match the ardor
of those who want it dropped.
The battles are not over in Philadelphia.
Even so, almost everyone has lost. The Archdiocese
has lost face and considerable
goodwill.
Parish
priests have shown little enthusiasm for the switch
from Scouts to Camp Fire. While a Schmidt aide
claims to be happy with roughly 1,800 Camp Fire
converts thus far, defections have been anything
but widespread. Most Scouts are finding new sponsors and sticking with Scouts.
In essence, Catholic Scouts have been turned
out of the buildings that their parents help support. Those Scouts who join Camp Fire join an
essentially Catholic program. But many Catholic
parents favor interfaith
recreation for their children. They and other Philadelphia
Catholics are
wondering what happened to the ecumenism of
Vatican II.
Wounds were not healed by H is Eminence
John Cardinal Krol. At a dinner last May, Krol
noted his concern about godlessness, and in the
next two breaths he is reported to have mentioned
Nazi Germany and the Girl Scouts. The implication
was a bitter blow to Catholic Scout adults. One
said "It's unbelievable.
I'm bitter, resentful, furious, and fighting mad."
Unity has suffered. Women who used to
look upon each other as Girl Scouts now wonder,
"Is she Catholic? Can I trust her?" "Is she nonCatholic? Can I trust her?" The Council has lost
the services of some able community
leaders, among them feminists who in turn have lost time
and heart. The Scouts themselves have been denied, at least temporarily
and perhaps permanenta program they have been requesti ng for five

tv.

July 1976/American Atheist - 14

1,1

years.
In the whole drama, the actions of Girl
Scouts of the USA seem least explicable. The question raised in Philadelphia-should
there be more
religion In Scoutinqr-vis a national issue. Scout of
ficials chose to treat it as a local problem. By refusing to say no at the national level, they kept
Catholic support nationally and conveyed the message that GSUSA appreciates Catholic sponsorship
more than it appreciates Council innovations. Aspiring to keep Catholics,
GSUSA has seriously
compromised
its potential as an organization
for
today's woman.
It lost an opportunity
it apparently
never
wanted. In 1973, when the story broke, GSUSA
issued a press release saying it had not approved
"To Be A Woman." Someone at Scout headquarters was reported to have told someone at United
States Catholic headquarters that the Philadelphia
materials were "educationally
unsound."
Those
parts of the program which have by now been
field-tested
have met with approval and enthusiasm from individual nuns, priests, mothers, teenagers, Catholic Scout leaders, and experts such as
Carolyn Wicker Field, coordinator
of work with
children for the Philadelphia Free Library.
The materials promised to Muriel Lehman in
the summer of 1973 have sti II not arrived, though
a booklet on child development
and another on
family living have arrived.
In 1967 the national board resolved that Girl
Scouts should take a supplementary
role in sex education for its members. More than eig!lt years
have passed, and GSUSA has yet to produce a single document
about
sex. Since Scouting
was
founded six decades ago, the largest girls' organ ization in the world has yet to produce any materials
on what it might mean for a girl to become a woman.
Of course, any "religious"
interference with
the Girl Scouts is unconstitutional.
The organization, begun in Savannah, Georgia, in 1912, was given a federal charter by the U.S. Congress in 1915.
This charter was reissued on March 16, 1950 (Public Law 460H: 81st Congress), on August 17, 1971
(Public Law 117: 82nd Congress) and on August
14, 1953 (Public Law 272: 83rd Congress)
,
Laws, of course, have no meaning to religion. The situation will stay that way until the American Atheist community
begins to put religion
in its place: which is outside of the public, tax-supported, arena.
[source: Ms., March/19761

Pieces

on

Religion, and
CHARLES

RELIGION

AND

corded in a book known as the Old Testudinal,

which is part of a larger book known as The Book
of Norman, (who "Norman" was is unfortunately
not known.) No copies of this book have survived
the ravages of time or the War of 8012. This is, perhaps regrettable, as the book is reputed to have
been a masterly work of literature, altho it was undoubtedly somewhat crude and primitive, as such
works usually are. Many wars were fought because
of Christmus' precept: "Hate your enemies," such
as the Krusades, and much promiscuity
was inspired by his command: "Love thy neighbor's wife
as thyself." It is believed by many that Christmus
was a great man, even though he was a little
cracked, but we are not among those who subscribe to this view.
'

INSANITY

IDOLATRY
Long ago there lived in Arabia a man by the
name of Tiwtin, who was vehemently opposed to
all idolatry. One day he smashed all the idols in the
town of Sfoog and was in consequence buried alive. Years later he came to be regarded as a martyr, and still later, as a god. Finally, after two hundred years had passed, a new religion was founded
in his name- Tiwtinism. Temples were built and idols of him were placed in them, before which his
followers prostrated themselves and worshipped ...

IMMORTALITY
It must be wonderful
to be able to go
through life believing that you are immortal and
that you will never die. I greatly envy the people
who can do this, and wish I could be one of them.
The next best thing to being immortal is believing
that you are.

PURPOSE OF THE

THE

UNIVERSE

The universe has a purpose, obviously, or it

wouldn't be here, but just what that purpose is, nobody seems to know. We do know, however, that
man is definitely not it. You simply do not build
a skyscraper in order to accomodate a flea.

A PARAGRAPH
ON CHRISTIANITY
90th CENTURY ENCYCLOPEDIA

IN A

Christianity: An ancient and extinct religion

founded by a lunatic who claimed to be the son of
god. It flourished for some 2400 years, gradually
declining in popularity until it became completely
extinct in the 26th century. The life and teachinqs
of Jesu Christmus, (the founder's name), are re-

Concerns

B. EDELMAN

The only significant difference between the

individual who believes that he is Napoleon and the
individual who believes that he has an immortal
soul and was made in the image of god is that the
insanity of the first is singular, while the insanity
of the second is collective. Both are alike delusions
of grandeur, but since so many people are afflicted
with the second delusion, it passes for sanity. To
vary the saying somewhat: when everyone is mad,
then everyone is sane, or, fifty million Frenchmen
can't be crazy. Insanity, however, is not any the
less insanity because it is common. There are whole
societies that have been mad, indeed, whole periods in human history when the only sane individuals in existence were either burnt at the stake or
regarded as lunatics themselves. Religion is a form
of mental illness, a kind of collective insanity, and
it is not treated as are other forms of insanity only
because the majority of human beings are afflicted
with it, in one form or another. One can hardly put
the whole human race in a mental institution, although that is where the majority of human beings
belong.

THE

Ralated

IDIOT

AND

SAINT

THOMAS

Once upon a time, if you will pardon the

cliche, Mortimer Filtz, who was really quite a clever fellow, pretended that he was feeble-minded so
that he could be put away and maintained at the
public's expense, thus freeing himself from the
troublesom necessity of earning a living. Shortly
after he had been committed
he was discovered
reading
the Summa Theoloqlce, by St. Thomas
Aquinas. "What!" exclaimed one of the attendants
as he spotted him, "An idiot who reads St. Thomas
Aquinas?"
What's so strange about that?" replied the
fraudulent
cretin. "Who but an idiot would read
him in the first place?"
************************************************

Two sisters were discussing their grandmother.

''Why do you think grandma reads the Bible so much?"
asked one,
The other girl replied, "1 think she's cramming for
her finals."

July 1976/American Atheist - 15

Iii.

AQUINAS

letter

to the

Dear Fellow Atheists,

We are still very up since our return from the
New York Convention. We were delighted to make
many new friends and to renew again aquaintaince
with the regulars we've come to know from pre
vious conventions.
Each convention proves inspiring and exhilarating. Questions are answered, new ideas are batted
around and conclusions reached in the most satisfying atmosphere.
No matter how steadfast we are in our beliefs
and no matter how much Iiterature or news letters
reach us in the mail, there is nothing to beat the
human interchange to disperse discouragement at
momentary setbacks or to recharge our enthusiasm
for our cause. We need to express ourselves (oh,
boy do Atheists need to express themselves!) on a
one to one basis and in congress.
Those of you who attended the New York
Convention and previous ones know exactly what
this Atheist is leading to. My pet dream, which I
know is shared by so many others.

We need a home base-we need a Vaticanwe need a unity viI/age-we need a Mecca.
The religionists knew this well. Before building anything else, they built a center to which the
faithful could come to refresh, rebuild and bolster
lagging enthusiasms. We are no less needy. I think
we need it more-being an Atheist can mean being
very lonely.
Madalyn and the directors and trustees have
done a monumental job in investing the funds
available. Most of the funds were earned by Madalyn thru her lectures and writing. As you will note
in the financial report the Association owns more
property than a great many members realize. It is
not yet enough to provide us with our home.
The last big purchase was the $80,000 office
building. There is still a mortgage of $50,000 on
that building. The interest on that $50,000 is a'
killer. How many more services the Association
could provide if that ghastly payment did not show
up month after month.
Mike and I feel that any organization should
be supported by contributions
of the members,
and if we want something we should be willing
to pick up the tab. Lifting
the mortgage of
$50,000 is something far beyond our capabilities.
We feel that among us there are 49 other persons
July 1976/American

Atheist

- 16

Editor

or families who could contribute outright $1,000.

In the economy of the day, such a suggestion can
cause shock waves but I offer the following suggestion if the members who would wish to do so can
make the contribution almost painlessly.
It is possible to make a pass-book loan using
current bank account. Only $1,000 of the money
is marked for collateral. The full amount of the account continues to earn interest and this brings the
cost of the loan to somewhere around 2%. The
contribution
is tax decuctible which is a further
saving, and the interest paid on the loan is tax deductible. If one's tax bracket is such, it is possible
that that one contribution
could result in a real
saving, especially if deductions are needed.
I mention 50 people rather than a general
call for smaller contributions.
I know, you know
and Madalyn knows that there are 50 people who
could do this in the shortest possible time. That
is crucial. Time means interest payments. If we
could get that mortgage off our backs we could
look forward to increased services and the inaugurating of negotiations to buy that property described at the convention which would be an ideal
building and land for our future meetings and conferences. We would no longer be at the mercy of
hotels and motels who condescend to harbor a
group of Atheists and oharge us outrageously for
accommodations and demand all sorts of quarantees for dinners, luncheons and services to be paid
for before the first member registers at their desks.
If you are like I am, you are fascinated by the
projects on television and radio of the reliqionists.
They have no trouble getting funds. Of course they
have a handle we can't use. They can promise stars
in crowns and heaven ever after. My present fascination is the PTL-not
parent teacher leaguepraise the lord. It comes in full gorgeous color
from North Carolina and each broadcast is done
from simply splendidly furnished rooms at their
Center. One night the Ohio room, another the
Texas room etc.
To those members of the Association
who cannot
contribute
to the mortgage project need not feel left out.
There will be many more direct projects to which they can
give their support. At this time I feel the mortgage pay-off
to rate top priority.
I know this is supremely self-concerned.
I need to be
with more Atheists.
I need to be stirred by my strongly
opinionated
friends. I need your warmth and humanity and
I need to be enriched. We all need each other in our fight
for our basic right to find our happiness, here and now.
Mary Kelly Housman

EDITORIAL
"If you are mean, greedy, selfish, hypocritical
and
untrustworthy,
Go to Church next Sunday; Birds of a
feather flock together.":
That's the way it read, in black
and white, with lettering you could read across the room.
Most of the people who saw our reproduction
of it were
shocked.
How can an Atheist, a person of reason, be so
insulting and direct. We must, after all, be tolerant of our
fellow men, leaving each man to express his own thoughts,
how terrible!
Weeks passed and still the letters of protest came in.
All over a reproduction
of one small sticker in a past issue
of The American Atheist. Was the sticker to blame or is the
force of its comment so distastefull.
I don't think so. The
reaction to these few words of scorn against our Christian
cohabitants
of this planet are only the beginning of a
trend that should have been started long ago by the intellectual community.
They, however, prefered to sit about in
parlors and rap about this injustice and that injustice in
terms often befuddling
to those suffering under the oppressions they desccribed. Those nebu lous men and women
whose thoughts were in the right place restrained their actions on a principle of action long thought to be valid. That
is: in any confrontation
on any issue the rational party
must give way to the irrational party in order not to demean themselves by falling to the level of their opponent.
The only thing that such a position accomplishes
is
that the irrational position always wins. Such have been the
case with organized religion. The intellectual
communities
of every nation have allowed themselves to be spat upon in
the name of 'turn the other cheek' dignity. Dignity is one
thing, but standing up for a principal regardless of the opposition is quite another.
We have come to the point in the history of the
struggle for freedom of the mind that we stop kidding
ourselves that parlor conferences can solve human problems
any more than the bible can. A direct approach is the only
solution. Atheists must begin to directly inform their fellow
humans that are still hooked on the opiate of religion: that
they are sick, mean, greedy, hypocritical
and a score of
other adjectives. If someone has cancer would one expect a
physician to look him in the eye and say "Well now son, I
think you're quite healthy. You just keep right on smoking
three packs a day and everything
is going to be fine". Of
course not. By bowing to the irrational person you, as an
Atheist,
are doing the very same thing that sounds so
absurd in a medical setting.
Find a Christian
today and tell him he is sick.
Convert him, if that term means anything, to healthy life
philosophy.
Christians don't have a monopoly
on morality. We too can do "the good work". Ask a Christian today,
"Do you really believe that your god talks to you? What
does he sound like? Is it a male or female voice? Does he
speak in your language or some other?"
Make them answer
with a rational explanation
for their insanity. You will find
out quickly that they cannot. What you are doing is evidencing to them that they are quite mad. As soon as they
come to a realization
that this is the case they will drop
their faith like the proverbial hot potatoe.
Does such an approach sound familiar? It has been
used by every religious sect down through the ages to gain
converts by the million. All you need to do is convince

someone that they are mad and that their only redemption
lies in following the true words of wisdom. Words which
you are then free to define.
Sneaky, you say? Of course it is. But does it work?
Yes! That is the point-affirmative
action rather than parlor
semantics. As Gerald Ford would say, "Let's WIN".
Dr. O'Hair,
of our staff recently appeared on the
Phil Donahue show. She was attacked verbally, on the air,
by a group of Roman Catholic Stepford
wives. So she
attacked them back. There was more thought given to the
rationality
of the beliefs held by those woman than ever
before. True, they were defensive
on the surface.
But
inside, where it counts, many questions
would stir over a
period of many weeks to come.
A subscriber on the east coast felt that he would be
crucified
if he publicly spoke out for his position as an
American
Atheist.
He did so at a city council meeting,
substantively
telling them all that they were sick in opening
every meeting with a prayer. He still has not been crucified.
And the entire city council has a greater respect for him; he
has a greater respect for himself, and the community
is on
its way to a better way of life.
I was invited to a convention
of evangelicals who
delighted in spreading their emotional disease world-wide.
I
walked right in among them and told each and everyone
who confronted
me that they were sick and that we would
wipe their philosophy
out if at all possible in the near
future. I am here today to tell about it and many of them
are perhaps a Iittle better off.
To get scientific for a moment, the entire approach
I have been suggesting is often termed "rational,
emotive,
psychotherapy".
In short, confront the subject with his or
her mental problem head on. Show him that he is wrong
and in what ways. In the face of absolute reality, reality
will overcome and replace the insanity.
This means must be employed
now. This Atheist,
nor many others, cannot and will not bow to-the overwhelming
insanity of organized
religion any longer. It is
time that we press our point and press it hard. For some
2000 odd years we have been punished for having clear
heads on our shoulders, for advocating those things that everyone else has been against: like peace and justice, freedom and equality,
and liberty. Are these concepts so terrible that we dare not seek to implant them in the minds of
men at any cost? No! These are the things that are dear to
us and our civilization.
Indeed such values as honesty, integrity, and equality must be reinstated
into the minds of
all who have forgotten them for our very existence to continue. Next time the bank rips you off on a loan, or your
new car falls apart, or a Christian knocks at your door for a
contribution,
ask yourself if letting the situation ride or the
rip-off pass so that you may "let the other man live" is really what you should be doing for yourself and all mankind.
I hope that the answer will be to join with those
who.are determined
to work for a better future, instead of
allowing the present to pass by peacefully
(Don't rock the
boat", or "Don't stir things up now!") and become that
horrible future of which poets warn where freedom is still a
dream and reality is twice as heavy on all as it was before.

,\<7'- Vv\ ~
_--

July 1976/American

Atheist

- 17J'

AMERICAN
The
Program 77
KTBC Radio

RADIO SERIES
ATHEIST
Struggle for the Child
15th December 1969

Austin, Texas

Good Evening,
This is Madalyn Murray O'Hair , American
Atheist, back to talk with you again.
Of all the very large struggles in which man
has been involved, none is longer, more involved,
or more bitter than the struggle for the child.
Today, in America, and always everywhere
in history we have and have had new minds born
into old environments. The environment of which I
speak is the environment of the prevailing ideas,
beliefs, customs and stored up knowledge which
shape and come to bear upon the new minds which
come into that environment: children born in any
era.
There is little, or no difference between the
children born today and those born many generations ago. We can't say that we have keener sight,
or stronger muscles or a brain of greater capacity.
We have merely a greater bank of enlarged knowledge from which we can draw. But, all of the previous generations have brought to the 'culture' as
we know it today are vividly alive in the battle to
mold children and children's minds into the conformity of not rocking the boat. Although we have
inherited the benefits of what previous generations
have acquired, we also inherit the irrational ideas
which drag along, long tenacled, back into the dark
eras of mankind, and into the dark recesses of
human mind.
The churches have never failed to attend to
education. From the beginning of the Christian era
forward, in 'western civilization' the churches have
demanded the children. In America all of our first
schools were in the hands of the church. Every college was founded by church groups. They recognized the importance of gaining the child early and
keeping the child late, to thoroughly instill into the
mind of the young, and the adolescent and the beginning adult those habit patterns of thought
which would wield power to the church ... the ability to control and direct the mind, mental processes, ideas.

July 1976/American Atheist - 18

When, in America, the first battles began for

secular education, the churches fought with ferocity to maintain control of the schools, and there
is every reason for this to be so.
The human environment has been changing
with rapid technological
and scientific ideas intruding themselves everywhere into the ideal structure. The mere amassing of experience and its expression in these and related fields effect changes
in the ideal environment of successive generations.
These changes are expressed in the form of new institutions or in the modification of already existing
ones.
The Christian church, or any form of reiigion, has before it two possible courses, constantlv.
Either it must maintain an environment that is as
little as possible unchanged, or it must modify its
body of teaching to meet the changed surroundings. Some churches are unyeilding, as the Roman
Catholic Church, and strives to maintain the ideal
environment unchanged. The so-called more'liberal' churches attempt to' rationalize or modify, or
interpret differently
their body of ideas to make
the acceptance of those ideas more palatable in the
face of the increasing store of human knowledge
and experience and the earnestness or-the young
and enquiring mind. Everywhere in America, we
see every degree of these ideas manifested. Consciously, however, as a matter of policy and principle the Churches have usually followed the course
of trying to maintain an unchanged environment.
This is the real significance of the attempt of the
more orthodox to boycott new or heretical literature and personalities, and to produce a 'religious
atmosphere' around the child. This is an attempt
to create an ideal environment to which the child's
mind will respond in a manner that is favourable to
jhe claims and teachings of the Christain church.
The church dares not openly and plainly
throw overboard its body of doctrines to meet the
needs of the modern mind. Instead, it must-to
keep its doctrines-inhibit
the mind from an inspection of them in an objective manner by whatever artificial proceedures possible.
Religious instruction
is in conflict
with
many scientific ideas and theories. So, life itself,-

social life- is the vehicle which is used to enforce

religious teaching. It can not be put under the microscope of scientific survey, so the habit has come
to be enforced of dividing the environment into
the sacred and the profane, which is to sav=secular and religious activities and duties. The scientist
can work on his job eight hours a day, five days a
week, but on Sundays he is expected to divorce
his mind from reality and really make-believe that
the wine of the sacrament is indeed the blood of
god. In the laboratory, he would never believe it;
in the semi-dark church amid incense and chanting
it is quite agreeable to him as an idea.
But, given the world as it existed today, if
special religious training were to stop, there is
nothing of the miraculous which would lead children unincumbered with religious training to an acceptance of religious ideas. The response of a modern child in a modern environment is a strictly nonreligious response.

In self defense therefore, the Churches are

bound to make a fight for the possession of the
child. They cannot wait. If they waited, this would
mean allowing the child to grow to maturity and
then dealing with the small adult when he is able to
examine religion objectively and with regard to history, science and sociology. The churches must
protect the growing child from the influence of
these environmental forces that make for the disintegration of religious belief. The churches must
build into the child an uncritical acceptance of its
tenets before the child gets to the age of objective
examination. The churches must recruit the mind
of the child by impressing it early, and often, and
before that mind has become old enough to resist,
or to reject.
With other subjects we wait until the child
has the mental maturity to grasp them. We do not
start a child on analytical chemistry or solid geometry. We begin with small numbers and lesser skills
in every subject-except
religion. Apart from the
desire of religion to capture the mind early and indoctrinate it constantly there is no reason at all
why religion could not wait, as other subjects wait,
until the child is old enough to understand and appreciate it. But, with religion and the churches.Tt
is literally the child or nothing. For, if they fail to
get the child, they get nothing.
When the state educates the child, it says
that all children shall receive certain tuition in certain subjects for a certain and given period. It
makes instruction in these subjects compulsory on
the definite and intelligent ground that basic education in certain well defined areas of knowledge is
necessary to the intelligent discharge of the duties

of citizenship within the state.

The state does not, any more, do this in
respect to religion. In essence the state points
out the non-essential character of religion by permitting all who will to go without it. The state
therefore has found that it can teach the rudiments
of good citizenry, and prepare children for life in
our economic world without resorting to religion,
which is an extraneous subject. We need no stories
of Jesus to learn Arithmetic. Moses has nothing to
do with Chemistry. As we go further it is quite
possible to learn the values, if indeed they need to
be learned by people-the values of kindness, truthfulness, honesty, justice, duty. What would one
need of the story of Ruth for any of these qualities? There is no religious story anywhere, in any
time, which is needed to influence children or cultivate in children a sound mind in a sound body.
If the child had the chance to come to these
stories and ideas without bias of inculcation from
an early age, religion would die in a flash tomorrow. The state would recognize the bitter acrimony
of religious dusputes and how adults are unable to
arrive at any ecumenical doctrine and hence the
state does not force upon the child, as true, these
teachings of dispute.
.
There is a wide difference between cultivating in a child sentiments the validity of which may
at any time be demonstrated, or teachings upon
the truth of which practically all persons agree, and
impressing upon a child religious sentiments about
which almost all persons are in dispute.
The church, religion, desires to get the child
early and keep the child late. It must-take advantage of the trust, the innocence and the ignorance
of the child. The churches want the child to have
certain sentiments in favour of certain church or
religious opinions although these things themselves
are not understood by the child, or even the adults
who teach them. No child, when religious education begins, is old enough to appreciate intellectual
justifications-if
there are any-for
religion or religious teaching and training.
When the Society of Separationists fights to
remove prayer from schools, or from the public a- rena, we are fighting to rescue the children, and to
show to the adults that their lives can be full of the
sense of kindness, justice, honesty, truthfulness,
beauty, without resorting to this kind of activity.
We feel that our fight is in the interest of civilization itself. The fight for control of education is the
fight to dominate the mind of the rising generation. The fight for the liberation of the child is
thus a fight for the control or direction of civilization. It is a question of whether weare to permit
July 1976/American

Atheist - 19

the church to hold the future to ransom by permitting this control of the child, or whether we are to
leave religious beliefs, as we leave other antiquated
and useless beliefs of a speculative character behind
as we grow in our civilization,
so that the child,
maturing, can look at these beliefs and ideas when
the child is old enough to understand them and approach them with rationality. This is a fight for the
future of civilization.
And, now we are in America involved in
such a fight, and it wi II be a fight to the bitter end.
At a time when the cities and states were requesting federal aid for education the religious community moved strongly in our national capitol to demand that tax money be given to them for their
religious schools ... and that they would influence
enough persons in Congress to keep the aid for education bottled up indefinitely in the congressional
committees until such time as there was a ransom
paid to permit that total federal aid to all children:
the ransom was paid when the church schools were
included in the federal grants.
This was in defiance of our constitution and
the founding principle of our nation, and in defiance of every state constitution in America, all of
which have clauses which emphatically command
that no state funds shall ever go toward religious
education.
Today-and
I mean this calendar date-there
are in America forty one cases in present litigation,
in the courts of our land, at all levels in respect to
separation of church and state. Fourteen have to
do with fights to keep tax money, federal, state
and local, from being given to church schools. Six
cases are on a federal level. Of the rest the cases are
to stop demands for tax money to bus children to
church schools, tax money to provide public services to church schools, tax money as direct finan-

cia I subsidies to parents having children in church

schools, tax money for tuition payments to children in church schools, assignment of public school
teachers on public payrolls to teach in church
schools, often without their consent, tax money to
construct new church schools, tax money to repair
church schools, tax money to expand church
schools, tax money to furnish books to church
schools, tax money ... tax money ... tax money ...
until the Society of Separationists feel that they
are the finger in the dyke as the powerful sea of
church influence stands ready to overwhelm our
civilization.
The peculiar
dichotomy
exists: as the
churches lose influence in the minds and hearts of
our nation's people, they gain in power by moving
into control in our capitalist community
and by
gaining political power enough to dip into our tax
money at federal, state and local level.
Won't you help us to stop this
Won't you help us to rescue the future?

practice?

Our sponser is the Society of Separationists,

a non-profit,
non-political,
educational organization, dedicated to the complete separation of
church and state. You can help by sending your
contribution
to us, P. O. Box 2117, Austin, Texas.
I wi II be back with you next week, same day
of the week, same time, same station.
For information, for an educational packet,
to know what we are doing and why, send for material, free, to Society of Separationists, just S.O.S,
P. O. Box 2117, Austin, Texas. That zip is 78767.

lEU T & DUKE---ay Jock Moore

OK"Y CHIEF... l'N\ RfJC(
FOR Wt( MStGNMENi
ON E"RTH ....

r---------------~

~I

I-\MPH .... AN' MOM

SAIO THIS TREE
WOULD NEVER
BEAR FRUIT

[source: St. Louis Dispatch,4/29176]

July 1976/American Atheist - 20

BLESS

ME

FATHER
MARTIN

There wasn't anything

theoretical
about
Rick's disbelief in god. He hadn't read Nietzche, or
Sartre, or seen Madalyn Murray O'Hair on the
Mike Douglas Show. He was in the sixth grade at
Holy Name Elementry School. He sat alone at a
desk in a corner of the school's religious librarythe Father Daniel Patrick O'Brian Reading Room,
a converted classroom. The venetian blinds were
drawn over the windows behind Rick, and shelves
of books lined the three walls. In the corner where
he sat, shelves of books met 'above his head. God's
word, in every conceivable form, surrounded him.
Across the room, to the right of the clock above
the door, there was a painting of god the father,
Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. Every time Rick
looked at the clock, which was often, he saw that
painting.
God, the picture of grandfatherly
ele
gance, understanding, and love, wore a white gown,
sported a long white beard, and looked like a cross
between Santa Claus and Karl Marx. Jesus stood
arrogantly next to god posing for an album cover,
his long, red locks flowing in the wind. Jesus reminaed Rick of a college student who lived down
the block. The Holy Ghost was a white dove that
had a strange aura around it. The dove reminded
Rick of the pigeons he fed in the park. , .they shit
on people. Rick glanced at the clock. Ten minutes more.
Rick was being punished because he did not
prepare for religion class. Holy Name took religion
class very seriously--Rick
didn't. He hated everything about school. He hated waiting at the bus
stop in his navy blue uniform and tie, as public
school friends passed in blue jeans, staring and
smiling. He hated the tired priests who poked their
heads into classrooms, acting solemn and superior,
checking on the nuns, reaffirming god's pressence.
He hated memorizing.
He hated the old wooden
desk he now sat in and the archaic inkwell that no
one used but the priests and nuns. He hated religion class. Rick didn't believe in god anymore.
For awhile Rick had believed in god ... at
least in the second or third grade. But by the
fourth grade, after he memorized countless commandments and psalms and prayers, and after he
witnessed Sister Mary Elizabeth beat Timmy Kelly
for spitting on the wall, Rick's faith began to waver. He could not understand it. The priest, the
nuns, expecially the nuns, all acted so hostile, so
intimidating.
If god existed,
Rick thought,
he
wasn't keeping very good company. Rick drifted
away from God. And one hot afternoon last spring,

FOR

HAVE

SINNED

PEDERSEN

as he sat in the back of Sister Evelyn's fifth grade

class, looking at the clock every three minutes,
sweat rolling down his back, the sound of boys
playing baseball outside the window, god ceased
to exist. Rick stopped doing his religion homework; he spent recesses in the library. The nuns
tried to encourage him. At first they spoke with
patience, then they hit. They hit him with open
hands, closed hands, hardcover editions of the King
James Bible, and metal rulers. Rick still refused.
This was the reason Rick sat in the library
now. His sixth grade teacher, Sister Ruth, was a
wiry sixty-year old nun with a stubborn disposition
and a cold stare, who still wore nylon stockings
with seams in them. She had sent Rick to the Iibrarv. He was to study the Bible, memorize some
verses, and recite them to the class. Since that
spring revelation
in fifth
grade, the Bible had
meant little to Rick. And when Father Hagen told
his class that the Bible was passed down throuqh
generations by word of mouth, Rick was skeptical.
He knew all about word of mouth stories. He
watched "Truth or Consequences" on TV and was
familiar
with the "message game":
Bob Barker
would gather twenty middle-aged housewives in a
line. He would whisper "Turkey
Salad" into the
ear of the first person in line. Each person would
pass the message down the line. Bob Barker would
then ask the last person in line the message, and
she would
reply, "Tuscalosa,
Alabama?".
Well,
Rick reasoned, if the Bible was h~fnded down
through word of mouth something had to change.
Turkey Salad to Tuscalosa, Alabama.
Rick looked at the clock again. He still had
a few minutes before he reported back to class.
Closing his Bible, taking the pen from the inkwell
in front of him, Rick picked up the well and tried
to unscrew the top. It wouldn't budge, stuck like a
new jar of peanut butter. He twisted hard and the
top quickly jerked off, ink spilling on his fingers.
The inkwell was half full. Rick thought how nice
the ink would look on some books, or on a desk,
or ground into the carpet. Maybe his initials. He
got up from the desk, the inkwell in his right hand,
his throwing hand, and surveyed the room. An imaginary crowd waited for his next pitch. Standing
in front of the desk, facing the corner, Rick took
the signal from his imaginary catcher. Imaginary
runners took leads from first and second. Rick
went into the stretch, checked the runners, and
then swept his arm through sidearm ... ink sprayed
out the inkwell on the shelf of books above the
July 1976/ American Atheist - 21

fl

desk. Rick's follow-through

was perfect, his feet
spread shoulder length apart, ready to field He
put the inkwell back on the desk, placing the pen
in the wall, and stepped back a few feet to admire
his work. He examined the ink pattern straight
away, then examined it from the left, then the
right. The ink splatter on the book bindings made a
nice design. It looked like the state of Kentucky.
Rick decided to leave. He picked up his personal Bible, the one his mother had given him for
his first communion,
and walked toward the door.
Father Hagen stood in the doorway.
"Richard
Williamsl"
Father
Hagen said.
Nothing else. The priest waited for Rick's teary
confession. Father Hagen and the nuns simply had
to say sorneone's formal name, and children who
went to schoo I in a constant state of fear wou Id
confess deeds they never committed.
The priest
repeated, "Richard Williamsl"
"Yes, Father?"
"Richard,
did you throw
ink
books?" Father Hagen knew he did.
"No,

Hagen

Father .."

"Richard,
said. "I

Rick

lied,

you shouldn't
see that ink

on

those

his vorce

firm.

lie to me," Father

on your fingers."

"I didn't do it. I walked into the room and

saw the ink and I picked up the thing over there."
Father Hagen shook his head slowly. "You
know Richard, I am a servent of god. You can't lie
to me. Lying to me is just like lying to god. You
can't lie to god."

you are afraid to confess to what you have done,

but god will forgive you"
Father Hagen's eyes
turned warm. He would charm a confession out of
him. "You know you can't lie to him, Son."
Rick would

I didn't

do the

ink,"

Rick

"l 'rn not lying,

I didn't

do

"God will know, Richard,"

Father Hagen
said, now almost yelling. "God will punish you for
lying"
The priest pulled out his ace in the holegod's wrath. It was Father Hagen, god, the Bible,
a white dove, the immaculate
conception,
Jesus
Christ, the Pope, St. Paul's conversion on the road
to Damascus, and Moses against twelve-year-old
Richard Williams.
God apparently
watched
steadfast. "I didn't do it, Father."

as

Rick

stood

Father Hagen could do nothing. He hadn't

seen Rick do it and god was not helping with the
confession. No thunderclaps.
No earthquakes. No
total eclipses of the sun. Nothing.
The priest
looked directly into Rick's eyes. "Richard, go back
to your classroom," he said, resignation in his command.
Rick walked quickly out of the library, rub
bing his ink stained hands on his blue uniform
pants. He returned to class and sat in the back of
the room, as always, as Sister Ruth discussed the
love of god.
Rick went to confession two days later. HE:
confessed to talking back to his mother-three
times-to
not taking out the garbage, to not making his bed-twice-and
to hitting his sister-four
times.
Richard

"Father,

try

it."

Williams

made no mention

of ink.

said.

The priest's eyes lowered, his voice became

somber; low and compassionate. "Richard, I know
by JolmDy hart

!Lc.
Q::) 'ttlU &iII!L.ONG Tb
AN.Y~I~

fQ;U~~f

-;

..

tee;,

I'M A. CHI\R"ieR
MStIeeR OF 1J.IE
, P,4J...DAT"s~

" '-"'~.

.a ==;;;;-;;;;-;..----_..1

PRAY A. LOT DURtN&

A. TI1L.IDeR <SToRM .

<IW::lt:::a. '", _

j~:

-rUe
[source: St. Louis Dispatch, 5/12/76]

July 1976/American

Atheist - 22

THE

ONLY
NANCY

When it is acknowledged that no man is a

prophet in his own country, then it is not surprising that the religious views of one of the most eminent pioneer preachers in Texas were totally unacceptable to one of his sons, James Franklin Robinson. From the bosom of a family steeped in generations of Baptist faith sprung a man who took
pride in being known as the only infidel from Fort
Worth to Comanche, Texas, in 1872.
James Franklin Robinson, born in Marengo
County, Alabama, June 4, 1839, and brought up
in the Baptist church, was a child of ten when his
family moved to Texas. It was shortly thereafter
that his father embarked on a lifelong career in the
ministry and became widely known for his missionary work along the frontier, where he earned
the sobriquet "Choctaw
Bill." For forty years his
oratory proclaimed and defended his pet dogmas,
and he baptized thousands of converts; yet to the
day of his death his son remained an unbeliever.
Having cut his teeth in an atmosphere of
orthodox religion, James Franklin Robinson gained
an impression at an early age that there was a good
man and a bad man. When it thundered,
he
thought it was caused by the good man hammering
on the clouds and marveled that the good man
could run so swiftly through the heavens to. strike
the clouds. The next lesson impressed upon him
was that all people were lost and had to be saved.
Since children
under twelve were not held accountable and those who died young were automatically received in heaven, this doctrine made no
great impression on young James. He was convinced that children had twelve years of freedom
before the devil could get them!
As he approached the age of accountabi Iitv,
he determined to get religion. From year to year he
appeared at the mourners' bench and sought the
prayers of the Christians. Neither his lukewarm
convictions nor his skin-deep repentance impressed
the meetings, and he was not accepted for membership. Finally around the age of eighteen he decided
it was dangerous to go on unprepared and made a
final supreme effort to become saved.
One night he fell asleep after a midnight harangue to god on the subject of his sins and awoke
from a refreshing sleep feeling cheerful and peaceful. His convictions had dissipated, but he decided
that the peace he felt perhaps indicated that he was
already converted. He related his experience to the
church, and on the basis of this nebulous conver-

INFIDEL

V. COOLEY

sion he was accepted as a member. During the next

ten years he retained church membership but was
never more than a nominal Christian.
Young Robinson was led to expect that after
his "conversion"
he would love what he once hated
and hate what he once loved, but he did not find it
so. His formal educational opportunities
had been
necessarily
limited
by the scarcity
of frontier
schools, but now his inquiring
mind turned in
search of the unfolding Christian life to Benyan's
Pilgrim's Progress and theological
books such as
Baxter's Saints Everlasting Rest. None of these
brought the enlightenment
and comfort he sought.
Then he read the debate between church reformer
Alexander Campbell and secularist Robert Owen
and found "the whole system of Christianity
shattered, never to be patched up again." For Robinson, Owen was the unquestioned
victor and succeeded in break ing "the spell of church falsehood
and corruption."
Robinson
had learned early the frontier
skills of cultivating
new land and caring for stock.
In December,
1859, he married Elizabeth Jane
Neely, a native of Tennessee, and devoted his energies briefly to raising stock and starting a family.
Then in February, 1862, he enlisted in the Confederate Army, serving through some forty battles and
skirmishes as an Orderly Sergeant in the Texas Cavalry under the command of Col. William H. Parsons.
,:".
After the war Robinson returned, rebellious
and morose, to his family and his occupation
of
stock raising. He commanded
respect as a good
business man, who could be counted on for a
square deal. H is political views were Populist, and
his religious views were those of an unbeliever. As
a result of Indian depredations the settlers of Erath
County were thrown toqether often with ample opportunity
to exchange views. Religion was a favorite topic of discussion, along with the war and the
Indians,
One of
Robinson's
neighbors
in Erath
County during the late 1860's I. F. Cowan, made a
profound impression on him. According to Robinson, Cowan had progressed from his old-school
Presbyterian
superstition
to the Unitarian
view,
and he raised doubts to the Israelites and the doctrine of the immaculate conception.
He planted in
Robinson's mind the first seeds of free thought.
During

his years as a church member

July 1976/American

III

Atheist - 23

Robin-

son struggled with the dilemma, "Am I a Christian

out of duty or a sinner in the church?" His doubts
were so strong that he made himself conspicuous
by refusing the duties of active members such as
serving on committees. Seeking a solution to his
doubts, he turned to a systematic study of the
Scriptures and found their teachings strange and
contrad ictorv, a source of even greater confusion.
When he was honest enough to express his doubts,
he brought on himself the charge of heresy.
This charge caused him to study even more
earnestly both the Old Testament and the New
Testament. He found them to be "a badly mixedupness of ancient beliefs and fables, some of them
of no apparent use or purpose, containing probably
some useful lessons, and here and there some
wholesome doctrines, quite interesting when regarded as ancient beliefs and fables, but wholly
pernicious and misleading when taken as a moral
guide."
Having formed his own conclusions from his
study of the Bible and the Campbell-Owen debate,
James F. Robinson became a full-fledged, self-professed infidel. In later years during the first decade
of the twentieth century he stated,"Now
I want
my children and others to know and not forget
that at that time I was the only infidel known in
that country. This was in the early seventies, probably 1872. It may appear strange now to think only one infidel was known between Stephenville
and Granbury ... aye, perhaps from Fort Worth to
Commanche."
A man in Bell County by the name of Dr.
Shelton, hearing of Robinson's views, sent him a
bundle of copies of the Boston Investigator, a
liberal paper. From these Robinson learned of
other liberal literature and soon began to read
Paine, Volney, Spencer, Huxley, and others, He

ItBl.Y &

Robinson credited his wife with being in full

sympathy with his views, never discouraging his
search for the truth nor objecting to the discussions to which his investigations led. She walked
beside him in the paths of free thought. Of their
life together, he recalled, " ... we could follow the
torchlight of reason and think without fear, where
we were above the temptations offered by the
Church and its devotees mught hurl their threats,
but could not shake us from our honest conviction."
James Franklin Robinson's conclusions were
based on earnest investigation, and neither opposition nor threats of ostracism kept him from expressing his convictions during his lifetime. When past
the age of seventy, he set down the following in his
memoirs for his children and descendents: "Knowing as I do that Church influences try to claim every man as being on their side whom they cannot
consign to obloquy, and naturally supposing that
after my death it will be said that I abandoned my
belief in the presence of death, I want to state here
and now that I see no reason or inducement why
I should change my opinion. There are no angry
gods mocking, nor leering devils making mouths
at me, and I expect now to die in the belief I have
entertained and advocated. I believe we are all
children of nature and one common 'fate awaits
us all." In this belief Robinson met his fate 'VIay

17,1910.
~

Iy .Jack Moore

DClU~
~
AQWCE
"It) .,.
Mro

........

held the greatest influence on his life to be the

teachings of Robert Ingersoll, which convinced
him of "the beauty and utility
of kindness."
For Ingersoll's teachings, Robinson said, "1 think
my family and myself owe him more than any man
living or dead."

~--------------'~
OH SURE BUT SOME
PEOPLE. HAVE. ,.. 8ETTf.R
CAANC.E TWt.H an4E~~S

WHICH

PEOP\.E

HNE TH'

8161'

CHANCE?

THE

ONES

w~o DlE.D

OF BoREOOM

[source: St. Louis Dispatch, 5/3/76)

July 1976/American Atheist - 24

III

RELIGION

AND
MARGARET

Throughout
history, in almost all strictly
religious societies, there has been a curious intolerance of left-handed people and a superstitious
dread of left-handed actions which has sometimes
amounted to persecution and has certainly caused
a great deal of unnecessary suffering. In countries
under the sway of Christianity,
the left-handed
were regarded with suspicion for many centuries.
In Mohammedan countries today, use of the left
hand at table is regarded as a calculated insult to
one's host and writing with the left hand is sure to
draw a crowd, not always friendly.
Why should the sinistral action be so deeply
disturbing to the pious? Michael Barslev, a writer
and former television producer, President of the
world-wide Association of Left-Handers, has investigated some historical reasons in The Left-Handed
Book published by the Souvenir Press, London.
Apparently the left hand, in early centuries,
was the unclean hand for it was widely accepted
that it was the hand used for personal abu Itions,
though how this was proved is open to conjecture.
Since religions tended to originate in Eastern countries where food was eaten with the fingers, numerous taboos concerning the left hand were incorporated in the various Holy Books.
The writers of the Christian Bible were greatly troubled, not to say obsessed, with distinctions
between the right hand and the left hand. Gradually the hand associated with the processes of elimination became repugnant to the pure in mind, signifying all that was inferior and weak.
The left side came to be invested with moral
connotations. Typical of the Biblical attitude to
the left hand is the account of the Vision of Judgment. 'He shall separate them one from another as
a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And
he shall set his sheep on the right hand and the
goats on the left:
Several Bible stories give us a clear indication
of the widespread prejudice against the left hand
which existed in Biblical times.
An example quoted

by Michael Barsley in
related
in the book of Genesis, when Joseph brought his
sons to their dying grandfather,
Israel, to be
blessed. Unfortunately
the old man laid his right
hand on the head of Ephraim, the younger son,

The Left-Handed Book was the confusion,

THE

LEFT

HENDERSON

and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, the eIder son, who should have been honoured by the
major hand. Joseph was clearly upset at this evidence of favouritism. He held up his father's hand,
to remove it from Ephraim's head "Not so, my
father" he said "for this is the first born. Put thy
right hand upon his head." And his father refused a
and said "I know it, my son, I know it ... but truly,
this younger brother shall be greater than he."
The importance of using the right hand in
Christian. ritual grew to such proportions that a
left-handed blessing was considered blasphemy and
became part of the Black Mass.
A 'left-handed' or morganatic marriage, at
which the bridegroom offered his left hand to the
bride-a token of shame-was a union unsanctified
by the church. Children of such a union, in exalted
circles, could not inherit and in heraldry were entitled only to the bend sinister.
.
Circumambulation
has always played an important part in the ritual of religions and describing a circle from right to left, the movement most
natural to left-handers, is frowned upon in most
faiths.
Joshua's procession, when the priests bore
the ram's horns and the trumpet, moved from left
to right, for an anti-clockwise movement was considered a sure way of summoning the Unclean Spirit. For centuries it was believed that to conjure up
the devil one only had to mark out a magic circle,
anti-clockwise, with the left hand.
As a good-luck charm, circumambulation
in
the proper direction was practiced with particular
care by believers in Scotland. There is a scene in
Waverley by Sir Walter Scott, where a Highland
doctor approaches his patient:
'He observed great ceremony in approaching
Edward and though our hero was writhing in pain,
would not proceed to any operation which might
assuage it until he had perambulated his couch
three times, moving from left to right.
It is no accident that the devil is often portrayed in illustrations as being left-handed. To exorcise him, the ritual has, of course, to be righthanded, as in benedictions. As Michael Barsley reminds us 'The existence of a spirit world is by no
means ignored by the churches of today. Exorcism

July 1976/ American Atheist - 25

is still practiced when there is evidence of a poltergeist or other unidentified

presence in a house.'
There is a great deal of left-handed lore in
accounts of the activities of witches and witchhunters. We learn from a French historian that
those who recognized Satan greeted him avec Ie
bras gauche and a contemporary portrait of Joan
of Arc on the copy of her trial in the National Archives in Paris shows her with her sword in her left
hand.
The devil was said to be in the habit of
leaving a mark on those with whom he had kept
company. As he was reputed to be especially
friendly
with witches, the wretched women on
whom suspicion fell were eagerly examined by the
faithful. His favourite greeting seems to have been
a scratch with a fingernail of his left hand. He qen
erally chose the left eyel id or the left shou Ider but
there was a great triump h for witch -hu nters in
Scotland in the 17th century when one Isobel
Crawford of Irvine in Ayrshire was found to have
'the devil's mark, quhilk was Iyke ane braid dyn
spott, in the inner side of her left thie.' [sic]
Fortunately. rational attitudes have dispelled
most of the fear and ignorance which were at the
root of so many centuries of prejudice against the
left-handed action. But even in this day and age the
left-handed are not shown tolerance among the deKEllY & DUK~y

Jack Moorer-

ONE. THING ~p..5

t\L.WAVS PU'l'lI..E.D
, ME ABOUT ADAM
AND EVE ....

--,

vout in some coutries. In Communist countries,

left-handers are treated like other non-conformists.
Throughout the Soviet Union, left-handed writing
is forbidden in schools.
Muslim countries are probably the most
right-minded
of all. In The Left Handed Book
Michael Barsley relates that Winston Churchill once
sent a splendid Rolls Royce to King Ibn Saud but
the gift was passed on to Ibn Saud's brother. The
car had a right-hand drive and it was the King's
custom, on private occasions, to ride in the front
seat. But nothing, of course, would have induced
him to sit on the left side of his chauffeur.
There are signs that some enlightened Muslims do not see the prejudice against the lefthanded action as an important part of their re!igious beliefs. The young Prince Reza of Iran was
photographed recently by a newspaper in the act
of writing the royal signature with his left hand.
In Western countries, except, curiously enough, Germany, this odd disapproval of lefthanders, relic of the early days of religion, is almost entirely discredited. The fact that in the ritual of Communion in our churches the right hand is
used throughout need worry no one. At least we
no longer come across schoolmasters who force
children to use the right hand for the good of their
souls.

r----------,
I SAW THE APPLE!

WH"T WAS 50
IMPORTANT
ABOUT THAT

L.OOKED A, IT.. IT L.OOKED

LIKE A REGULAR APPLE
To ME

APPI.E?

r--------THE ONLY ,HING 1. Cl'lt-!

FIGrURE IS GOD WAS
SAVINC7 rr FOR. LUNCH
OR SOMETHINCr

HEAVEN

ISN'T
A BAD
P\..ACE UCEPT
FOR

THE PEOPl.E ....

[source: St. Louis Chronicle: 5/7,5/5/76]

July 1976/American Atheist - 26

~/

SPEAKING

FOR WOMEN:

Abortions

and

Doctors

ANNE GAYLOR
The feminist community
abounds in Atheists, freethinkers and other reasonable women, and
this new column is being written
especially for
them. A regular feature, it will deal with the conflicts between feminism and organized religion, and
with women's rights, especially the basic human
right to control fertility
through legal access to
birth control, sterilization
and abortion. It will report on interesting feminist personalities, both current and historical.
Since my personal area of expertise in women's rights relates to the abortion issue, this will
be the focus of some of these columns. To acquaint you with the importance of the abortion
rights battle and the process by which feminists
like me have moved from respect of the male rnedical community
to almost total disdain for it, I am
excerpting a small portion of my new book Abortion is a Blessing. (Reviewed in the May issue of
the American Atheist magazine, this hardback
book is available from the Society of Separationists
for $6.50 including postage. One of its chapters has
been called "one of the most forthright
attacks on
the Catholic Church ever written.")
The excerpt reprinted here is from a speech
I gave to a Wisconsin medical group in the early
1970's at a time when a federal district court had
declared Wisconsin's abortion
statute unconstitutional, and much of the Wisconsin establishment,
from its attorney general to its physicians, was trying to obstruct the court order. The speech was
called:

WHY

ARE

YOU

ALL

SO ANGRY?

Most of my life I have been somewhat in

awe of doctors. I have shared the general view that
the profession was noble and the practitioners
worthy
of
respect.
My
deference
was so
pronounced that my husband used to tease me,
saying I failed to get my money's worth out oftrips to the doctor. I was habitually
reluctant to
discuss my aches and pains to any degree when I
actually was in the doctors' offices, because my
symptoms seemed so trivial in light of the serious
cases I knew they had to treat. And I appreciated
that they must frequently
be tired, probably overworked, at least pressed for time. I was pleased to
have doctors as business friends and acquaintances,
and I shared the tradition admiring attitude elicited
by a physicn's presence in any gathering.

But now all that has changed. I am a pronounced critic

of the medical profession. I am on
speaking terms only with two or three of my former medical friends and acquaintances.
I no longer
read or respect the AMA News. We even boo at our
house when Marcus Welby comes on TV.
The reason? In my work for abortion reform
I have learned that most doctors care more for
their bank
balances, their colleagues' opinions,
their comfortable,
unjeopardized
way of life than
they do for the health and welfare of their women
patients.
When a federal court declared last March
that the Wisconsin abortion
law was unconstitutional and that the state of Wisconsi n cou Id no
longer deprive a woman of her right to terminate
an early, unwanted pregnancy, I was elated. Now,
I thought, the doctors will help these women. Yet
in the whole state of Wisconsin with its thousands
of doctors, only one acted-Dr.
Alfred Kennan of
the University of Wisconsin Medical School. Calls
came pouring into University Hospital from all over the country-as
many as seventy in a day, with
special-delivery
letters and wires adding to that
count. The hospital administration
very quickly adopted a quota, understandable
since they are a
training hospital, but totally unrealistic in that only about five to eight abortions week Iy were to be
perfo rmed.
,:.
Because of my work with the Wisconsin
Committee
to Legalize Abortion
my own phone
started to ring, and I was able to get a few of these
patients requesting abortions into University Hospital. But what to do with the others? I phoned every gynecologist
in Madision asking for his help.
Few were even polite to me. Only one showed any
compunction
about turning down my request. At
the time I phoned one of the patients I specifically
was trying to help, a fifteen-year
old girl from a
broken home, whose very young age and tragic
family situation I thought would surely elicit sympathy. Not a chance! I turned next on behalf of
this girl to Milwaukee specialists. One doctor made
an appointment
and on the day of the appointment cancelled it. Another saw her after a ten-day
wait and then refused to do the abortion.
The
search had been time consuming and by this time
the girl had passed the deadline for the D & C.
Since my only other safe source at this time was in
Mexico City and because it seemed impossible to
have a fifteen-vear-old
go that far away alone, I
July 1976/American

Atheist - 27

~
.

'kept phoning Milwaukee doctors and finally found

a crusader who did accept her. However, the salting
out did not progress well, there were complications
and she was in serious condition for two days before recovery. My relief to have her well and happy
again was somewhat tempered by the fact that her
hospital bill was in excess of $1,000, and by my
knowledge that if there had been one Madison doctor who cared about a teen-aged qirl's right not to
become a mother, she could have had a safe, simple, inexpensive abortion
in early pregnancy.
About this time two or three Madison organizations interested in abortion reform arranged a
meeting with Madison General Hospital, a community-supported
facility.
Women's Liberation
people spoke on the side of abortion;
aped iatrician, a psychologist and a Unitarian clergyman from
my committee urged the hospital to perform abortions. But the doctors from the hospital and its
administrators told us they had no intention of doing abortions. It was one of the low points of my
life as I listened to male after male speak against
having the hospital offer this service. The final
straw was the chief of staff who took the podium
and talked about his "reverence for life." The
meeting broke up into informal arguments and as I
left the room I heard one doctor dramatically exclaim, "Why are you all so angry?"
I had
the doctor's
but I have
should have

not been asked to speak that night and

rhetorical question went unanswered,
often thought of what that answer
been.

We are angry because for the first time we

have seen and heard so much tragedy, so much
avoidable tragedy. We cannot understand why you

AFTER

THE
RONALD

The recent violent earthquake in the Catholic country of Guatemala killed over 23,000 people, injured some 70,000 more and left over a million homeless-about one in every fiveof the population. Very naturally, those who suffered most
were the poorer classes who live mostly in houses
or shacks of adobe (unburnt
earth bricks).
Throughout the country churches were particularly
hard hit, many being destroyed and others being
rendered unsafe and having to be demolished. As
might be expected, stories are told of religious images having been miraculously saved from damage
but, while such images did no doubt escape damage, so did many brothels and houses of assignation-no
miracle being claimed in their case.
The mass of people, mostly illiterate or semiJuly 1976/American Atheist - 28

jl

would want a fifteen-year-old girl who is physically

immature, desperately unhappy, her education incomplete, to become a mother, when you possess
the skill and have the legal right to help her.
We are angry because we think of the women throughout human history who have had to
endure unwanted pregnancies. We know, now, at
this time, women who are too poor to have another baby, who have too many children already.
We know women who have begged their doctors
for contraceptives or for tubal ligations, and who
are now pregnant because they were refused. How,
we wonder, do you have the audacity to turn away
the woman who wants an abortion when you
would not help her prevent that pregnancy?
We know, as we are sure you know too, how
many victims of incest and rape there really are in
Wisconsin. How, we ask, can you be so inhumane
as to turn away a thirteen-year-old
girl and her eleven-year-old sister, who have been impregnated
by their mother's "boyfriend"?
And what about those pregnant girls who
cry throughout
conversations with you because
their boy friends have gone-gone to California, or
gone to Florida, or "We were to be married, but I
don't know where he is now"?
What about the mother who has had a baby
every year? Can't you recognize that a pregnant
woman with five little children, the youngest three
months, has a legitimate claim to any doctor's help
and sympathy?

with

You ask why we are all so angry. 'We answer

a question. How can you be so cruel?

EARTHQUAKE
STWEART

illiterate, believe that the earthquake was a punishment sent by their god. But this belief does not
stop these people from going to those churches
that are still standing to worship the imaginary god
that they think is responsible for this frightful catastrophe with its consequent misery and suffering.
Nor will it occur to them to question the priest
when he tells them that this being is a god of love.
It does not strike them that, far from being a god
of love, any being guilty of such wholesale murder
and destruction could only be a sadistic monster.
Such indiscriminate "punishment"
reminds one of
the Nazis who shot everyone in sight when they
could not find the guilty individual. But the obvious contradictions in their beliefs are not apparent to these people, and they continue to be good
Christians.

Amongst the better educated and what one

may call the upper classes some express the opinion that their god had nothing to do with the
earthquake and that nature was solely to blame for
it. These, of course, speak the truth, but in so doing they do not realize that they are knocking the
very foundations from under their Christian beliefs. According to the faithful their god is omnipotent. But Christians still believe.

er does not explain why his god had found it necessary to cause such misery and destruction
throughout
the whole country in order to have
some 23,000 "lucky"
people enjoy the benefits
of his grace. To reasonable beings, however, it does
seem that he might have devised a more humane
and less vicious method. And one wonders if the
priest who originated this remarkable theory is
lamenting the fact that he was not amongst those
killed, so that he too might now be enjoying god's
grace.

One Catholic priest has thought up a most

original theory which has been solemnly published
in a local newspaper. He states categorically that
the earthquake was not a punishment sent by god,
who would be incapable of punishing in such a
way. Rather, says he, the earthquake was actually
a proof of god's love, for the thousands of people
who were killed are all now in heaven enjoying
god's grace--whatever that may be. The good fath-

The more one sees of Christian thinking, the

more one becomes convinced that, to be a good
Christian, one must swallow all manner of absurdities and contradictions,
and firmly believe in that
old chestnut which, to them, explains everything,
"the lord moves in mysterious ways his wonders to
perform".

Potpouri
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is
closer to the truth who believes nothing than he
who believes what is wrong. (outdated religious
teachings)
-Thomas Jefferson

Should we all confess our "sins" to one another we would all laugh at one another for our
lack of originality.
-Kahil Gibran
********************

********************

Someone said to me: "My church is THE

church." I replied, "Go fill your bathtub with salt
water and say this is the ocean.
-Anonymous

Millions of people are slaves to one man (the

Pope) merely because they cannot pronounce the
syllable "no".
."
-Plutarch

********************

********************

Morality
Faith is like love; it cannot be forced. As trying to force begets hatred, so trying to force religious beliefs begets disbelief.
-Schopenhaur

is moral only when it is voluntary.

-Lincoln
Steffens

********************

What good would immortality

one who cannot use well a half hour.

********************

be to some-Emmerson

There is nothing holy but the truth.

-Dr. Sigmund Freud

********************

********************

Censorship of anything, at any time, in any

place has always been the last cowardly resort of
the boob and bigot.
-Eugene O'Neil
********************

A million years from now there may be creatures on earth who stoutly deny they ever descended from man, who was stupid enough to be
dominated by any church.
-Anonymous.

'

I do not regret having braved public opinion

when I knew it was wrong and was sure it would
be merciless.
-Horace Greeley
********************

Religion is like a crutch-so

long as a man
needs this crutch to navigate, we are not concerned-but
when he picks up the crutch and tries
to hit us on the head with it, we feel we have to try
to stop him!
-Dr. Herbert Feigl
********************

July 1976/American Atheist - 29

Ruins

of

The Ruins, or Meditation on The Revolutions

of Empires: and The Law of Nature, was written
by Constantine, Francis Chassebeauf de Volney -Count and Peer of France, Commandeur
of the
Legion of Honor,
Member of the Academie
Francaise,
Deputy
to the
lFrench] National
Assembly of 1789.
Volney was born in 1757, educated in a convent of Copts, and afterwards the recipient of an
inheritance
which permitted
him to do as he
wished.
What he wished to do was to travel. I n order
to do so he made himself master of the languages
of the East (with a base of Arabic). He then traveled extensively
in Egypt,
Syria
and Eastern
countries, one of the few men of that era to be
able, or desirous, to do so.
The revolution in France in 1789 brought him
to a political career there. When it failed, he turned to the United States in 1797.
His book had
been published by then, in Philadelphia, but he was
distressed with the translation and averred that the
translator must have been overawed by the government or the clergy from rendering his ideas taithfully.
To overcome the difficulties,
he learned the
English language and with the aid of Joel Barlow,
published
in Paris a new and correct edition.
No one in the United States cared to issue it
and once again, Peter Eckler Press, that old stalwart of Atheist printing,
undertook
the job in
1890.
The scheme of presentment of Volney's ideas
is poetic. He visits a magnificent ruin in the Ottoman dominions and is overcome with its beauty,
and then falls asleep. A "Genius" or "Phantom"
awakens him and begins a discourse concerned
with the ruins. The thrust of this is toward a discovery of why an ancient civilization
of such ob-'
vious magnitude,
architectural
accomplishments,
and cultural attainments,
as are reflected in the
ruins, could have been brought to naught -- so that
semi-barbarious
persons in hovels amongst the
ruins are ail that remains.
The Genius asks the question:
"By what
causes do empires rise and fall? from what sources
spring the prosperity
and misfortunes,
on what
principles can peace of society and happiness of
man be established? " In a discourse w!th Volney
July 1976/American Atheist - 30

IV

Empires
the reasons are developed and they are -- in most
extraordinarily
beautiful prose -- in derogation of
religion.
A fascinating feature of the book is the thesis
in confirmation
of the statement of Dioderus that
"the Ethiopians
conceived of themselves as the
inventors of divine worship, of festivals, of solemn
assemblies, of sacrifices, and of every other religious practice."
Volney
supports
that an imaginative
and
superstitious race of black men may have invented
and founded, in the dim obscurity of past ages, a
system of religious belief that still enthralls the
minds and clouds the intellects of the leading representatives of modern theology.
It is, as Peter
Eckler points out.?a mad caprice of destiny, of the
insignificant
and apparently trivial causes that oft
produce the most grave and momentous results.."
The book is a magnificent assault upon religion
at a time when our nation was just being formed
and when our own great men were hesitant to
speak out.
Volney finds in Nature, and Nature's laws all
that mankind
needs - and thus reaffirms
the
Deism of all of the founding fathers of our nation.
He, like they, conclude that there must have been a
creation, and hence some creator which set the universe in motion, but he, like they, also, concludes
that it is was not, nor could it have been, the
Judeo-Christian God.
He finds, and delineates at length the law of
nature, which is [1] primitive, [2] immediate, (3)
universal, [4] invariable, [5] evident, (6) reasonable, [7] just, (8) pacific,
[9] beneficient,
and
[10] alone sufficient.
.
A great deal of religion is based on astronomy
as it was known to primitive
man. Volney traces
some of the religious legends to this source, and his
interpretation
of "the fall of man, i.e. the Adam
and Eve story" is extraordinary.
This is a classic "free thought"
book. The
translation is from the 1802 French edition. It is a
225 page hardback, 5W' x 8%" book, a Truth
Seeker printing of 1950 and now out of print.
See inside cover (this issue) for purchase. We
have only 100 volumes left; and it will no longer be
available.

THE SOCIETY

OF SEPARATIONISTS,

Inc.

Aims and Purposes

1. To stimulate and promote feedom 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 ehtical 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 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 cultural activity as will be useful and beneficial
to the members of this Society (of Separationists, lnc.) and to society as a whole.

Definitions
1. Atheism is the life philosophy (Weltanschauung) of persons who are free from theism. It is
predicated on the ancient Greek philosophy of Materialism.
-

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 interference 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 pruposes unlimited.

The Society of Separ atronists, Inc., is a non-political,

non-profit,
educational,
tax-exempt
organization.
Contributions to the Society are tax deductible
for you. Our primary function
is as an educational
"watch-dog"
organization to preserve the precious and viable principle
of separation of state and church. M.embership is open to those
who are in accord with our "Aims and Purposes" as above indicated. Membership dues is $12.00, per person, per
year. An incident of membership
is receipt of a monthly
copy of the "American
Atheist Insider Newsletter".
We
are currently
forming
local chapters and membership
in the National organization
automatically
gives you entrance to your local chapter

f;

\
The Truth,
at last, Revealed

about

Religion

Shocking? Perhaps. But it is only a small

part of the fascinating mountain of evidence gathered in FREEDOM UNDER SIEGE by attorney
Dr. Madalyn Murray O.Hair and her researchers as
part of their ongoing fight to preserve the First Amendment guaranty of the separation of state and
church - a guaranty of not just freedom of religion but freedom from religion.

FREEDOM
UNDER SIEGE
by Madalyn

Organized

Murray Q'Hair

Organized religion is working to destroy your

freedom. It strives to influence your elected representatives and to write the laws under which
you live, to regulate your children's schools and
dictate what is taught there, to censor your entertainment and choose what you and your neighbor can see and read, and to determine for all
women the right to control their lives and their
bodies. And it is your money that makes this
tyranny possible. The churches have their billions
invested in profit-making
enterprises; and their
wealth grows daily from gifts, grants, rents, interest, capital gains and government subsidies. They
are now financial giants; no longer dependentupon
their parishioners for support. What they count on
is their freedom from taxes. The churches' billions
are accumulated at your expense.

Official
government
and church
figures
prove that churches have as their membership only
a minority of our citizens. This books shows the
continuing pressures that this minority exerts on
the Iives of the majority of Americans.
Dr. O'Hair deals with politics, not religion;
with separation of state and church, not Atheism.
This report shows how your treasured liberties are
slowly being eroded as the churches increase their
power over every aspect of American life, limiting
your freedom of choice and even your access to information regarding those choices.
FREEDOM UNDER SIEGE dares to focus
on the facts about this growing threat - a threat
that our politicians and the press, radio and television have been unwilling to confront.
HARDCOVER

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