You may know the name Madalyn Murray O’Hair. She was the driving force behind the eventual Supreme Court decision to ban prayer from public school in 1963.
But what you may not know is how vile and un-American she was. This, then, begs the question: How could America have allowed a patently hateful and self-serving woman to get such a verdict? And what in the world happened to make her so nasty and abusive? This atheist woman profanely bad-mouthed America, railed against capitalists and continually sided with Communists! She even renounced her American citizenship as she packed up her young children and tried to move to Communist Russia! ... all the while living off the freedom and benefits that America offered.
Dig into the person of Madalyn and one discovers she was violent, vile, perverse, and a liar. Filled with rage and contempt, she dominated, controlled and berated others for her own ends. She abused her own unwanted children and often used them as puppets for her schemes. Her home was one of almost constant rage and violence. And while I find Madalyn’s character, behavior and choices detestable, I discovered some core issues that deeply shaped her early on. Very sad and significant ones.
Madalyn’s parents were quite the pair too. Her dad did a lot of illegal or ill-advised things. Her mother read Tarot cards. And Madalyn's parents had little desire or love for having any children of their own. Sadly, when Madalyn’s mother was several months pregnant with Madalyn, she jumped from a second-floor window of the family home to try and abort baby Madalyn. However, both survived.
The fact that Madalyn’s mother would even relay this story to her daughter reveals a calloused insensitivity that ran deep in the family. This and other painful realities of early rejection by her parents must have deeply hurt Madalyn.
How different might things have been for Madalyn, for her children, and for Americans had Madalyn not been rejected, but wanted as a child? Or if she would have found her pain's balm through the cross of Christ?
Source: My Life Without God – New Expanded Version – William J Murray
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