Madalyn Murray O'Hair

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Madalyn Murray O'Hair is a figure who resonates strongly for people across America - unfortunately, that resonance is negative for most of those who recognize her name. She has become The Atheist in popular imagination - but who was she and how did she get into that position?

Those are the sorts of questions addressed in Bryan F. Le Beau's recent book "The Atheist: Madalyn Murray O'Hair," the first full-length biography of the atheist icon. Le Beau provides an in-depth analysis and assessment of her beliefs, her actions, and her impact on America. He relies heavily on extensive research, interviews, and even O'Hair's own diaries to draw as complete of a picture as possible - and the result is a very complex figure.

O'Hair was neither a saint nor a demon, but there is a tendency by some to portray her as one or the other - and there is plenty of material in this book for both sides. Le Beau describes both her passion for liberty and her autocratic methods, both her concern for the repressed and her flashes of antisemitism.

But why has she been regarded by so many as "The Atheist"? Le Beau's book is not simply about her life but also about her relationship with American society and culture. O'Hair came to public attention during a time when fear of change, fear of communism, and fear of outsiders were all reaching their apex. O'Hair became a lightning rod for conservative and reactionary forces across the nation. She advocated atheism, feminism, nuclear disarmament and more, becoming "the most hated woman in America."

For many, she symbolized everything that was wrong, impure, and subversive in the country. Her son has written that she did not create the time, but "the time created her" - and he has a point. The Supreme Court case which made her famous, Murray v. Cuttlet, was given a subbordinate role to Abington Township v. Schempp - had she not even existed, the outcome would have been the same.

However, even though her role in the ending of government enforced prayers in public schools was neither crucial nor even necessary, she stepped forward to take the credit and no one was about to dispute her claim. People needed an enemy; if she hadn't volunteered, someone else would have been drafted. Fortunately, she may have been the right person for the role - she seemed to take delight in criticizing many of the dominant assumptions of American culture and forcing people to reconsider their beliefs. Le Beau quotes O'Hair's diary from 1957:

I can see my role. I'm pleased with it. So, I'm an outsider. What better is there to be? I'm a dissenter. I'm a critic and there is always a need for them. I think I see the outline of our future here in America and me in a barbed wire enclosure with my ilk as a political renegade. At least I'll have a planned future.

Although the latter comment may sound like paranoia today, the memories of what happened to the Japanese during World War II were still fresh in the minds of many and the attitudes of the time towards communists and subversives was not the sort that inspired confidence or security among dissenters.

There is no easy way to categorize Madalyn Murray O'Hair - as an atheist and as a figure in American history, she was simply too complex. However, Le Beau's biography does a lot to describe not only her public actions and legal battles, but also her private attitudes and personal struggles. His account is well-written, fast paced, and thoroughly engaging, offering an interesting glimpse of the dysfunctional relationship between The Atheist and America.