m5

AMERICANATHEisT~

October, 1983

"Never

gIVe
a
sucker

I an-even

,B brea.k,"

W.G.Fields

A Journal of Atheist News and Thought

$2.50

1983

1963

********************************************************************
of

AMERICAN ATHEISTS
In 1959, the Murray family started a legal case which was destined to reach the United States Supreme Court
to be decided there on June 17, 1963just twenty years ago. The name of the case was Murray v. Curlett and the
decision of that august body was that bible reading and unison prayer recitation in the public schools of the land
were both unconstitutional exercises vis-a-vis the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
The road from 1959 to 1963 was hard and long. Scores of attorneys were contacted to handle the case and
each and all were afraid of it. Indeed the attorney who drafted the original complaint which was filed with the
court quit the case a week thereafter. The Murray family insisted from the beginning that it should be known
that they were opposed to the exercise of bible reading and prayer recitation because they were Atheists, and
no attorney wanted to mention that in the case. But, Madalyn Murray insisted, and finallyone attorney asked
her to draw up a short statement (about 250 words) on what an Atheist was that would be put into their petition
for relief. That statement was written - and became famous as the media across the land reproduced it
everywhere. Now, these twenty years later, we reproduce it here for you:

"Your petitioners are Atheists and they define their lifestyle as follows. An Atheist loves
himself and his fellow man instead of a god. An Atheist accepts that heaven is something for
which we should work now - here on earth - for all men together to enjoy. An Atheist
accepts that he can get no help through prayer but that he must find in himself the inner
-conviction and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, to subdue it and to enjoy it. An Atheist
accepts that only in a knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellow man can he find
the understanding that will help to a life of fulfillment.
"Therefore, he seeks to know himself and his fellow man rather than to 'know' a god. An
Atheist accepts that a hospital should be built instead of a church. An Atheist accepts that a
deed must be done instead of a prayer said. An Atheist strives for involvement in life and not
escape into death. He wants disease conquered, poverty vanquished, war eliminated. He
wants man to understand and love man. He wants an ethical way of life. He accepts that we
cannot rely on a god nor channel action into prayer nor hope for an end of troubles in a
hereafter. He accepts that we are - in a sense - our brothers' keepers in that we are, first,
keepers of our own lives; that we are responsible persons, that the job is here and the time is
now. "

**************i***********************************************,*****
AMERICAN ATHEISTS

P.O.BOX 2117

AUSTIN, TX 78768-2117

Send $40 for one year's membership. You will receive our "Insider's Newsletter" monthly,
your membership certificate and card, and a one year subscription to this magazine;

(VoI.25, No.l0)

October 1983

REGULAR FEATURES
Letters to the Editor
Editorial - Jon G. Murray
:
News & Comments: "Recycling of an Atheist"; "Of Thee
We Sing"; "Praying and Playing, 007's Chicken Game"
Convention News
:
'
American Atheist Radio Series:
"American Atheists and Freethinkers
Dial-An-Atheist

2
3
5
16
38
39

SPECIAL FEATURES
Bible Thumpers and Insanity - Frank Walter.
American Atheists Participate in
Jobs, Peace, Freedom March
Witness for the Defense: Crockett v. Sorenson, et al
Develop Scientific Outlook - from Indian Atheist
Sesquicentennial Celebration (Robert Ingersoll)
In Peoria _
Photo Section
In Washington, DC
;
The Copper Beech - Michael Bettencourt

8
.
10
11
17
18
19
24
40

FEATURED COLUMNISTS
Father Charles Coughlin, Demagogue of the Depression
-

Jeff Frankel

25

The Godfather - Gerald Tholen

Tantra, The Four Letter Way to Enlightenment
-

Margaret Bhatty

29
31
33

The Ten Commandments - Merrill Holste

Editor
Robin Murray-O'Hair
Editor Emeritus
Madalyn Murray O'Hair
Managing Editor
Jon G. Murray
Assistant Editor
Richard M. Smith
Poetry
Angeline Bennett
Gerald Tholen
Production Staff
Art Brenner
BillKight
Gerald Tholen
Gloria Tholen
Daniel Flores
Non-Resident Staff
G. Stanley Brown
Jeff Frankel
Merrill Holste
Margaret Bhatty
Fred Woodworth
Clayton Powers
Austin, Texas

The American Atheist magazine is published monthly at the Gustav Broukal American Atheist Press, 2210 Hancock Dr., Austin, TX 78756, and 1982 by Society of
Separationists, Inc., a non-profit, non-political, educational organization dedicated to .
the complete and absolute separation of
state and church. Mailing address: P.O. Box
2117/Austin, TX 78768-2117. A free subscription is provided as an incident of membership in the American Atheists organization. Subscriptions are available at $25.00
for one year terms only. Manuscripts submitted must be typed, double-spaced and
accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed
envelope. The editors assume no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts.
The American Atheist magazine
is indexed in
Monthly Periodical Index
ISSN: 0332-4310

On The Cover
What strange appeal enhances the
echoing pitch of the medicine show
barker? Is it a methodical ability to
vocally -"mesmerize" an audience?
No? Maybe it's physical appearance;
the attire; the arm flailing and strutting; the rapid fire delivery of words
so closely grouped as to defy proper
interpretation and analysis! If any of
these reasons were, in fact, legitimate, why is it that an entire audience is not equally captivated by a
particular barker's performance?
The answer is quite obvious; the
showman's antics - in whatever
format or delivery they are presented - can entice only those who
are "enticeable"! You then, the audience, contain that "secret ingredient" which enables the world's barkers to hawk generation after generation! In a sense, we are an enormous
school of human carp waiting for a
particular inner hunger that can only
be satisfied by a particular dish. The
hawker need only bait us with a
convincing promise of delectable
satisfaction.
The horror of it all is that very few
of us ever demonstrate an ability to
distinguish the hook-laden lure from
the free-swimming meal. Therefore,
the "sucker" is duped by his/her own
inadequacies - not by "mysterious
powers" belched from the mouth of
an unscrupulous actor.
The immature mind - the stultified intellectual vegetable - they
are the constant source of protein
for the voracious grubs of promise
and fantasy. In an attempt to satisfy
an apparent or imaginary need, the
audience mark becomes the unwitting benefactor of the seemingly
innocent con-artist. Of course, the
most perfect example for the game is
the ultimate sucker - the religionist
who has swallowed the preacher's
baited hook!
Gerald Tholen

Cover Art
Rex Lindsey

October, 1983

Page 1

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Editor:
If the creationists are not hypocrites, let
them deny that people are animals. That
people are animals, vertebrates, mammals,
and primates is the heart of the matter evolution is merely a peripheral issue. The
creationists concentrate on evolution, be
cause opposition to evolution is all they can
get away with, now. They are careful never
to go farther than political realities will
permit. Creationism and the crusade
against evolution is merely an evasion. It is
meant to divert attention away from our
animal nature, and it provides a cause to
rally around. To maintain their fervor, religious fanatics require a devil or witch
against which to battle.
If the pro- lifers are not hypocrites, and if
they believe in the death penalty for first
degree murder, as the vast majority do, then
let them advocate the death penalty for
premeditated (it's not likely to be a crime of
passion) abortion. In which case, the air is
likely to reverberate with the sound of
tumbrels bringing condemned women to
the guillotine. I have never even known the
pro-lifers to advocate life imprisonment for
abortion, nor have they ever explained how
we would cram so many women in our
overcrowded prisons, especially the wornen's prisons. Could it be that they do not
believe themselves that abortion is murder,
and life begins at conception?
Sincerely,
Mark Oller
Virginia

Editor:
I was under the mistaken idea that the
Friends of Ingersoll production in Peoria
was to be an ATHEIST event. I drove up
early from New Orleans (with John Marthaler), but had to leave before Madalyn arrived.
When she got there I hope she "kicked
ass!" and if she did, I'd like to hear about it.
I've never seen such a motley crew since the
60s, when someone interested in civil rights
or the Vietnam war was faced with groups
such as the Spartacists, the Socialist Worker's Party, the Catholic Workers Party, the
Progressive Labor Party, the American
Communist Party, the Weathermen, the
Weatherwomen, the Stalinists, the Leninists, etc., etc. All of these groups sat around
Page 2

arguing with each other while the issues

remained unresolved. Similarly, between
the "Evangelical Agnostics," and the "ReligiousFreethinkers"
I went through two
packs of Rolaids.
I commend American Atheists for dealing
with issues and for not mincing their words.
We have to get rid of all "gods," including
the god of half-truth.
Sincerely,
Mike Jolley
Louisiana
P.S. At one point I actually had to correct a
panelist ("Ingersoll & Religion," Aug. 12th)
when he stated that Ingersoll "preached the
true philosophy of christ"!
Dear Mike:
It's a pity that you didn't have time to see
the Atheist way of honoring Ingersoll. For a
description of it, please see page 18 of this
issue.
Editor
-; .

Editor:
I wish someone would just come out and
say it, loud and clear, once and for all: that
infant circumcision is an atrocity and a
fraud; that it's a cruel, outrageous and
intolerable violation of a helpless human
being's right to his own body; that it's the
ugliest, saddest and most sickening scandal
in medical history; and that anyone deranged enough to cut off a baby's foreskin is
as guilty of contributing to human suffering
and misery as the monsters of Auschwitz and in the name of humanity should be
exposed, confronted and stopped.
Sincerely,
John Erickson
Mississippi
Dear John:
We agree wholeheartedly.
Editor

Editor:
It is often claimed that it cannot be proven
that there is no" god." I take" god" to belong
to the category of the non-natural to which
"devils" also belong. The following arqument proves there are no" gods" or" devils."
, Inertia sets the geometric limits of an
object. In other words, resistance to a
change of motion sets the geometric limits
of an object. For example, one can tell the
October, 1983

shape (geometric limits of a table by the

points at which one meets resistance to the
motion of one's hand. That resistance sets
the geometric limits of the table. Without
such resistance, there is no table. In principie, anything can be similarly analyzed (e.g.
electromagnetic fields, light, organisms,
sound, brain behavior, etc.).
The absence of inertia is nothingness. A
positive quantity of inertia (matter-energy)
is a necessary condition for "somethingness," for existence. "Something or nothing" (P or -P), the natural, contains all
factual possibilities and is always true. Not
"something or nothing" -(P or -P), the nonnatural, is outside the realm of factual
possibility and is always false. Thus, all
"gods" and "devils" are pretend.
In anyone wants further explanation, I
would be happy to give it. Write to the
American Atheist Center and they will forward your request.
Sincerely,
Paul Keller
Minnesota

Editor:
First, I must congratulate Dr. O'Hair for
her obvious long hours of research and
dedication to knowledge and understanding
regarding the United States of America's
intrusion into Vietnam. Secondly, I must
comment, even though briefly, on the late
John Foster Dulles' testimony before the
Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, 83rd Congress, 1st Session, Washington, DC, 1953 (War in Vietnam - The
Religious Connection, Dr. Madalyn O'Hair,
American Atheist Press, 1982.)
According to Mr. Dulles: "Soviet communism atheistic in its philosophy and
materialistic. It believes that human beings
are nothing more than somewhat superior
animals, they have no souls, no spirit, no
right to personal dignity.... "
Was Mr. Dulles speaking against communism? Or was he speaking in favor of the
slave trade in the United States prior to, and
during, the Civil War?
According to the wealthy white christian
slave traders, the Black African people had,
"no souls, no spirit, and there was nothing
about them that a White Man needed to
respect. ... "
I have often been told that history repeats
itself. Could that assertion be true in Mr.
Dulles' case?
Sincerely,
H. Calvin McKenzie
Maryland
The American Atheist

TO, HELL WITH INGERSOLL

\

This year had been special for American Atheism since it marked
the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the first openly Atheistic
organization in America. This anniversary year should go beyond a
celebration of past achievements, however, and become a platform
for launching ourselves into the next twenty years of growth. In order
to do that, I think that it is time to dump some of our old hang-ups as
Atheists. One of these, which has bothered this author for a long time,
is the reliance of Atheists on authority. Many Atheists constantly seek
the "approval" of all kinds of "authority" figures both contemporary
and historical for their position with regard to religion. Many of us
have been reaching out to grab hold of famous persons to claim that
they too are or were Atheist and to have that somehow add more
validity to our own position. Perhaps this comes from our schooling
where we are taught to play the "footnote" game. That is that we must
cite a famous person from whom we derived a given idea that we put
into a school paper to show that we have no original ideas and that we
just got them from the "masters." This is a holdover from medieval
scholastics where one had to show that any thought was derived from
the bible, the source of all "wisdom."
I think it is time now to stop playing the game of needing to quote
classic philosophers on our behalf. We need no longer try to have
some of the "authority" of famous people rub off on us. We, as
Atheists, here and now in the 20th century, are our own authorities on
Atheism. There have only been Atheists, as we think of Atheism now,
in the 20th century. Those who have gone before were not Atheists.
They only held beliefs that were precursors to Atheism (which has no
belief system at all). Jefferson was not an Atheist. Franklin was not an
Atheist. Ingersoll was not an Atheist. Lincoln was not an Atheist.
Edison was not an Atheist. All of the heroes that we have clung onto,
and that this Journal has promoted over the years, were not Atheists.
They were all precursors to those of us alive today who are Atheists.
This Journal was wrong, in the past, in presenting all of these
"heroes" for you to worship. Most of you, dear readers, do worship
them for I have talked with many of you personally as I have travelled
across the country.
What we need to do is to simply acknowledge what a given
historical figure did, keeping that within the perspective of his or her
times and knowledge limits, and make those past accomplishments
part of our philosophical base to move on from there. Instead, what I
see most Atheists doing is grabbing hold of those ideas propounded
by great historical figures and fixating themselves at the level of those
ideas, not going on to others. We must pick up all the new information
and ideas that our increasing technology is bringing forth in abun-'
dance and use it to solve our modern day problems. I have seen too
many Atheists take the works of Ingersoll or Thomas Paine and keep
them in the same manner as any christian would keep his bible,
worshipping the words of that particular great "thinker." To hell with
Paine. To hell with Ingersoll. I know more now as a citizen of the 20th
century than Ingersoll or Paine could have possibly known in a whole
lifetime of accumulated learning. Why? Because I have access to
thousands of times the information that they did. I learned more in
junior high school than my mother learned in her four years of college.
She in turn learned more in grade school by the 4th or 5th grade than
her mother learned in school altogether.
If you look back over the history of mankind from the most
primitive times you find that religion has dominated almost every era.
It was not until about the 17th century that the Renaissance finally
started to break mankind out of abject stupidity. It was during that
Austin, Texas

same era that the foundations of what would become Atheism in the
20th century took root.
Deism sprang up in the last years of the 17th and the first half of the
18th century. It was defined, at that time, as a current of rationalistic
theological thought. This is not to say that deism was not around
earlier; it was. Its greatest period of growth and consolidation of
thought came within the same half century. The eleven most famous
deist writers from England were born within 25 years of one another.
England was not the only country with deistic thought but it was the
country where the events of the times provided the best breeding
ground for deistic thought.
The word "deism" or "deist" appeared for the first time in the
middle of the 16th century in France. It first appeared in connection
with those who thought that the first cause of the universe was a
personal god who was distinct from the world he created and apart
from it and its concerns. The term "rationalist" and the German term
"freidenker" (or freethinker) were considered synonymous to "deist." At the same time, led by Spinoza and others, the "naturalists"
were emerging by the latter part of the 18th century. The deists of the
time grouped themselves more with the rationalists and freethinkers
as" excluding the belief in providence or in the immanence of god" to
separate themselves from the naturalists and Atheists.

"There are those among us now who have not

managed to evolve. They are stuck at the early
stages of deism, rationalism, freethinking, naturalism, pantheism, unitarianism, humanism,
and agnosticism. The information available
now has made all of those forms of thought
obsolete."
There were a number of factors in 17th century England that made
it a good place for deviance from established orthodoxy to be on the
rise. In addition to the obvious fact that England during the 16th
century had been the country with a monarch who had the balls to tell
the pope where to go, many things helped nurture deistic thought:
a) The Copernican model of the solar system with the
planets revolving around the sun, which was in direct
contradiction to the established mosaic Hexaemeron (or six
days of creation from genesis 1), was becoming increasingly
popular.
b) Descartian physics had led to Newton's Law of Motion
and the mechanical explanation of the world in distinction to
the biblical.
c) Many academicians in England were growing weary of
protestant scholasticism and were seeking new ideas and
explanations.
d) Religious wars had been the mainstay of English foreign
policy for many years and still were in the 17th century. This
turned a great number of the peace-loving intellectuals off.
e) A multiplicity of new religious sects were springing up in'
England about this time and there was failure after failure in
attempts for any substantial reconciliation between them. This
provoked distrust, among many bystanders, of the common
basis on which all of the sects were founded.

October, 1983

Page 3

f) The latitudinarians were becoming more influential in the

anglican church. These were the churchmen who favored the
episcopal form of ritual and government (remember all
governments at this time were theocracies until the American
Revolution broke that tradition) but denied that it had a divine
origin or authority. The idea of the divine right of kings was
being questioned within the church for the first time.
g) Many churchmen were willing to extend tolerance on
actions or beliefs not specifically prohibited in the scriptures for
the first time. This included going beyond just toleration or
ignoring of protestant ritual into allowing the questioning of a
systematic divinity system which spoke of layers of angels and
military lines of authority from god through the pope down to
the clergy.
h) Arminianism was on the rise. This was the teaching of
Jacob Arminius, a Dutch theologian (15601609), who proposed that christ died for all men, and not only for the elect as
was the common theological position of the time particularly
among the Dutch sects.
i) Numerous scholarly writings were coming out on theological and philosophical topics by virtue of a new toleration of
the concept of a "free press" in England.
j) The English revolution (168889) had been successful in
expelling James II,and men who had been involved in the active
political and theological controversies surrounding that revolution could now turn to reading, speculation and theory.
All of these factors and many more too numerous, to mention here
made England an ideal place for deistic thinking to come of age. Just
what did the deists think? They were as divided on that as many
religionists are today between thousands of denominations. Let's
take a look at just some of the various things that deists thought
during the period of its emergence.
a) Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1583-1648) became known
among his peers as the "Father of Deism." He outlined five
articles of what he termed his new "theology." They were that
there is one supreme god; he is to be worshipped; that worship
should consist of virtue and piety; that we must repent of our
sins and cease from them immediately; and that there are
rewards and punishments here and in the hereafter.
b) Some writers focused in on various themes but among the
most popular were:
oAn historico-critical examination of the old and new
testaments.
oPointing out that the jews were indebted to older
religions for their theological ideas.
oEmphasizing the absurdity of accepting biblical miracles as actual historical events.
oCriticizing what they called "accommodation"
by
church leaders of "the truth" to meet the views and
secure the favor of "ignorant" (as they put it) contemporaries, meaning, of course, the nobility.
oPutting together evidence, from biblical sources, to
invalidate the resurrection of christ.
c) Many of the deistic writers said that ethics should be
founded on the nature and cultivable capacity in men to
appreciate worth in men and actions. They associated the
apprehension of morality with the apprehension of beauty. This
made morality wholly independent of scripture for them.
d) Some of the deists insisted that religion was "the crown of
virtue" and that it was "inseparable from a high and holy
enthusiasm for the divine plan of the universe."
e) Some said that the root of religion was in feeling, not in
accurate beliefs or meritorious works.
f) Some pointed out that christianity was not mysterious to
be interpreted by the clergy. "Though we cannot know the real
essence of god, yet our beliefs about god must be thoroughly
consistent with reason." This was very much the same thing as
the agnosticism that was to come from Huxley in the mid-19th
century.
g) Some tried to counter the idea of sin by saying that all sin

Page 4

October, 1983

could be compacted into one category by saying that all sin

equaled just lying.
h) Still others tried to show that christianity is not just
doctrine but a life. That is, it was not just the reception of a
system of truths or facts but a pious effort to live in accordance
with god's will or natural law. This was done to try to say that
true christianity was really just a rewritten version of natural
laws.
Overall, most of the energy of the deists was spent in attacking
specific christian positions rather than seeking to form a foundation
on which to build the edifice of a "natural religion" as they called it.
They all came to the same conclusion, despite differences, that
religion, though not identified with morality, had its most important
outcome in a faithful following of the eternal laws of morality which
they regarded as the willof a god.
The deists were, by their own admission, generally included to go
along with the quietistic accommodation to the established forms of
faith of their day until "better times came along." There are many
persons to this day who are modern day deists for the same reason.
Beyond deism some moved to pantheism, which was the notion
that the material universe and man are only manifestations of god and
god is the reality that transcends all matter. Others moved to
unitarianism, which was only a rejection of the trinity concept of god
as three persons at once. It was just another protestant denomination
and still is. Most of our "founding fathers" in this country allowed their
deism to fade into unitarianism and talked about "one god" being
nature.
The investigations of the Renaissance and the birth of modern
science fueled questioning minds who moved toward protestantism,
then deism, then to pantheism or unitarianism, then to humanism and
agnosticism, and finally by the 20th century to Atheism. All along the
way, the increased availability of information and the increased ability
to communicate has made each generation more certain of the
valuelessness of religion.
With the benefit of 20th century science we no longer need any of
the evolutionary stages that have brought us to where we are today.
We don't need to go back any more than a bird need go back to being
a reptile. There are those among us now who have not managed to
evolve. They are stuck at the early stages of deism, rationalism,
freethinking, naturalism, pantheism, unitarianism, humanism, and
agnosticism. The information available now has made all of those
forms of thought obsolete. They are no longer relative to human lifeas
they may have been at a time when answers did not abound as they do
today. We should abandon them all as obsolete, as dinosaurs, if you
will. They have outlived their usefulness in a historical sense.

"If you prefer humanism or unitarianism or

agnosticism or freethought today, it only
means that you still have a 17th or 18th century
mind in a 20th century world."
We must proceed now from a new Atheistic base for our culture for
the next three hundred years. That is what is most important. We
cannot change what happened during the last three hundred years.
If you desire to have an Atheist hero, look in the mirror. There is
your Atheist hero. Those who came before did the best they could
with the tools they had, but that is not good enough by our standards
.today. If you prefer humanism or unitarianism or agnosticism or
freethought today, it only means that you still have a 17th or 18th
century mind in a 20th century world.
Everyone of the precursor positions to Atheism were systems of
thought based on the assumption that something of some undefined
spiritual quality and quantity either does exist or might exist outside
of the "known" world. We know now that that sort of thinking is pure
"bunk." Science, the same thing that started the deists merely to
wonder, has now made it possible for us over 200 years later to stand
firm as Atheists with no "feelings," as they said in the 17th century, of
some kind of eternal power being "out there" someplace. ~
The American Atheist

NEWS AND COMMENTS / October, 1983

THE RECYCLING OF AN ATHEIST

There were no final words, no stifled sobs,
no coffin. An Atheist in attendance dropped
a shiny 1983 penny in the grave before
Arnold prepared to shovel dirt to fill it in.
The penny would help any future archeologist to date the burial. However, a small
metal marker will be put on the grave and
that will bear Conway's name, his prison
number -10019, and the American Atheist
logo. The cemetery is plotted and Conway's
name will be noted on a map of the graves.
It was a little over a year ago that Augusta
County issued a special-use permit to establish the American Atheist Infinite Cemetery.
When that special-use permit recently expired, the authorities agreed to zone the 1Y2
acres as a cemetery tract. No sign has as yet
been erected to identify the area.
There is no charge to be buried in the 1Y2
acre plot.
Via said that, contrary to popular belief,
there is no law that says a human body must
be placed in a coffin or vault at the time of
burial.

Grottoes, Va.
The prison authorities at the Virginia
State Penitentiary in Richmond, Virginia
handed the naked body of Frederick Conway of Norfolk to Arnold Via on August
30th_ His mother didn't want it. Frederick,
age 34, had died of cancer at the penitentiary on August 12th and had lain in the
deep freeze drawer for over two weeks.
Arnold Via, the founder of the American
Atheist Infinite Cemetery in Grottoes,
Virginia, claimed it as his own, to be the first
inhabitant there. The entire expense for the
interment amounted to $26.00, most of
which was spent on gas ($17.00) for the
body's one way trip from Richmond. Another $5.00 went for the plastic sheet in
which Frederick was temporarily wrapped,
and $4.00 was the cost of 50 feet of the
quarter-inch rope used to bind that plastic
covered body during its ride in the pickup
truck bed.
Frederick had been in the penitentiary
since October 24, 1972 and had served 10
years, 9 months and 20 days ofa 39-year, 10
month and 5 day sentence for first-degree
murder, attempted murder and robbery. He
- with his brother, also 27 - attempted to
rob a market in Norfolk. Frederick was 23 at
the time. In an exchange of gunfire, the
friend of the two Conway brothers died, the
Austin, Texas

store owner took 4 bullets (.357 caliber

magnum revolver) but got 4 bullets into
Frederick at the same time. Ironically, for
sometime
they shared a room in the
intensive care unit of DePaul Hospital.
Arnold last saw Frederick on August 8th,
"I had an affidavit saying he wanted me to
pick up his body and bury it. We had
discussed this several times. He knew he
was dying. His family had signed a release of
his body to the state. When he died, I drove
my pickup to the prison, lashed it down with
a rope, and took him home."
But the gravesite was about 50 yards from
the pickup through the woods. The 1Y2 acre
parcel off Va. State Hwy. 64 about a mile
west of Shenandoah National Park is heavily
wooded and the plastic wrapped body
needed to be dragged through the underbrush. Arnold dug the grave himself, 4 feet
long, 2Y2 feet wide. And, it was he who sliced
the plastic shroud from Conway's body and
rolled it into the grave.
"He was curled up in the bottom of the
hole, nude as a baby, and he had a smile on
his face," Arnold reported to the American
Atheist Center.

October, 1983

"I made a thorough investigation of the

legalities," Via said. "Come to find out,
amazingly, there are more laws concerning
the burial of animals and pets than humans.
The vault is a cemetery regulation. And
embalming, that's another little known fact.
It's not required by law. There was no
problem with decomposition of the body
even though he died August 12."
He said Conway was buried naked
"because we come into the world that way
and we go out that way. We (the Atheist
group) are scientific minded. We believe in
scientific facts, that things should be proven
by science. We don't believe in heresy or
propaganda. The dead don't have any
control. It's the living who go through all the
ritual."
Noting that the entire expenses were only
$26.00, Arnold said, "When you bury
someone for $26.00 when funeral homes
charge you $4,060, $6,000 or even $10,000,
you can open up a big can of worms." The
other Atheist in attendance added that
expensive funerals are for the living and not
the deceased. However, Atheists feel that
"when you are dead, the game's over" and
the only option is to recycle. ~

Page 5

NEWS AND COMMENTS / October, 1983

(cont.)

Holt, Rinehart & Winston

THE MUSIC BOOK
Purple Book:
"The Tiny Child"
"Come now little shepherds, come to
Bethlehem.
Come to see the virgin and the tiny child.
Now with happy singing, greet this blessed
morn
And the tiny child who has just been born."
p. 149
"The Friendly Beasts"
"Jesus, our brother, kind and good
Was humbly born in a stable rude.
And the friendly beasts around him stood
And every beast by some good spell
In the stable dark was glad to tell
Of the gift he gave Emmanuel,
The gift he gave Emmanuel. "
p. 150

Kalispell, Montana is a town of - at least

10,000 people, hardly a place in which
one would care to be unpopular. But Louise
Bowdish, an American Atheist, took them
all on earlier this year over the matter of
music textbooks. Her letter to the President
of District Five School Board read as
follows:
-

Mrs. Mary Gibson, President

District 5 School Board
505 6th Ave. East
Kalispell, MT 59901
Dear Mrs. Gibson:
I have read the six music books published
by the Holt, Rinehart and Winston Company which your curriculum committee is
recommending that the school board adopt
and buy for the education of the children in
the Kalispell public schools.
I strongly object to the purchase of this
series of books because of the many many
religious and spiritual songs contained
therein. These books are saturated with
judeo/christianity - 68 references in all.
The Kindergarten/First Grade book is
the only one without religion. The second
level book contains 5 religious songs or
prayers, the third level contains 6 religious
Page 6

songs or prayers, the fourth level contains

14 religious songs or prayers, the fifth level
contains 18 religious songs or prayers, and
the sixth level book contains 25 religious
songs or prayers.
It is inappropriate to have governmentally sponsored religious training and prayer in
publicly financed institutions such as the
American school system. Any religious
exercise is impermissible in tax supported
public schools as determined by the United
States Supreme Court decision #142 Murray et al v. Curlett et al dated June 17,1963.
I urge you as president of the school
board to look into this matter and to seek
out textbooks which do not contain religious doctrine.
I will enclose excerpts from some of the
songs contained in the Holt, Rinehart and
Winston series of music books to support
my allegations.
Sincerely,
Louise Bowdish

Yellow Book:
"At the Gate of Heaven"
"At the gate of heav'n tiny shoes they are
giving
To the little barefooted angels there living."
p.96
"Twas in the Moon of Wintertime"
"Come kneel before the radiant Boy
Who brings you beauty, peace and joy.
Jesus your King is born, Jesus is born!"
p. 146
Brown Book:
"Streets of Glory"
"I'm gonna walk the streets of glory,
I'm gonna walk the streets of glory,
One of these days, hal-le-lu-jah
I'm gonna walk the streets of glory.
My Lord What a Morning
You'll hear the trumpet sound
You'll hear the sinners mourn
You'll hear the Christians shout
Looking to MY God's right hand
When the stars begin to fall."
p.134
"KumBa Yah"
"Someone's crying, Lord
Someone's singing, Lord
Someone's praying, Lord."
p. 140
"Praise and Thanksgiving"
"Praise and thanksgiving let everyone bring
Unto our Father for every good thing
All together joyfully sing!"
p.207

October, 1983

The American Atheist

NEWS AND COMMENTS / October, 1983 (cont.)

Red Book:
"Tallis' Canon"
"All praise to Thee, my God, this night
For all the blessings of the light;
Keep me, oh keep me, King of Kings
Beneath thine own almighty wings. "
. p.151
"All Creatures of Our God and King
Lift up your voice and with us sing. "
p.220
"Thanksgiving Hymn"
"We gather together to ask the Lord's
blessing,
The wicked oppressing, now cease from
distressing
So from the beginning the fight we are
winning
Thou, Lord, wast at our side
Thy name be ever praised."
p.221
"We all extol thee, thou leader triumphant
And pray thou shall our defender will be
Thy name be praised, Oh Lord, make us
free!"
p.223
"Go Tell It on the Mountain"
"Go tell it on the mountain that
Jesus Christ is born."
p.228
"Rock of Ages"
(another prayer)
"Rock of ages, God above
Hear we pray our grateful song
Not our power, but thy love and
Thy spirit makes us strong. "
p.231
"A New Year Carol"
"For we worship God with this happy New
Year."

Blue Book:
"Lift Every Voice and Sing"
"Lift every voice and sing
Till earti: and heaven ring
Sing a song full of the faith. "
p.32
"Come, Come, YE Saints"
"Come, come ye saints,
No toil nor labor fear,
We'll find the place which God for us
prepared
Shout praises to our God and King."
p.110
"Somebody's Knockin' at Your Door"
"Somebody's knocking at your door,
o sinner, why don't you answer?
Knocks like the Lord,
Can't you hear him?
Answer the Lord
o sinner, why don't you answer?"
p. 140
"Steal Away"
"Steal away to Jesus
My Lord he calls me by the thunder
I ain't got long to stay here, oh Lord."
p.146
"Over My Head"
"Over my head I hear music in the air
There must be a God somewhere, somewhere."
p.216
"Two Wings"
"Oh, Lord, I want two wings to veil my face;
Oh, Lord, I want two wings to veil my face
So the Devil can't do me no harm!
My Lord, did he come? Yes.
And he washed my sins away."
p.218
"Thanksgiving Canon"
"For thy gracious blessings

PRAYING AND PLAYING;

007'5 CHICKEN GAME
It is ironic that no one in the media has
noticed that the downed South Korean jet
was flight #007. One wonders ifthe jet was a
James Bond special, deliberately so.
A Japanese newspaper reports that an
aide of McDonald expected flight 007 to be
shot down. Reports filter in that some flights
have intentionally "wandered" into the
Soviet airspace from time to time to aid
right-wing religious fundamentalists in their
determination "to pray over mother Russia." Indeed a new "chicken" game was
being played: to intrude into Soviet airspace, "pray over mother Russia," and get
out and back to safety. To the witless, this
proves that "god protects" when they "bait
the bear."
But what was happening on flight 007? In
Austin, Texas

Alaska, it is known that Congressman

McDonald "went back and talked with the
passengers" before they took off. And,
when Jim Bakker was discussing that
McDonald was to appear on a PTL club
program as soon as he returned from
Korea, Jim noted that he himself "had flown
in the cockpit" on some of his flights.
The Japanese reveal that 007, when
challenged, attempted to take evasive action, to shoot from 32,000 to 35,000 feet.
Was the pilot playing "chicken?"
When it is all added up, a question is seen
walking away from the plane's debris. Was
McDonald in the cockpit with the pilot
"praying over mother Russia" as he played
"bait the bear?" It's a good question, and we
willnever know the answer, but it could be.
October, 1983

For thy wondrous word

We give thanks, oh, Lord."
p.237
"Now Thank We All Our Lord"
"Now thank we all our God
o may this bounteous God through all our
life be near us
And keep us in his grace
And free us from all ills
In this world and the next."
p. 238
"Here We Come A-Wassailing"
"God Bless the master of this house
And god bless you
And send a happy New Year."
p.239
"How Far to Bethlehem?"
"How far to Bethlehem? Not very far.
Shall we find the stable warm, lit by a star?
May we stroke the creatures there, oxen
and sheep?
May we watch Jesus asleep?"
p.243
The School Board met a month later and
insisted on adopting the books.
Louise Bowdish taught elementary
school in California for 21 years and is the
mother of four grown children.
When interviewed by the press she
voiced her concern over the religious
fundamentalists who have launched a drive
to remove school books they consider
offensive:
"I think it's something everybody
should be concerned about. It's a real
threat to public education."
American Atheists think so too. Why
don't you read your children's textbooks?

INTELLECTUAL
DINASAUR

(credit to Robert Kutz - Pa.)

Page 7

BIBLE THUMPERS
AND INSAN1TY
by Frank Walter
Ever watch the THUMPERS as they go to work a crowd? The tube
for six hours every Sunday morning is prime-time THUMPER time.
What a show! The best acting that comes out of Hollywood fades to
dimness when compared to the dripping sincerity, the hop-skip-andjumping, the wild gesticulations, the misty-eyed gaze toward the sky,
the seraphic smiles, all part of the show put on by the THUMPERS.
Allthis goes along with the $1000 suits, so neatly pressed over the $75
shirts and the $50 ties, the sparkling $200 shoes, and nary a whisker
unshaven or a hair out of place. These guys most likely don't even go
to the bathroom! And, of course, there's always the book. Watch
them. They use it like a saber: thrusting with it, waving it about, and,
to be sure, thumping with it. These shows are put on as professionally
as anything that comes out of the dreaded Las Vegas. Watch how the
cameras scan the audience to catch the tears flowing, the enraptured
stares, the hand-wringing anxiety and the tormented eyes. Oh yes,
they are squeezing the act for all it's worth, because we all know these
poor saps are being greased for the collection plate.
All that is well known to anyone who has ever watched these

Page 8

October, 1983

hucksters operate. But let's dig just a little bit below the surface. Of
the fifteen or so hundred pages of the bible, how many of these spell
bound believers in the audience, do you suppose, have ever read
more than just a few pages of the bible - and only those pages they've
been instructed to do so by the THUMPERS? You know there is not
one in a thousand of those watchers who has ever really read the
bible. You know they all started out as committed believers before
they ever read one sentence.
It would be an interesting statistic to learn just exactly how much of
what is in the bible, in totality, is ever preached by the THUMPERS.
I'd wager and not lose that less than one percent of the bible is ever
THUMPED. Anyone who's really read the bible knows that there are
huge segments of it that none of these guys would ever preach - I
dare say, they couldn't!
And of all the things in the bible that could be preached, these
comedians will pick out the dumbest little part - it's usually only a
sentence or two, and then spend up to one hour drawing the most
absurd parallels to modern lifeand then extrapolating from those the
most astonishing conclusions - all this without even a whisper of
doubt from any of those thousands of practitioners out there so
dumbstruck by it all.

The American Atheist

The other week I watched Jimmy Swaggart perform (He's my

favorite; 11 to 12 PST). Swaggart was in rare form that day. He spent
almost a complete hour preaching on one word having to do with
Judas snitching on Jesus. He began by calling what Judas did as the
most heinous crime ever committed by anyone in the history of the
world. Can you imagine that? This most heinous of crimes, he would
have us believe, was for Judas to tell, as a little child would, on this guy
Jesus - who knew ahead of time he was going to 'be killed, told
everybody about it, wanted to die, indeed, that's what would get him
out of the jam he found himself in so he could get back home with
daddy - and Judas told on him. Horror of horrors. IfJimmy knew his
bible and wanted to tell of a heinous crime he could have told about
Moses ordering 35,000 men, women and children to be slaughtered in
cold blood, except for the virgins because he wanted them saved for
his soldiers to rape (numbers 31:1718). Maybe Judas should have
gone on a bloody rampage and killed a bunch of people, then he would
be looked upon as a good guy like Moses.

But let's get down even a little deeper and get to the part about
insanity. It is indeed interesting how these THUMPERS pick out what
they're going to THUMP about from that big, huge bible. Before we
get directly to the insanity issue, let's ponder this question: Ifyou were
a serious, committed devotee of a religion and it had this bible which
you literally took for the word of god and if that god told you directly
and unequivocally not to do a particular thing, yet week after week
before millions of viewers, also devotees of the same religion, you
consciously, willfully and with glee defied the orders of your god,
wouldn't you say that person was insane? Ifyour god told you, "Don't
jump into that river for I tell you it is full of crocodiles," and you did it
anyway before the entire congregation to which you preach the
words of the same god, no doubt, to a person, that congregation
would scream that you were crazy.
We go now to the bible. Mind you, these passages are not tucked
away in some obscure place in the old testament. No indeed; this is
right in the beginning of the new testament, in the Sermon on the
Mount at that. Most people, if they were intent on reading the bible,
would most likely start with the beginning of the new testament and
even if they only read the first few pages and never got any further
would probably read these words. So here we have it, straight from
the lips of Jesus himself, telling it like it is (matthew 6:1), "Be careful
Austin, Texas

not to make a show of your religion before men; if you do, no reward
awaits you in your Father's house in heaven."
Now isn't it incredible that a true believer would do the exact
opposite of what is required in order to go to the place they all want to
get to so badly? In reality, this situation is quite plain. Either these
THUMPERS are bald-assed hypocrites - which, of course, they
would vehemently deny - or they are insane. What other choice is
there in view of the seriousness of what is at stake?
And also, don't these THUMPERS just love to lead these huge
flocks in prayer? Oh, do they ever love it. In that same section of
matthew we find, "But when you pray, go into a room by yourself."
(matthew 6:6). And just following that: "In your prayers do not go
babbling on like the heathen, who imagine that the more they say the
more likely are they to be heard." (matthew 6:7)
Are these THUMPERS really insane? Remember, these guys deal
in absolutes. They don't fool around. They exhort their flocks in the
most impassioned ways imaginable that all this bible stuff is true to the
word. Do they have the excuse of not knowing that the aforementioned stuff is there, the actual words of their god? We have to
assume they know that stuff is there. Then, by cracky, they must be
insane.
Webster's New World Dictionary defines insanity as: (This is the
legal definition now) "Any degree or form of mental derangement or
unsoundness of mind, permanent or temporary, that makes a person
incapable of what is regarded legally as normal, rational conduct or
judgment. ... " Also, "great folly; extreme senselessness."
Do the THUMPERS fit the mold? Is it a rational judgment to do the
exact opposite of what you most sincerely believe willlead to the most
momentous event in your entire life? Is this extreme senselessness?
Our mental institutions are crammed to capacity with people
who've made far less serious irrational judgments than that having to
do with eternal life. John Hinckley was deemed insane by a panel of
psychiatrists because he wounded some important officials (Ithink he
was really judged insane because he had wet dreams over Jody
Foster - and, heavens! we all know the bible tells us that the mere
thought of lusting for a woman is a sin.).
Well, I, for one, choose to completely reject the ravings of insane
men. That there are millions of gullible people who think it is less to
think for themselves than to accept - hook, line, and sinker - what
professional con men are telling them (especially when they condemn
themselves with their own words based on the avowed teachings of
their own god) is of no special importance to me.

"And, of course, there's always the book.

Watch them. They use it like a saber: thrusting
with it, waving it about, and, to be sure,
thumping with it."
History is replete with millions of people being led by insane men.
The entire history of the christian religion is filled with one insane act
after another, and body piled on body. And it continues unabated to
this very day.
That millions of people can continue to believe in insane notions
and be led by insane religious leaders is not in the least remarkable.
Bertrand Russell commented once when discussing christianity:
"The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence
whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, in view of the
silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more
likely to be foolish than sensible."
Marriage and Morals, p. 39
We all know there willalways be a never-ending supply of suckers
for the THUMPERS. You know what Barnum said. What we must do,
I think, is to concentrate our efforts at just keeping these crazy people
away from the purse and the strings of government and to keep them
out of the public schools. It is vital that we keep as much insanity as
possible out of those places - the gods know we've got enough of
them there already! If we as Atheists can accomplish that, then we
can call ourselves successful. ~

October, 1983

Page 9

AMERICAN ATHEISTS
PARTICIPATE.
IN JOBS, PEACE,
FREEDOM MARCH
Fourteen members of the San Francisco Chapter
joined in the Jobs, Peace, and Freedom mobilization in
San Francisco on Saturday, August 27. An estimated
25,000 participated in the march from Golden Gate Park
to the Civic Center Plaza in front of City Hall where a
four-hour rally was held.
This was one of several events in major U.S. cities held
in support of the principal mobilization in Washington,
DC to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Martin
Luther King's historic 1963 march on Washington.
The San Francisco event was the first (The Houston
Chapter joined in a peace march against Reagan, but did
not identify themselves as American Atheists) in which
American Atheists have officially joined many other
organizations in a public demonstration. It was sponsored by the Bay Area Coalition of Conscience;
endorsers included many churches, unions, peace and
anti-nuclear war groups, churches, ethnic and senior
citizens organizations.
The San Francisco Chapter decided to participate
because of the importance of informing the community
that Atheists, too, have a deep ethical conscience about
our society and its future, and that religious belief is not a
prerequisite for such a conscience.
Our marchers were pleased by a number of supporting comments by spectators along the way, and felt
accepted by their fellow demonstrators. Several of the
media after the event mentioned participation by
American Atheists.
At the Civic Center, the Chapter had a literature table
for distribution of its leaflets and sale of publications. Its
members circulated among the thousands there, distributing principally the leaflet provided by Austin "Atheists Want: Life, Peace, Nuclear Freeze & Disarmament NOW," and "Atheist: ... it's not just for
closets anymore!" Many people signed our list to receive
future newsletters.
One of our members paid for and donated the
beautiful large 10' x 3' banner carried in the parade and
displayed behind our literature table, plus a smaller
banner to mount below the edge of the table. We are now
well prepared to participate in future public events, to
spread the word about Freedom From Religion, Freedom of the Mind, Separation of State and Church, and
Mutual Disarmament.
We were especially pleased to borrow the video
camera of one of our members, which permitted us to
video-tape the march. The national staff will work
excerpts of that tape into one of its videotapes for
national distribution.

Page 10

October, 1983

The American Atheist

WITNESS FOR THE DEFENSE ....

The A. C. L. U. has put the American public school system into more
danger than any other group in the last 200+years. This is exactly why
we are afraid of "liberals. " They attempt to lean toofar to befriends
with the fascists of religion.
In 1979 Karol Wojtyla, alias the pope, came to the United States
after his church announced that he would hold a full mass on the
Washington Mall. Madalyn Murray O'Hair and Jon Garth Murray
sued the Secretary of the Interior and the pope saying that he had no
right to hold a full mass on federal property whether or not the
American taxpayer paid the bill. The two Atheist leaders lost their suit
and the American taxpayersfooted the bill which was over $3 million.
When Dr. O'Hair and Murray appeared in the Washington, DC
Federal District Court to fight that case, Americans United and the
A. CiL, U. were both sitting at the counsel table with the attorneys of
the pope and the roman catholic church. They had two arguments: (l)
the pope was protected by the "Free Speech" section of the First
Amendment, and (2) the pope was entitled to "free access'iinto public
lands, since the state must be "neutral" and permit both religious and
non-religious groups a use of the land. The attorneysfor the pope and
the roman catholic church together with the attorneys for A. C. L. U.
and Americans United hammered away at "free speech" while Dr.
O'Hair and Jon, speaking through one quaking little unknown
attorney, hammered away at the breach this was of the" Establishment
Clause" of the state/church separation First Amendment to the
Constitution. The court found that the money the government spent
was only for "crowd control" and not to accommodate the pope and
his worshippers. It also found that the Secretary of the Interior had
correctly given the pope "free access" to accommodate his right of
"free speech" on public land.
At the time of the trial, American Atheists begged the nation to rally
round and stop this spread of religion into government property and
payment of taxpayer funds to benefit religion. With Americans
United, a baptist organization claiming to be devoted to the concept of
state / church separation, and the American Civil Liberties Union,
claiming to be devoted to the concept of civil liberties for all (even .
Atheists), both against the Murrayj O'Hair team (fighting government, the pope and the roman catholic church in the United States),
American Atheists lost the case. The decision was reported in this
magazine and in the "Insider's Newsletter" of the American Atheist
organization, and an appeal was taken to the District of Columbia
Circuit, where the Murray/ o 'Hair team lost again.
Reviewing the case in the pages of this magazine, it was predicted
that this case would be used as a bulwark to move religion into every
government institution.
Almost immediately the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth
Circuit in St. Louis, Missouri used the holding in the case ofO'Hair v.
Andrus, 613 F.2d 931 (1979) to reverse a case before it which had been
decided by a Federal District Court before (in time) the O'Hair v.
Andrus case. In that case, Chess v. Widmar, 635 F.2d 1310 (CA8
1980), the University of Missouri at Kansas City had refused to
provide facilities to a religious group "for the purposes of religious

worship and it went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1981. There, using
the arguments of the A. CiL, U; that the religious group must have
"free access" and the right of 'free speech, "the court ordered that the
state-owned university provide facilities to the religious nuts.
Those religious nuts, however, had already started litigation in half
a dozen other states to bring the same religion to high schools. Those
cases will be reported later in this magazine. But, meanwhile, Virginia
was having difficulties with parents who did not want their daughter
to be indoctrinated into religion and the Crocket v. Sorenson case had
started. We present it to you here. Although the judge deemed the
exercise to be unconstitutional, going beyond his duty to strictly

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construe the facts before him, he has given blueprints for the
destruction of the "Establishment Clause'l fight. Already, scores of
schools throughout the nation have indicated that they will use the
judge's "blueprints" when school opens this fall.
All of this is based fundamentally on the O'Hair v. Andrus case.
Had the A. CiL. U. not been playing the role of the "liberal good guys"
in order to placate its roman catholic members and thus continue to
receive membership dollars from them, the schools of our nation
would not be threatened with christianization. This is the nosefo the
camel under the tent. Before the end of the decade we will have
christianized schools unless the Atheists unite to fight, NO W.
All we can do is to inform you. Read this and weep.

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COU~T FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT

ABINGDON DIVISION

OF VIRGINIA

SAM L. CROCKETT AND SALLY A. CROCKETT, PLAINTIFFS

V~ AUGUST E. SORENSON, ET AL, DEFENDANTS
ORDER
For the reasons set forth in a Memorandum Opinion filed this day,
it is ADJUDGED that the bible class program of the City of Bristol,
Virginia's school system violates the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and it is, therefore, ORDERED that the
Defendants and their successors hereby are permanently enjoined
from permitting the said bible class program to be continued to be
taught in the public schools of the City of Bristol, Virginia.
It if FURTHER ORDERED that the Plaintiffs shall be entitled to
Austin, Texas

recover their taxable court costs from Defendants. The question of

attorneys' fees, being a collateral matter which does not keep this
Order from being final, is deferred until a later date.
The Clerk is directed to strike this case from the active docket of the
Court and to send certified copies of this Order to all counsel of
record.
ENTER this 29th day of July, 1983.
Jackson L. Kiser,
United States District Judge

October, 1983

Page 11

MEMORANDUM

OPINION

This controversy involves the program of bible instruction offered

in the elementary schools of the City of Bristol, Virginia. Plaintiffs,
Sam L. Crockett and Sally A. Crockett, are residents of the City of
Bristol and the parents of Kathleen Crockett, who, at the time this suit
was filed, was a fifth grade student at the Washington and Lee
Elementary School. Defendants included August E. Sorenson, Louise
A. Bowdoin, Charles P. Curcio, Ralph M. Dillow, Jr.,and
Fred P.
Entler, members of the Bristol School Board; Royce W. Quarles, the
Superintendent
of Schools of the City of Bristol; and Tom Parker, the
Principal of Washington and Lee Elementary School.'
Plaintiffs bring this suit pursuant to 42 U.S.c. Sec. 1983, alleging
that the course in bible instruction offered in the fourth and fifth
grades of the Bristol elementary schools is, in fact, religious instruction and thus violative of the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses
of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution;
Article I,
Sec. 16 of the Constitution of Virginia; and Virginia Code Sees, 57-1
to 57-2 (1981).2 Plaintiffs request that Defendants be permanently
enjoined from continuing to teach the bible course in the Bristol public
schools and that Plaintiffs be awarded costs and attorneys' fees.
This case was tried over a four-day period. During the trial, the
parties introduced
evidence in the form of numerous witnesses,
documentary
exhibits of various kinds, and video tapes of actual
classes of two of the teachers, Mrs. Luella A. Steppe and Mrs. Beverly
Bowers. From this evidence, I make my findings of fact.
I.

:, .

FINDINGS OF FACT
I. For over 40 years, the Bristol public school system has provided
classes in which the bible has been taught in the fourth and fifth
grades. These classes are taught once a week for 45 minutes in each of
Bristol's six elementary schools. Students receive no grade or credit on
their academic record for the classes.
The bible teaching program was begun in 1941 by a private group of
individuals.
Seven years later the Bristol ministerial association
assumed sponsorship of the program.
3. The Bristol ministerial association
is a voluntary group of
protestant ministers in the Bristol area.
4. The Bristol ministerial association continued to sponsor the bible
instruction course until 1978. At that time another private group, the
Bristol council of religious education, began to sponsor the program.
The council was renamed "Bible Teaching in the Public Schools" in
November, 1982. Regardless of the name change, this group has been
the sponsor of the bible instruction program from 1978 to date.
5. The membership of the "Bible Teaching in the Public Schools"
group is composed of ministers and lay representatives
from the
various protestant denominations
in the City of Bristol. It is a loosely
organized group which is run on a day-to-day basis by officers who are
elected by the delegates from the various churches. Its primary
functions are to raise funds for the bible instruction program, to
employ teachers and to supervise the instruction.
6. Early in the life of the program, the precise time not being
revealed by the evidence, the ministerial association prepared a course
of study outline and prescribed the objectives of the course, the
materials to be used, and the portions of the bible to be taught. This.
outline has been used by the teachers from then until the present with
no substantial modifications.
Although not prescribed by the ministerial association, the kingjames version of the bible is the translation
which has been used by the teachers.
7. Since the inception of the program, the teachers of the bible
course have been selected, hired, supervised and paid by the private
sponsoring group. The public school officials exercise no control or
supervision over the teachers; the sole official duty that the teachers
have to the school officials is to report attendance.
8. At the close of the 1982-83 school year, the program had three
paid teachers: Mrs. Luella A. Steppe, Mrs. Beverly Bowers, and Miss
Mildred Clark. Mrs. Steppe has been a teacher in the program since
1943 and retired at the end of the 1982-83 school year. Miss Clark and
Mrs. Bowers have taught in the program for 35 and 3 years,
respectively, and both still teach in the bible instruction classes. All
Page 12

October,

1983

three teachers have college degrees and teaching experience in biblical

and elementary education.
Mrs. Clark has a Tennessee teaching
certificate; only Mrs. Bowers holds a teaching certificate from the
Commonwealth
of Virginia.
9. Bible classes are offered only to students in the fourth and fifth
grades of the City of Bristol school system. Classes are voluntary and
to be enrolled in one of the classes, the parent(s) of the child must
affirmatively request enrollment. This is accomplished by means of a
form card which is sent to the parent(s) at the beginning of the school
year together with an explanatory brochure. The card must be signed
by the parent(s) indicating approval for the child to enroll in the class.
If the parent(s) indicate(s) disapproval or if the card is not returned to
the school where the child attends, the child is not enrolled.
10. For the greatest portion of the time that the bible teaching
program has been in effect, students who did not enroll in the class
were sent to the principal's office or to the library during the bible class
period. More recently, however, an attempt has been made to afford
the non-participating
students a more meaningful use of their time.
Since 1982, the non-participants
have been sent to the "extension
center." The "extension center" is a redistribution
plan where the
student, in theory, may choose one of several options. i.e. study hall,
physical education or a class in a subject at his grade level. As a
practical matter, however, the student has only the choice of study hall
or physical education because the subject classes offered were simply a
repeat of what the student had already attended in his regular
curriculum.
II. There exists a certain amount of pressure on the student to make
an election to enroll in the bible class. This is not an intentional
pressure which is exerted either by the public school officials or the
bible teachers, but peer pressure which is inherent in the act of
choosing a course of conduct which is contrary to the vast majority of
the student's peers. For example, in the 1982-83 school year, there
were 589 fourth and fifth grade students in the elementary schools of
the Bristol school system and 18 elected not to take the bible class.
This peer pressure affects students differently. To some it has a
positive effect of making them feel "special," while to others, including
Kathleen Crockett, it is keenly felt in a negative way of making them
feel ostracized from their fellow classmates who are enrolled in the
bible class.
12. From its inception up until February, 1982, the class routine
consisted of bible teaching, prayers, and the singing of hymns. After
February, 1982, the prayers and singing of hymns were dropped from
the program. Presently, the classes consist chiefly of bible teaching,
although the use of nondevotional
music has continued.
13. The fourth and fifth grades are appropriate
levels at which to
teach about the bible provided the courses are structured and taught in
a manner so as not to be a religious exercise. Further, with proper
planning and execution, the history, content and literature of the bible
is capable of being taught primarily as an academic subject.
Where appropriate, these findings offact and the reasons therefore
will be elaborated upon later in this opinion.
II.
A.
Since plaintiffs are residents and taxpayers of the City of Bristol,
since their daughter Kathleen was, at the time of the filing of this suit,
in the fifth grade where the bible instruction course is being taught,
and since the complaint alleges that this program is constitutionally
impermissible,
they have the requisite standing to prosecute this
action. See Murray v. Curlett, 374 UiS. 203 (1963); McCollum v.
Board of Education, 333 U.S. 203 (1948).

B.
Initially, Defendants assert that since the First Amendment is not
expressly applicable to the states, Plaintiffs' complaint fails to allege a
violation of any federally protected right. It is much too late in the day
to doubt that the First Amendment is made applicable to the states
through the Fourteenth Amendment. See Cantwell v. Connecticut,
310 U.S. 296 (1940); Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962); Murray v.
The American

Atheist

Curlett, supra. But see Jaffree v. Board of School Commissioners

of
Mobile County, 554 F.Supp. 1104 (S.D. Ala.), rev'd
F.2d
(11th Cir. 1983),3
C.
The First Amendment
to the United States Constitution,
in
pertinent part, provides:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; ... "
While the meaning of this phrase may have been perfectly clear to the
Founding Fathers, it has created endless discussion and litigation to
this day. The Court has established some firm boundaries and has
attempted to lay down certain guiding principles with respect to the
First Amendment. A review of the decisions, however, might well lead
one to confirm the fears of justice Jackson that the " 'wall of
separation between church and state' [might become] as winding as
the famous serpentine
wall designed by Mr. Jefferson for the
University he founded." McCollum, 333 U.S. at 238 (Jackson, L,
concurringJ.4
Plaintiffs argue that the bible course offends both the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the First Amendment. If plaintiffs
prove by a preponderance
of the evidence that the course violates the
Establishment Clause, it will be unnecessary to determine the merits of
Plaintiffs' free exercise argument. Likewise, if Plaintiffs fail to prove
an Establishment
Clause violation, only then would this court be
required to determine whether Plaintiffs' free exercise rights are being
violated. Moreover, it is possible for Plaintiffs to' make out a free
exercise claim even though the course does not constitute religious
instruction. See generally Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972);
United States v. Seeger, 380 U.S. 163 (1965); West Virginia v.
Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943). Accordingly, I will now turn to an
examination of Plaintiffs' Establishment Clause claim.
D.
The First Amendment was never intended to insulate our public
institutions from any mention of god, the bible, or religion. When
such insulation occurs, another religion, such as secular humanism, is
effectively established.
In 1961, the Court recognized the fact that secular humanism is a
religion, as much so as buddhism or taoism. Torcaso v. Watkins, 367
U.S. 488, 495 n.l l (1961). Subsequently,
in Murray v. Curlett, the
Court in reply to an argument made by justice Stewart in his wellreasoned dissent, stated:
[i]t is insisted that unless these religious exercises are permitted,
a "religion of secularism" is established. We agree, of course,
that the State may not establish a "religion of secularism" in the
sense of affirmatively opposing or showing hostility to religion,
thus "preferring those who believe in no religion over those who
do believe."
374 Ui S. at 225. Clearly, the Establishment Clause can be violated in
this regard without a showing of outright hostility to traditional
theistic religions. Though in the context of the British university, the
following quotation
is instructive for the situation in our public
schools:
On the fundamental
religious issue, the modern university'
intends to be, and supposes that it is, neutral, but it is not.
Certainly it neither inculcates nor expressly repudiates belief in
god. But it does what is far more deadly than open rejection; it
ignores Him ....
It is in this sense that the university today is
atheistic .... It is a fallacy to suppose that by omitting a subject
you teach nothing about it. On the contrary, you teach that it is
to be omitted, and that it is therefore a matter of secondary
importance.
And you teach this not openly and explicitly,
which would invite criticism, you simply take it for granted and
thereby insinuate it silently, insidiously, and all but irresistibly.
Moberly,
The Crisis in the University, 55-6 (1949) (quoted in
Whitehead & Conlan, The Establishment
of Religion and Secular
Humanism and its First Amendment
Implications,
10 Tex. Tech L.
Rev. I, 19 n.1 04 (1978) [hereinafter cited as "Whitehead & Conlan]);
Austin, Texas

See also Note, The Establishment

Clause, Secondary
Religious
Effects, and Humanistic Education, 91 Yale L.i. 1196 (1982).
The Establishment Clause ofthe First Amendment was intended to
protect the church from the state and the state from the church. As
justice Douglas, speaking for the majority in Zorach v. Clauson, 343
U.S. 306,312 (1952), stated:
There is much talk of the separation of church and state in the
history of the Bill of Rights and in the decisions clustering
around the First Amendment.
...
The First Amendment,
however, does not say that in any and all respects there shall be a
separation of church and state ....
Otherwise, the state and
religion would be alien to each other - hostile, suspicious, and
even unfriendly.
In McCollum v. Board of Education, supra, a program of religious
instruction in the public schools was found to be unconstitutional.
Classes were taught by representatives from protestant, catholic and
jewish groups. Students who did not wish to attend these classes were
required to leave the classroom. The instruction
was admittedly
religious in nature and the Court, in finding a violation of the
Establishment
Clause, reasoned:
It certainly may be said that the bible is worthy of study for its
literary and historical qualities. Nothing we have said here
indicates that such study of the bible or religion, when presented
objectively as part of a secular program of education, may not
be effected consistently with the First Amendment.
Schempp, 374 U.S. at 225; Accord, 374 U.S. at 300 (Brennan, L,
concurring).
McCollum, Zorach, Engel and Murray make it clear that religious
instruction is not permitted in the public schools. On the other hand,
the Murray decision makes it equally clear that public schools may
offer courses of bible instruction provided they are presented in an
objective manner.
Against this background the question for decision here is whether
the challenged bible course is, as Plaintiffs contend, impermissible
religious instruction, or, as Defendants contend, an objective academic course of bible study. Determining on which side of the line any
particular case falls is difficult at best. As the Court, in Lemon v.
Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602,612,614 (1971), explained:
Candor compels acknowledgment
... that we can only dimly
perceive the lines of demarcation
in this extraordinarily
sen
sitive area of constitutional
law ... '.
Judicial caveats against entanglement
must recognize that
the line of separation, far from being a "wall," is a blurred,
indistinct, and variable barrier depending on all the circumstances of a particular relationship.
And, as justice Brennan has stated:
The fact is that the line which separates the secular from the
sectarian in American life is elusive. The difficulty of defining
the boundary with precision inheres in a paradox central to our
scheme of liberty.
Murray, 374 U.S. at 231 (Brennan, L, concurring).
This is beyond all question a utilization of the tax-established
and tax-supported
public school system to aid religious groups
to spread their faith. And it falls squarely under the ban of the
First Amendment. ...
333 U.S. at 210.
Four years later, the released-time program in which students were
released from the public schools during school hours to attend
religious instruction classes off school property was permitted in
Zorach v. Clauson, supra. Emphasizing the need for government to
accommodate
the spiritual needs of its citizens, the Court noted that
no religious instruction occurred in the public school classrooms and
that there was no expenditure of public funds. 343 UiS, at 308,309. See
also Smith v. Smith, 523 Fsd 121 (4th Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 423
U.S. 1073 (1976).
In Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962), the Court dealt with the issue
of prayer in public schools. In that case, the New York State Board of
Regents had composed an "interfaith" prayer for use at the beginning
of each day in the public schools of the state. Noting the unquestioned

October,

1983

Page 13

religious nature of prayer, the Court invalidated the required exercise

as contravening the Establishment Clause.
The next Term, in Murray v. Curlett, 374 U.S. 203 (1963), a case
involving programs of prayer and devotional bible reading used to
open the school day in Pennsylvania
and Maryland,
the Court
concluded that the programs were religious activities, violative of the
Establishment Clause. But the Court went on to state that while the
programs of bible reading were impermissible religious activities, use
of the bible in public schools was not per se unconstitutional:
This problem is especially acute when dealing with a course in
biblical literature. No one can seriously dis'pute the importance
of the bible as a religious document. Both jews and christians
derive the essence oftheir religious beliefs from the bible, albeit
from different portions. Thus, it is probably true that the bible's
greatest value is as a religious book rather than as a source of
history or literature.
Still, the Supreme Court has recognized the importance of the bible
independent of its religious significance, and the influence that this
book has had on Western civilization cannot be gainsaid. Murray, 374
U.S. at 225,300. "To ignore the role of the bible ... is to ignore a
keystone in an arch." Wiley v. Franklin, 468 F.Supp. 133, 150
(E.D. Tenn. 1979). A few examples will illustrate this point.
In art, one cannot truly appreciate such great works as da Vinci's
Last Supper, Michelangelo's work in the sistine chapel, or Albrecht
Durer's woodcuts without some basic understanding of what the bible
contains. Without some introduction to the book of isaiah, Handel's
Messiah loses much of its force and importance. Literature is replete
with biblical allusion. Some of the better known works which rely
heavily on allusions from the bible include Milton's Paradise Lost; the
plays of Shakespeare,
especially Measure for Measure; Blake's
Marriage of Heaven and Hell; Melville's Moby Dick; Faulkner's
Absalom, Absalom; T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland; and C.S. Lewis's,

The Screw tape Letters.

Our language and popular culture are also replete with biblical
allusions. The symbol of the American Medical Association Association, a staff with a serpent on it, is drawn from an episode in the book
of numbers, when moses, at god's suggestion, raised a bronze serpent
on a staff and all the children of Israel who looked upon it were healed
of snakebites. The phrase "handwriting
on the wall" comes from a
passage in the book of daniel in which handwriting
on the wall
foretold rough times ahead for Babylonian king Belshazzar. The
popular phrase "the apple of my eye" is used in the old testament as
one of god's descriptions for his people Israel. And, of course, the term
"arrnageddon"
is the site where the battle will take place which will
mark the end of the age, as described in the book of revelations.
Anglo-American
law as we know it today is also heavily indebted to
principles and concepts found in the bible. William Blackstone, one of
the most influential figures in the development of the common law,
explained:
The doctrine thus delivered we call the revealed or divine law,
and they are to be found only in the holy scriptures .... Upon
these two foundations,
the law of nature and the law of
revelation, depend all human laws. That is to say, no human
laws should be suffered to contradict these.
W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Law of England, Chitty ed., p.
28 (1866) (quoted in Whitehead & Conlan, supra, at 26). Blackstone
posited that the law of nature as well as the law of revelation, was
derived from god. [d.
Further, biblical influences pervade many specific areas of the law.
The "good Samaritan" laws use a phrase lifted directly out of one of
jesus' parables. The concept of the "fertile octogenarian,"
applicable
to the law of wills and trusts, is in large part derived from the book of
genesis where we are told that Sarah, the wife of patriarch Abraham,
gave birth to Isaac when she was "past age." In addition, the ten
commandments
have had immeasurable
effect on Anglo-American
legal development.
Moreover, we as Americans, should especially be aware of the
influence that the bible and its principles have had on the founding
and development of our nation. In this regard, it is significant that

Page 14

October, 1983

president Ronald Reagan, on February 3, 1983, issued a proclamation

declaring 1983 the "Year of the Bible" in recognition of the bible's
fundamental and enduring influence on our country."
Secular education imposes immediate demands that the student
have a good knowledge of the bible. Two defense exhibits vividly
illustrate this point. Defendants' exhibit 14 is a summary of references
to the bible in the 1980 edition of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT),
the results of which are used by most colleges and universities in the
admissions
process. Defendants'
exhibit 15, a summary of bible
references found in textbooks used in the Bristol public schools, IS
based on selected books from elementary, junior high and high school
classes. Both exhibits bear witness to the overriding importance
of
providing our children with a basic education in the. bible.
.
In light of the above, it becomes obvious that a baSIC background III
the bible is essential to fully appreciate and understand both Western
culture and current events. Courts must be careful not to so encumber
our educators with restrictions as to what can be taught that we
prevent them from providing our children with the basic learning
experience they need. The Supreme Court has stated that for a course
of bible instruction to pass constitutional
muster, it must be taught
objectively. Murray, supra. Clearly, however, absolute objectivity is
not possible nor required, for as the Court stated in Lemon, "[o]ur
prior holdings do not call for total separation between church and
state; total separation is not possible in an absolute sense." 403 U.S. at
6/4.
E.
Having concluded that the Establishment
Clause permits a course
of bible study to be taught in the public schools, the next line of
inquiry is how it may be taught so as to be non-violative
of the
Establishment
Clause. In Lemon v. Kurtzman, supra, the Supreme
Court devised a three-prong
test for determining
whether a given
activity violates the Establishment
Clause. The test is:
I. The activity must have a secular purpose;
2. The activity must have a principle or primary effect which neither
advances nor inhibits religion; and
3. The activity must not foster an excessive entanglement
with
religion.

403 U.S. at 612-6/3.

The Court subsequently stated that this test does not state any new
principles oflaw, but is rather a distillation of the Court's efforts in the
past to evaluate a wide range of governmental
activity. Meek v.
Pittinger, 421 Ui S. 349, 358 (1975). In Meek, the Court pointed out
that the second prong of the test was developed from the line of cases
typified by Murray. This three-prong analysis seems more appropriate for those governmental
activities whose effect have more of an
indirect than direct bearing on the establishment
of religion. In this
case, I do not think it is helpful to engage in an analysis involving all
three prongs of the test in view of the cases such as McCollum: !-orach,
Engel, and Murray, which very clearly stand for the proposinon that
the practice of religion in the public schools is a violation of the
Establishment
Clause. Thus, the appropriate
inquiry in this case is
simply whether the bible teaching program constitutes a forbidden
religious exercise (i.e., advances religion) or a permissible academic
program. I conclude that the Bristol program falls on the forbidden
religious exercise side of the line.
The principal vice I find in the Bristol program lies not inthe grade
level at which it is taught nor in the classroom presentation
that I
observed in either the courtroom demonstration
by Mrs. Steppe or the
video tape classes of Mrs. Steppe and Mrs. Bowers, but in the strong
religious overlay that stems from the conception and management of
the program by the sponsors.
In their testimony, expert witnesses for both sides agreed that an
objective academic course in the bible is necessary for a well-roun?ed
education, but they had a divergence of opinion as to the appropnate
grade level. The Plaintiffs' experts opined that the ~o.urse sh.o.u.ld not
be offered until high school because the cogmtrve abilities of
elementary students did not enable them to discern between the bible
as truth and the bible as a textbook. To the contrary, the defense
experts held the opinion that bible teaching is a "building block" type

The American Atheist

course and that elementary students should be taught the stories and
characters of the bible so that they can better understand their courses
in literature and history at the high school level. I am persuaded that
the view of the defense experts is the better one.
All of the experts on both sides, save one, were grounded and
professed expertise in the fields of theology and philosophy. The only
expert who had an extensive background in education was Dr. Allene
Phy. Although well-versed in both literature and philosophy
Dr.
Phy's major field of endeavor was education. She had an extensive
background in devising curricula at all levels of education: elementary, secondary and post-secondary-Much
of her teaching experience
has involved training future teachers in proper educational methods.
Due to Dr. Phy's extensive educational background,
I find that her
opinion that the fourth and fifth grades are desirable levels at which to
commence bible teaching more persuasive than the testimony to the
contrary.
As stated, I observed a demonstration
by Mrs. Steppe of her lesson
on the ascension of jesus and viewed video tapes of classroom
presentations of both Mrs. Steppe and Mrs. Bowers. Considering the
subject matter being taught, the lessons were presented in an objective
manner and the teaching methods were appropriate
for the grade
levels. No attempt was made by the teachers to indoctrinate
the
students in the tenets of any religious faith.
Nonetheless, it is clear from the evidence that the bible teaching
program was instituted as a religious exercise and has continued as
such until the present. Although a stated purpose ofthe program is the
objective teaching of the bible, the evidence is to the contrary. The fact
is that the program was originally designed to inculcate religious
beliefs in the students. One would be hard-pressed
to find that a
program which has been in place for 40 years under the sponsorship of
protestant churches which prescribed the curriculum, selected, supervised and paid the teachers, included prayers and hymns in the classes,
and which has not been subject to the control and supervision of
secular authority can be an objective academic course of bible study.
Regardless of how a teacher may strive to 'be objective in her
classroom presentation,
there is no way she could overcome the
perceived aura that the classes are religious in nature. Nothing short of
a clean break with the past can dispel the religious nature of the
program. As was stated earlier in this opinion, the bible is a religious
document and to teach it within the bounds of the First Amendment
proscription is difficult under even the most ideal conditions. And the
conditions which exist in the present bible program fall short of ideal.
Hence, my conclusion that the bible teaching program in the Bristol
school system is a constitutionally
religious activity which violates the
Establishment Clause.
But this does not mean that the bible cannot be taught in the fourth
and fifth grades of the Bristol public schools under any circumstances.
I think Chief Judge Dalton suggested an appropriate framework for
bible teaching in the public schools in the case of Vaughn v. Reed,313
F.Supp. 431 (W.D. Va. 1970). Following his lead, I believe that the
bible could be taught in a public school system under the following
guidelines:
1. Supervision and control of the course should be under the
exclusive direction of the Bristol School Board;
2. The School Board should do the hiring and firing of teachers.for
the bible course in the same manner as it does for all other teachers;
3. Teachers should be certified in elementary education by the
Commonwealth
of Virginia;
4. No inquiry should be made to determine the religious beliefs, or
the lack thereof, of teacher applicants;
5. The School Board should prescribe the curriculum and select all
teaching materials, including the appropriate translation of the bible;
6. The course should be offered as an elective. Children who choose
not to take the course should be offered a reasonable alternative
course. Decisions as to what types of alternatives are to be offered are
more appropriately decisions within the province of educators rather
than this court;
.
7. The School Board may solicit contributions
from any private
organizations for the purpose of funding any and all costs of a bible
course. Such contributions
shall be received with "no strings atAustin, Texas

tached" other than the understanding

that such funds may be
earmarked for the bible course exclusively; and
8. The course should be taught in an objective manner with no
attempt made to indoctrinate
the children as to either the truth or
falsity of the biblical materials.
It will be noted that my prescription differs from the one enunciated
in Vaughn in one important respect. In Vaughn the bible course would
be mandatory for all students at the grade level at which it is offered,
313 F.Supp. 433-434, whereas I would make it optional. The
reasoning of the Vaughn court that knowledge of the bible is a
valuable facet of a student's education and, therefore, should be a
required subject is compelling when viewed from an educator's point
of view. I am of the opinion, however, that from a strictly constitutional analysis, requiring a student to participate in a course of bible
study when it runs contrary to his personal religious beliefs would
violate the Free Fxercise Clause. For this reason. I feel that such a
program must be optional. Wisconsin v, Yoder, 406 U.S. 205 (1972)
See also Duro v. North Carolina __
F.2d _
(4th a 1983).
Wiley v. Franklin, 468 F.Supp. 133 (E.D.Tenn. 1979), confronted
this issue of the interrelationship
of bible teaching vis-a-vis the Free
Exercise Clause. The court there concluded that as long as the bible
teaching was not religious in nature, it was not a "practice of religion"
which would run afoul of the free exercise proscription.
[d. at 48. I
disagree in that I do not feel that a practice must be a religious activity
in order to violate the Free Exercise Clause. To illustrate, a flag salute
ceremony and military conscription are not per se religious exercises,
yet the Court, in West Virginia v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624 (1943), and
United States v. Seeger, 380 U.S. 163 (1965), held that requiring
someone who is conscientiously
opposed due to sincere religious
beliefs to performing these practices violates the Free Exercise Clause.
I feel it would be extremely oppressive and, more importantly,
constitutionally
unacceptable to require a student to enroll in a bible
teaching class when the very subject matter being taught violated his
religious beliefs.
In conclusion, I hold that the current program of bible teaching in
the Bristol school system violates the First Amendment and, therefore, must be enjoined.s
An appropriate order will issue.
The clerk is directed to send certified copies of this Memorandum
Opinion to all counsel of record.
Jackson L. Kiser
United States District Judge

'On April 5, 1983, the court granted Plaintiffs' Motion to Dismiss

the Bristol Council of Religious Education as a party defendant.
2In light of my analysis, I do not reach Plaintiffs' allegations that
various Virginia constitutional
and statutory
sections have been
violated.
3In his scholarly opinion, Chief Judge Hand has pointed out that
the Cantwell decision was a result-oriented
decision which cannot be
supported
by historical data. It is, nonetheless,
the rule of law
announced by the Supreme Court by which I am bound.
+But cf., Committeefor Public Education v. Nyquist, 413 U.S. 756,
761 (1972) ("Indeed the controlling constitutional
standards have
become firmly rooted and the broad contours of our inquiry are now
well defined.")
5The president's proclamation
is set forth below in full:
YEAR OF THE BIBLE, 1983
BY THE PRESIDENT
OF THE UNITED
STATES OF
AMERICA
PROCLAMA TION
Of the many influences that have shaped the United States of
America into a distinctive nation and people, none may be said
to be more fundamental and enduring than the bible.
Deep religious beliefs stemming from the old and new
testaments of the bible inspired many of the early settlers of our
country, providing them with the strength, character, convictions, and faith necessary to withstand great hardship and
danger in this new and rugged land. These shared beliefs helped

October,

1983

Page 15

forge a sense of common purpose among the widely dispersed

colonies - a sense of community which laid the foundation for
the spirit of nationhood that was to develop in later decades.
The bible and its teachings helped form the basis for the
founding fathers' abiding belief in the inalienable rights of the
individual, rights which they found implicit in the bible's
teachings of the inherent worth of and dignity of each individual. This same sense of man patterned the convictions of those
who framed the English system of law inherited by our own
nation, as well as the ideals set forth in the Declaration
of
Independence and in the Constitution.
For centuries the bible's emphasis on compassion and love
for our neighbor has inspired institutional and governmental
expressions of benevolent outreach such as private charity, the
establishment
of schools and hospitals, and the abolition of
slavery.
Many of our greatest national leaders - among them
presidents Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, and Wilson - have
recognized the influence of the bible on our country's development. The plainspoken Andrew Jackson referred to the bible as
no less than "the rock on which our Republic rests." Today our
beloved America and, indeed, the world, is facing a decade of
enormous challenge. As a people we may well be tested as we
have seldom, if ever, been tested before. We will need resources

of spirit even more than resources of technology, education,

and armaments. There could be no more fitting moment than
now to reflect with gratitude, humility, and urgency upon the
wisdom revealed to us in the writing that Abraham Lincoln
called "the best gift god has ever given to man ... but for it we
could not know right from wrong."
The congress of the United States, in recognition
of the
unique contribution
of the bible in shaping the history and
character of this nation, and so many of its citizens, has by
Senate Joint Resolution
165 authorized
and requested the
president to designate the vear 19R3 as the "Year of the Bible"
Now, THEREFORE,
I, RONALD REAGAN, president of
the United States of America, in recognition of the contributions and influence of the bible on our Republic and our people,
do hereby proclaim 1983 the Year of the Bible in the United
States. I encourage all citizens, each in his or her own way, to
reexamine and rediscover its priceless and timeless heritage.
"The term "current" as used In the context ol this oprruon refers to
the evidence of record pertaining to the Bristol program of bible
instruction. Subsequent to trial, the City Council and School Board of
the City of Bristol have adopted resolutions recommending
certain
changes in the overall bible instruction program. Nonetheless, these
resolutions were not part of the trial record and, for this reason, were
not considered by me in this decision.
~

14TH ANNUAL
AMERICAN ATHEIST
CONVENTION
April 20th, 21st and 22nd, 1984
(Friday, Saturday & Sunday -

Easter weekend)

Radisson Plaza Hotel

Lexington, Kentucky
Featured Speakers:
Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair
Founder, American Atheists
Ms. Barbara Smoker
President
National Secular Society
London, England
Mr. Larry Flynt
Publisher

Hustler Magazine
MAKE YOUR PLANS TO ATTEND NOW!
WRITE:
Gloria Tholen
Convention Coordinator
Box 2117
Austin, TX 78768-2117
Page 16

REGISTRA TION
$20.00
$35.00/ couple
$10.00/ student or 65 and over - with I.D.
October, 1983

The American Atheist

A THEISM ABROAD

"DEVELOP SCIENTIFIC OUTLOOK,"

___
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Appeals Atheist Study Camp held at Vijayawada, India

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"Atheism is a positive way of life. It is not mere denial of the

existence of god or criticism of religious scriptures. Atheism is an
alternative to religion. Atheism shows the way to move from
ignorance to science and enlightenment." said Mr. Lavanam while
delivering the keynote address on May 27 in the three-day Atheist
Study Camp held at the Atheist Center in Vijayawada.
Mr. Lavanam made it clear that society is marching ahead from a
religious society to a post-religious society. In this onward march
Atheism is the necessity of the age.
In her inaugural address, octogenarian Atheist leader, Mrs.
Saraswathi Gora said that they should promote Atheism through
their exemplary behavior which would be a source of inspiration to
others. Society can progress when women also willbe equal partners
in it as they constitute half of humanity. Real social change can be
achieved when women will be in the forefront of Atheist activity. If
man changes, he alone may change. But when a woman changes, it
will have greater impact on the entire family, including children.
Hence, it is the responsibility of women to shed superstitions and
strive to promote Atheist families. That is the surest way to
strengthen the Atheist way of life, appealed Mrs. Saraswathi Gora.
Mr. G.S. Rao highlighted the significance of the Atheist way of life.
Prof. Sunada Shet from Coimabatore, Tamilnadu, threw light on
the multifaceted personality of Gora.
Dr. I. Ramasubba Reddy, a psychiatrist, spoke on "Mind and
Mental Diseases." He said some of the mental patients are regarded
as babas. He cited the example of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa who
had illusions and delusions and epilepsy due to mental disease. Some
people considered that god possessed Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
But the truth was that he suffered mental illness. Dr. Ramasubba
Reddy cited Dr. Desai's research article in Neurology India published
in 1968 in which it was mentioned that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
suffered from Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, a mental disease. The
patients of this mental disease suffer from epilepsy and will have
illusions and delusions. They behave as though they are possessed.
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa showed the symptoms of "Samadhi," an
unconscious state, and it was due to epilepsy. He once fell down and
lost his teeth and on another occasion he had shoulder dislocation.
Dr. Ramasubba Reddy explained how and why people get the
feeling of possession. It happens so because of some head injury or
tumors in brain or damage to tissues.
Austin, Texas

Dr. ~amasu~ba Re?dy made it c~ear. ~hen all people ~ave

economic security, social status and scientific outlook, there will be
no fear of witchcraft or sorcery or the possessions of gods, devils and
demons.
Dr. Ramasubba Reddy stated further that the belief in spirit
possession, devils and other superstitions are confined to certain
societies and peculiar to the cultural values they follow. Typhoid,
heart attack, or cancer are common diseases all over the world. But
the belief in spirit possession, banamathi, or witchcraft is confined
primarily to the societies which are backward economically, politically, and socially. In socialist countries like the Soviet Union we seldom
come across the spirit possession.
Referring to spirit possession as hysteria, he said that it is visible
only at the time of some religious festivals, some function, or on some
particular days of the week like Saturdays. This shows that spirit
possession is culturally rooted and intertwined with the religious
beliefs.
Economically backward people, women with problems and those
who do not have any social status in the family pretend of spirit
possession with a view to gain control in the family and make others to
play to their tune. It is nothing but a play to gain an upper hand and
expand their hegemony over others to get their things done
effectively.
Mr. Y. Balaramamurthy spoke on the interrelationship between
ideology and social reality in ancient Indian Society. He traced the
evolution of the caste system and the rise of protest against the caste
system and superstitious practices and animal sacrifice. He also dealt
at length about the protest movement of Charawaka and Lokayata.
The rise of buddhism and jainism indicate a cultural renaissance in
India and heralded a new era in social relations. He also traced the
reasons for the rise and fall of the buddhism and how the hindu
revivalism brought back the caste system and other superstitious
practices. Many buddhist stupas and monuments were destroyed
and some of them were converted into hindu temples.
Mr. Balaramurthy said that the movements like Charawaka,
buddhism and jainism were revolutionary in their contemporary
societies. But the modern world advanced far ahead and it would be
wrong to follow them as it is. New ideas and new movements are
needed to achieve social change in modern India, Mr. Balaramurthy
added.
Mrs. Hemalata Lavanam spoke on "Atheism and Social Change
Work"; Dr. Samaram on "Atheism and Science"; and Mr. Hazarat Ali
on "Changes in the Muslim Society"; Dr. Vijayam on "Atheism in
Different Countries"; Mr. Niyantha on "Science and Superstitions";
and Mrs. Mythri on "Atheist Way of Life." Mr. Y Venkateswara Rao
and Mr. Bose gave demonstrative lectures on "Science and Magic"
and did many magic tricks and explained to the audience that in the
name of miracles magic tricks are done and hoaxes are propagated.
A special feature of the Atheist Camp is that all the participants
took part in discussions and shared their experiences in the
propagation of Atheism and in exposing superstitious beliefs of the
people. A good number of men and women who were brought up in
the Muslim culture participated in the Study Camp and shared their
experiences in changing the community.
In the valedictory function of the camp Mr. Jagannadham, a
veteran Atheist, presented certificates to the participants. Atheist
Study Camps are immensely valuable to train workers in the Atheist
way of life and spread the idea of Atheism among common people.

October, 1983

ms.

Page 17

SESQUICENTENNIAL

CELEBRATION

Robert G. Ingersoll was born on August 11, 1833, just 150 years ago. Naturally, American Atheists felt the obligation to honor this man for
his contributions to bible criticism and his attacks on the orthodox religion of his day. Therefore, a meeting and a wreath laying were planned
for Peoria, Illinois by the national office in coniunction with the Eastern Missouri Chapter of American Atheists - Earl Meyers, Director. At
the same time the Washington D.C. Chapter - Noel Scott, Director - planned a wreath-laying on the grave of Col. Robert Ingersoll at
Arlington National Cemetery. (See separate report, page 24.)
In attendance at Peoria were: Madalyn Murray O'HQlr,founder of American Atheists; Jon Garth Murray, Director of the American Atheist
Center; Robin Murray-O'Hair, Editor 0f American Atheist magazine; Gerald Tholen, Vice-President of American Atheists; Lloyd Thoren,
Founder of the American Atheist Museum; John Marthaler, Director of the South Mississippi Chapter of American Atheists; Larry Carter,
State Director of the Iowa Chapter of American Atheists; Arnold Via, State Director of the Virginia Chapter of American Atheists; and about
200 other Atheists from all over the U.S.
Many of you know many of these well-known Atheists: Martin Bard, author of Peril of Faith; John G. Jackson, author of Pagan Origins of
the Christ Myth (both of these books are sold by American Atheists); Jeff Frankel, a monthly columnist in the American Atheist journal;
Robert Sherman, 2nd Vice President of the Chicago Chapter of American Atheists; and Jack Rosenberg, our Media Representative in
Wisconsin.
Naturally, American Atheists were all over the news - radio, television, and newspaper. Madalyn Murray O'Hair delivered an address to a
standing room only crowd at. the Biology Center, next to the entrance to the zoo at Glen Oak Park, and the group then deployed to an
Ingersoll monument in the Glen Oak Park where they were addressed by Jon Murray and Gerald Tholen with Madalyn Murray O'Hair
subsequently laying a wreath at the foot of the monument.
In accordance with the editorial position American Atheists is now assuming (see page 3), we are taking the position that with all the
pre-Atheists from now on we will "tell it like it was." Hence, the remarks of Madalyn Murray O'Hair delivered on the occasion of the
sesquicentennial of the birth of Robert G. Ingersoll follow:
At the funeral of Robert Ingersoll on July 24, 1899,pr. John Clark
Ridpath of Boston read what he called the last poem of Ingersoll. The
first two verses were:
We have no falsehoods to defend.
We want the facts;
Our force, our thought, we do not spend
In vain attacks
And we will never meanly try
To save some fair and pleasing lie.
* * * * *
The simple truth is what we ask
Not the ideal
We've set ourselves the noble task
To find the real
If all there is is naught but dross
We want to know and bear the loss

* * * * *
AllAtheists know a couplet of this poem, from the 13th verse. It states
simply:
The hands that help are better far
Than lips that pray
Hamlet in Shakespeare had a rejoinder:
"Ah! There's the rub."
Indeed, hands that help are better far than lips that pray - or
orators who beautifully challenge and then drop the lance.
Robert Ingersoll wrote and spoke magnificently. We have just
issued the book, Ingersoll the Magnificent, which is a sampling of his
most perceptive declarations. His was a powerful voice against the
bible primarily, against orthodox religion, against the bulwark of the
unyielding judeo-christianity of his day. Let me read just one attack:
"Somebody ought to tell the truth about the bible. The
preachers dare not, because they would be driven from their
pulpits. Professors in colleges dare not, because they would
lose their salaries. Politicians dare not. They would be defeated.
Merchants dare not, because they might lose customers. Men
of fashion dare not, fearing that they would lose caste. Even
clerks dare not, because they might be discharged. And so I
thought I would do it myself.
"There are many millions of people who believe the bible to
be the inspired word of god - millions who think that this book
is staff and guide, counselor and consoler; that it fills the
present with peace and the future with hope - millions who
believe that it is the fountain of law, justice and mercy, and that
to its wise and benign teachings the world is indebted for its
Page 18

October, 1983

liberty, wealth and civilization - millions who imagine that this

book is a revelation from the wisdom and love of god to the
brain and heart of man - millions who regard this book as a
torch that conquers the darkness of death, and pours its
radiance on another world - a world without a tear.
"They forget its ignorance and savagery, its hatred of liberty,
its religious persecution; they remember heaven, but they
forget the dungeon of eternal pain.
"They forget that it imprisons the brain and corrupts the
heart. They forget that it is the enemy of intellectual freedom.
* * * * *
"Ministers wonder how I can be "wicked" enough to attack
the bible.
The American Atheist

Festival attendees gather at

the BioCenter in Glen Oak
Park to hear Dr. O'Hair on
Robert Ingersoll

Dr. O'Hair braves the Summer

sun to honor Ingersoll without
a microphone much as Colonel
Ingersoll might have done on
the lecture circuit some 100
years ago.

Jon Murray shouts his message

to the back row in the fashion
of Ingersoll's day and time

Jon Murray, Dir. American Atheist Cent~r introduces

Dr. O'Hair to the crowd at the BioCenter, Glen Oak Park.

Dr. Madalyn O'Hair, founder Arne

her remarks about Robert Ingersoll

Dr. O'Hair stands next to Ingersoll statue for pho

after laying flowers at its base for Ingersoll's I

Dr. O'Hair discusses her perspective on Robert Ingersoll

with a small group of festival attendees in the park.

American Atheists, delivers

ersoll to an overflow crowd.

"

'

Gerald Tholen, VP American Atheists presents a poem in

honor of Col. Ingersoll in front of his statue in the park.

Robin Murray-O'Hair, Editor The American Atheist chats

with a festival attendee.

Noel Scott, Dir. District of Columbia Chap.

American Atheists & Barbara Sowder with
wreath at Arlington National Cemetery in
Washington, D.C.

Dr. O'Hair offers the crowd and reports some thoughts on

Robert Ingersoll as his statue looks on.

Dr. o 'Hair & member from

Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Jack Rosenberg

"I will tell them:

"This book, the bible, has persecuted, even unto death, the
wisest and the best. This book stayed and stopped the onward
movement of the human race. This book poisoned the
fountains of learning and misdirected the energies of man.
"This book is the enemy of freedom, the support of slavery.
This book sowed the seeds of hatred in families and nations, fed
the flames of war, and impoverished the world. This book is the
breastwork of kings and tyrants - the enslaver of women and
children. This book has corrupted parliaments and courts. This
book has made colleges and universities the teachers of error
and the haters of science. This book has filledchristendom with
hateful, cruel, ignorant and warring sects. This book taught
men to kill their fellows for religion's sake. This book founded
the inquisition, invented the instruments of torture, built the
dungeons in which the good and loving languished, forged the
chains that rusted in their flesh, erected the scaffolds whereon
they died. This book piled fagots about the feet of the just. This
book drove reason from the minds of millions and filled the
asylums with the insane.
"This book has caused fathers and mothers to shed the
blood of their babes. This book was the auction block on which
the slave-mother stood when she was sold from her child. This
book filled the sails of the slave-trader and made merchandise
of human flesh. This book lighted the fires that burned
"witches" and "wizards." This book filled the darkness with
ghouls and ghosts, and the bodies of men and women with
devils. This book polluted the souls of men with the infamous
dogma of eternal pain. This book made credulity the greatest of
virtues, and investigation the greatest of crimes. This book
filled nations with hermits, monks and nuns - with the pious
and the useless. This book placed the ignorant and unclean
saint above the philosopher and philanthropist. This book
taught men to despise the joys of this life, that he might be
happy in another - to waste this world for the sake of the next.
"I attack this book because it is the enemy of human liberty
- the greatest obstruction across the highway of human
progress.
"Let me ask the ministers one question: How can you be
wicked enough to defend this book?"
, Ingersoll crossed our nation with his denouncements, his golden
voice resonating; he thrilled millions of our people with a hope that a
champion against the mind strictures of religion had come.
Actually it was not so. What Robert Ingersoll said and what he did
were worlds apart. Ingersoll was the Ronald Reagan of his day, a
radical right Republican. He was part and parcel of the power elite.
His life work was to lobby for, protect, defend, and promote the
interests of the railroad robber barons who were raping the land. He
was the legal mouth piece for the monied corruption of his times.
He was wealthy, with close political-economic ties to the most
powerful in the nation.
He spoke of the glories of the common man, made one weep for
children and women while he handled the legal work which stripped
the poor, the defenseless, the widows and the fatherless child.
He railed against religion, but failed and refused to assist the Atheist
organizations of his day.
.
Charles Moore of Kentucky begged him for help which did not
come and Moore went to jail for publishing his Atheist Blue Grass
Blade while Ingersoll went on to glory.
A small aside: Ingersoll saw the battle of Shiloh and sick with the
sight of death resigned his Colonel's commission and went home. My
paternal great grandfather McHenry, a corporal in the Union Army,
could not resign his place or rank. In the second battle of Bull Run,
when he saw the flag fall, he picked it up to carry it and that cost him
his life. He was killed before he could sicken at the sight of death,
leaving a wife and two small children, one of which was my
grandmother, Alice McHenry.
But back to Ingersoll. He refused to fight for repeal of the infamous
Comstock laws which were used to clobber every Atheist organization that arose in the U.S. for 105 years.
Austin, Texas

He refused to assist either Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Susan B.

Anthony in their fight for women's suffrage.
He refused to assist either E.H. Heywood or D.G .M. Bennett when
they were persecuted for distribution of birth control information, a
major concern of all Atheist organizations of all times.
He refused to help the Atheists Spies and Schwab of the
Haymarket frame-up.
He did take the Charles Reynolds case (a blasphemy charge) and
lost it.
An attorney, he never litigated one suit for state/church separation; never tried to help effectuate Francis Ellingwood Abbot's 9
demands of liberalism:
(Editor's Note: The only one of all the 9 demands, which are
printed here, that has been accomplished has been outlined in
bold.)
1. We demand that churches and other ecclesiastical
property shall no longer be exempt from just taxation.
2. We demand that the employment of chaplains in Congress, in state legislatures, in the navy and militia, and in
prisons, asylums, and all other institutions supported by public
money shall be discontinued.
3. We demand that all religious services now sustained
by the government shall be abolished; and especially that
the use of the bible in the public schools, whether
ostensibly as a textbook or avowedly as a book of
religious worship, shall be prohibited.
4. We demand that all public appropriations for sectarian
educational and charitable institutions shall cease.
5. We demand that the appointment by the President of the
United States or by the governors of the various states of all
religious festivals and fasts shall wholly cease.
6. We demand that the judicial oath in the courts and in all
other departments of the government shall be abolished, and
that simple affirmation under the pains and penalties of perjury
shall be established in its stead.
7. We demand that all laws directly or indirectly enforcing the
observance of Sunday as the sabbath shall be repealed.
8. We demand that all laws looking to the enforcement of
"christian" morality shall be abrogated, and that all laws shall be
conformed to the requirements of natural morality, equal
rights, and impartial liberty.
9. We demand that, not only in the constitutions of the
United States and of the several states but also in the practical
administration of the same, no privilege or advantage shall be
conceded to christianity or any other special religion; that our
entire political system shall be founded and administered on a
purely secular basis; and that whatever changes shall prove
necessary to this end shall be consistently, unflinchingly, and
promptly made.
* * * * *
For all he was and for all he wasn't, he still belongs - in the major
thrust of his oratory - to all of those who oppose religion, no matter
what their names.
He was the most effective spokesman of the day against the
corruption of orthodox religion. He was grand and he was eloquent:
"It is contended by many that ours is a christian government,
founded upon the bible, and that allwho look upon that book as
false or foolish are destroying the foundation of our country.
The truth is, our government is not founded upon the rights of
gods, but upon the rights of men. Our Constitution was
framed, not to declare and uphold the deity of christ, but the
sacredness of humanity. Ours is the first government made by
the people. for the people. It is the only nation with which the
gods have had nothing to do. And yet there are some judges
dishonest and cowardly enough to solemnly decide that this is a
christian country, and that our free institutions are based upon
the infamous laws of jehovah."
He could have financed an Atheist movement which would have
been able to defeat the religious forces in our nation. Because he did
not, our job is more difficult today.

October, 1983

Page 23

He did not even educate his daughters; and his wife sold his
personal library immediately after his death. The American Atheist
Center has the notice of sale, his checkbooks, his accounts, private
letters, and cancelled checks.
Irepeat: our job would not be so difficult today had Robert Ingersoll
been a man of action rather than an orator with words. Now - we
must galvanize to action.
Remember Paul of Tarsus:
"It is not by their words but by their deeds that ye shall know
them."
Ingersoll was a towering giant, but a lone one and a consummate
egotist. His words were music to the ear, even today, here in Peoria,
they are music to our ears - but they were especially music to his
own.
He substituted his desire for individual fame for the good of the
cause of Atheism and its advancement.
Each of us must give of what we are and Ingersoll was an orator and
a poet in prose. We love him - but:
"The simple truth is what we ask
Not the ideal
We've set ourselves the noble task
To find the real
If all there is is naught but dross
We want to know and bear the loss

In this sesquicentennial festival, in this City, it is not known that

Robert Ingersoll attacked either the bible or religion. It is a carefully
kept secret. In vague terminology, a sesquicentennial festival was
called on this weekend by a weak-kneed organization to honor
Ingersoll for "his contributions to politics, religion, oratory, ethics,
literature and law." That's shocking, because it is such a lie.
We say - in vain - willthe real Robert Ingersoll please stand up?
Ingersoll stumbled over both the words Atheist and agnostic, most
often simply eschewing their use.
American Atheists seize what they can, where they can, and how
they must. We use Ingersoll's words coupled with action. Where he
left off we begin. We are happy for what he said, for his verbal assault
on religion. Now we intend to finish it.
Our goal is to destabilize religion; strip it of its economic, legal,
political, and psychological power, and then to disestablish it. We
invite only those who have courage to join.
We reserve the right to criticize and to praise Ingersoll: for what he
was, what he could have been, and what he was not; for what he did,
what he could have done, and what he did not.
We cannot worship Ingersoll; he is not our jesuchrist.

Don't Rain on My Paine and Fall on My Ingersoll- Or

An Almost-Was Ingersoll Sesquicentennial Ceremony
by Noel Scott
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At about 5:00 p.m. EDT Thursday, August 11, 1983, a contingent of

American Atheists, consisting of Dawson Lanier and Clark Crippen,
arrived by foot at the grave of Robert G. Ingersoll in Arlington
Cemetery, Virginia, for the purpose of participating in a wreath-laying
ceremony that was to begin an hour later to commemorate Ingersoll's
150th birthday.
About a half hour later, another contingent assembled at the
Arlington Cemetery Visitors Center for the same purpose. This
group consisted of: local American Atheist directors Bob Zauner and
Noel Scott; also, G. Stanley Brown, Mark Oller, Barbara and
Raymond Sowder, and Eddie Stein. Assembling at the same time,
alas, were heavy storm clouds which wasted no time in starting to "do
their thing."*
Back at the gravesite, Dawson and Clark sensed what they were
about to receive from the skies. They each laid a quarter at the base of
the Ingersoll tombstone as a symbol that they had been there and
started heading back to the Visitors Center.
At the same time that Clark and Dawson were sloshing their way to
the Center, at the Center Bob was fast-talking an official into letting
him have a pass so that he could drive his group to the gravesite and
Page 24

October, 1983

lay the wreath.

Everybody climbed into Bob's car and they managed successfully
to reach the general area of the gravesite despite very poor visibility
due to the rain. Noel said he was was on the lookout for an obelisk.
(An obelisk tombstone near Ingersoll's grave is a signpost for Noel
whenever he visits the latter.)
An obelisk was spotted, the car was stopped, and everybody made
a dash for it. Alas, it turned out to be the wrong one. After a few
minutes' frantic searching, however, Noel and Mark found the right
obelisk, and therefore Ingersoll's grave, and yelled at everybody to
join them.
Noel wasted no time in placing the wreath in front of the
tombstone. It was partially covered by a red ribbon and red
carnations, all mounted on a white tripod. Mark laid a bouquet of red
carnations of his own.
After some hasty picture-taking by Bob and Eddie, Barbara
distributed copies of the Ingersoll sayings read at the same site during
the American Atheists National Convention the year before. Everybody then scurried back to the car and returned to the Visitors
Center.
After leaving the Cemetery, Barbara, Ray, Stan, and Noel had
supper together at the Capitol Hill American Cafe, Eddie went to his
father's office on Lafayette Square, and everybody else presumedly
went straight home - to dry out!
The ceremony was to have consisted of everybody present reading
aloud in turn an Ingersoll quotation, chiefly from the special August
Ingersoll issue of the American Atheist magazine. But an act of nature
thwarted our good intentions. We think Co!. Ingersoll would have
been the first to understand and forgive!
*AA contingent #2 mentioned above did not know of the existence
of contingent #1 until the next day when Dawson phoned Noel and
informed him of the same. ~
The American Atheist

THE ANGRY YOUNG ATHEIST / Jeff Frankel

FATHER CHARLES COUGHLIN:

DEMAGOGUE
OF THE DEPRESSION
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I
Times were tough for the citizens of the United States of America.
The economy of the nation was at one of the lowest points in its
history. People were extremely dissatisfied with the country's overall
state of affairs. A minister, well known for his work in the broadcast
media, began speaking out on a multitude of social issues. People
listened and his ideas developed a following. He became involved in
the political scene, forming his own politically oriented organization. It
was a move he hoped would bring the country to where he felt it
should be.
I'm speaking of Jerry Falwell, right? Wrong! Falwell has a historical
predecessor who followed a somewhat similar path. He was father
Charles Coughlin (pronounced cog-lin), a roman catholic priest who
was the first preacher to receive national exposure with a weekly
network radio program. With no competition for the religious
audience, Coughlin had a following which today's televangelists
would be hard pressed to top. The American Atheist does not
generally publish biographical material on religious nuts. but the story
of Charles Coughlin is quite pertinent in this day of the "Moral
Majority." It shows just how far a religious madman with access to the
media.and influence in the political arena can go and how much havoc
he can wreak on society.
Coughlin began his radio broadcasts in Detroit in 1926 as a method
of increasing the congregation of his church, the "Shrine of the Little
Flower." His broadcasts were a huge success, developing a large
audience and bringing in a significant amount of contributions.
Coughlin claimed his programs had such wide appeal because, "we
avoid prejudicial subjects, all controversies, and especially all bigotry." These were Coughlin's ostensive statements at the time, but they
would change at a later date when his "double talk" became more
obvious.
As time went on Coughlin's radio network grew and the direction of
his program changed. With the coming of the depression Coughlin
became more interested in the political and economic aspects of
society. He was to become the first American to utilize radio to
Austin, Texas

advocate political, social, and economic doctrines. On January 12,

1930, he delivered his first politically oriented sermon, attacking
communism and socialism without bothering to distinguish between
the two. This trend continued in following weeks, with one broadcast
featuring an attack on Bertrand Russell for communist-socialist
leanings. The Socialist Party was quite upset about Coughlin's tirades
and his constant confusion of communism and socialism. Party
representatives filed a complaint with WJR, the Detroit radio station
from which Coughlin's broadcasts originated. But these were the
days before the birth of the Fairness Doctrine, so the socialists
received no chance to refute Coughlin on the air.
By the fallof 1930, Coughlin's broadcasts were heard in 23 states on
the CBS Radio Network and worldwide via shortwave transmission.
The programs began focusing on the nation's economic problems. He
discussed topics of political interest, but did not take the side of or
endorse any politicians. In fact, in late 1930 he lamented that "... too
many pulpits have become political rostrums, openly taking sides
with party or government as if jesus christ himself, were he living
today, would be either a democrat or a republican.
Here an interesting parallel with Jerry Falwell can be drawn. Falwell
also once spoke out against political involvement among the clergy.
On March 21, 1965, he preached a sermon entitled "Ministers and
Marchers." In it, he chastised clergy for being involved in the civil
rights movement, saying "Believing the bible as I do, I would find it
impossible to stop preaching the pure saving gospel of jesus christ
and begin doing anything else - including fighting communism or
participating in civil rights reforms." In the same sermon Falwell also
said, "Preachers are not called to be politicians but soul winners,"
and, "Nowhere are we commissioned to reform the externals."
Needless to say, both Falwell and Coughlin were to.later illustrate that
these statements had been tongue in cheek.
As 1931 progressed, Coughlin and controversy became constant
companions. He attacked international bankers, building them up as
the major villains behind the depression. He dedicated one program

October, 1983

Page 25

to accusing the CBS Radio Network of censorship for allegedly

asking him to delete inflammatory remarks from a talk he had planned
to give on how the, Treaty of Versailles precipitated the Depression.
This angered network officials, and Coughlin's program was dropped
in the spring. He tried to buy air time on NBC, but was refused. This
prompted him to start his own independent network which would
eventually spread from coast to coast
Coughlin moved further in a political direction during the 1931-32
broadcast season, He viciously attacked president Herbert Hoover
and his methods of handling the Depression, He also increased his
attacks on bankers, stockbrokers and the like. He often spoke of
"driving the money changers out of the t~mple" in reference to
reducing the power of 'the financiers, (It's interesting to note that
Coughlin invested quite heavily in the stock market and boasted of his
friendships with the most influential bankers in the Detroit area.) In
the best tradition of dichotomous thinking, Coughlin would boil the
complex problems of the Depression down to simplistic either/or
answers. For example: "The only two ways out are revaluation of our
gold ounce or repudiation of our debts. One way is christianity; the
other is Bolshevism (communism)."
Because of his supportive nationwide audience, Coughlin received
an invitation to the 1932 Democratic National Convention from
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, governor of New York and a leading
democratic presidential candidate, The two men met in the spring of
1932 and Coughlin was impressed with Roosevelt's ideas for a "New
Deal." At the convention, Coughlin threw all 'of his support behind
Roosevelt's candidacy, declaring that it was "Roosevelt or ruin."
When Roosevelt ascended to the presidency, Coughlin felt that his
influence had been a major factor in the results of the election.
Shortly after the election Coughlin met with Roosevelt, advised him
of the financial program he wished to see enacted, and recommended
Detroit mayor Frank Murphy, a member of his parish, as an
ambassador. When Murphy was appointed governor general of the
Philippines and a number of early New Dealprograms coincided with
ideas he had expounded, Coughlin began to fancy himself as the
power behind the throne. He mistakenly assumed he had been the
catalyst in bringing these programs into being.
.Coughlin fancied himself as a spokesman for the Roosevelt
administration, a concept which had no basis in reality, One incident
in which Coughlin claimed to be voicing the sentiments of the
administration was a personal vendetta against the Detroit Bankers
Company. His constant urging for federal investigation into the
Motor City's banking situation culminated in the appointment of a
judge to look into the allegations. No indictments against any Detroit
bankers ever resulted and the incident made the president quite
angry. He began to avoid Coughlin like the plague. Coughlin was
quite disturbed when he realized that Roosevelt was putting him off
because, in his mind, the president owed him many things. Before the
election, Roosevelt did promise Coughlin that he would be his closest
confidant on economic and social issues, most likely as a way of
drawing the priest's support Otherwise, he promised Coughlin no
favors. Coughlin's extreme praise and support of FOR soon began to
erode, and criticism of the chief executive began to filter into his
sermons.
As Coughlin's tirades against bankers became more vicious,
people began to speak out against him. Several high ranking figures of
the catholic church condemned Coughlin as a demagogue. But
bishop Michael Gallagher, leader of the Detroit archdiocese and
Coughlin's immediate superior, stood firmly behind him. Coughlin felt
his economic ideas were solidly grounded in catholic doctrine, citing
pope Leo XIII's Encyclical Rerum and Quadragesimo Anno by pope
Pius XI. Coughlin smugly declared to his critics "If I be a demagogue,
so must Leo and Pius." (No comment, but it's tempting.)
After Coughlin's plea for gold revaluation fellon deaf ears, he began
pushing quite avidly for a silver standard, to which Roosevelt was
adamantly opposed. Coughlin's silver bubble burst on January 31,
1934 when secretary of the treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr. published
lists of individuals and firms with silver holdings. The list showed that
many of those who argued that the nationalization of silver would be
good for the country really meant that it would be good for
Page 26

themselves. Prominent on the list was Miss Amy Collins, holder of

500,000 ounces of silver, the largest amount of silver held by an
individual in the state of Michigan. Miss Collins just happened to be
the treasurer of father Coughlin's "Radio League of the Little Flower."
Coughlin was incensed at what he considered an unprovoked
attack by the administration and felt that Roosevelt had double
crossed him. He issued a press statement attacking Morgenthau,
saying he acted to protect "the gold advocates, the Federal Reserve
bankers, and the international bankers of ill repute." Another
statement, signed by Miss Collins but written by Coughlin, contained
the admission that $20,000' of "Radio League of the Little Flower"
funds were used to purchase the silver in hopes of making a profit
The statement also said that Coughlin had nothing to do with the
finances of the organization. That was an obvious falsehood. The
articles of incorporation of the "Radio League of the Little Flower"
gave Coughlin complete control of the corporation's activities.
Standing exposed as a liar and a hypocrite after this incident,
Coughlin would never again have the same huge unquestioning
audience he once had. Still, all in all, his following was tremendous.
His provision of scapegoats made him the darling of many special
interest groups. Not only did he attack bankers and big businessmen,
he began to use very subtle anti-Semitic stereotypes. His bigotry
toward jews would increase as time went on.
Coughlin's direct involvement with the nation's political scene was
formalized on December 11, 1934 when he began the operation ofthe
"N ational Union for Social Justice." The colorful rhetoric of Coughlin
quickly attracted over 200,000 applicants for membership. The
prospective members were asked to sign a pledge supporting the
sixteen basic principles of the NUSJ, a hodge-podge of religious,
economic and political ideas. The priest's avid followers readily
accepted the principles, but those more prone to thought and
analysis had serious doubts. The more astute observers quickly
pointed out that no endorsement of democratic government was
made, nor was there any mention of the right of free speech. Principle
#10, dealing with the rights of laborers to organize unions, also said
that the government had a duty to "protect these organizations
against the vested interests of wealth and intellect." The phrasing of
, that principle raised a serious question which Raymond Gram Swing,
in his 1935 book Forerunners of American Fascism, attempted to
answer:
"Does an intent lurk behind the words? In an interview in the
Detroit Times on October 10 (1934), when the phrase must
have already been formulated, he stated, 'Make the Department of Labor a real power. Let it take over the functions of
collective bargaining - the functions which the A.F. of L is
trying to fulfill.Let it support the A.F. of L entirely. Why should
the workers pay dues to a labor organization to protect a right
which is guaranteed by law? The service of the federation
should be a government service paid for by taxation.' The
'vested interests of intellect' then are apparently the labor
union heads, and the plank on collective bargaining takes on an
entirely different meaning. Germany and Italy, on the one hand,
and Russia, on the other, have government organized unions.
Which is father Coughlin thinking of? The question is easily
answered: He is a foe of communism. 'Strikes and lockouts are
absolutely unnecessary,' he declared in a recent discourse. He
wants a fascist solution to the labor problem."
There were other actions by Coughlin which contradicted his
supposed support of the rights of the working man. He used nonunion labor in the building of the "Shrine of the Little Flower." He
spoke out against attempts to unionize General Motors while
working to create a company union in Ford plants. He opposed
inclusion of his own employees under the provisions of the Social
Security Act Those were hardly the actions of a man concerned with
the plight of the common laborer.
Deception similar to that employed by Falwell to make the "Moral
Majority" appear more formidable was used by Coughlin. In January
1935, he announced that the goal of five million members in the NUSJ
had been reached and his new goal was ten million members in two
years. Later the fabricating father admitted that the original goal had

October, 1983

The American Atheist

never been attained. He was simply employing the "bandwagon

technique" to maintain the momentum of the organization.
As the NUSJ grew, so did Coughlin's criticism of Roosevelt.
Because of the rising influence of the organization, speculation began
that a third party was in the making. Coughlin ridiculed the idea in a
Mav 19~.sstatement. "I foresee no third partv. I see no need What
would it be? A gathering of political malcontents with personal
grudges to air! Have we ever had a dearth of such? .. :As for myself, I
have no pohucal tences to maintain, no Job to defend. And 1 seek
none."
In the spring of 1936, a political malcontent named father Charles E.
Coughlin put the wheels in motion toward the formation of a third
party to challenge Roosevelt and republican candidate Alf Landon.
He joined forces with three other malcontents: Dr. Frances E.
Townsend, who for three years had been promoting a special pension
for the elderlv as a way to stimulate the economy and end the
Depression; the reverend Gerald L.K. Smith, leader of the Share Our
Wealth Society, a very popular organization with poor white southern
farmers; Senator Wilham Lemke of North Dakota, perhaps the most
powerful spokesman for northern plains agrarian interests. It was
Lemke who emerged as the presidential candidate of the National
Union Patty.
As the campaign heated up, so did Coughlin's denunciations of
Roosevelt. At the Townsend Convention held in Cleveland in July
1936,Coughlin labeled Roosevelt a "liar" and "betrayer ," and said the
president's initials stood for "Franklin Double-crossing Roosevelt."
This made even the vipers of the vatican stand upand take notice. It
was suggested that Coughlin apologize for his statements. He did not
apologize but the attacks on Roosevelt continued, using language
only slightly milder.
In August 1936, Cleveland was once again in the spotlight as it
hosted the national convention of the NUSJ. It was there that
Coughlin promised to cancel his radio broadcasts "if I don't deliver
nine million votes for Lemke." The optimism began to die as election
time grew near. The mutual distrust which existed between Townsend, Smith, and Coughlin resulted in each going his separate way.
That left Coughlin on his own, minus the votes he had expected from
the followers of his former associates. It's doubtful that the votes
would have mattered. Roosevelt was an overwhelming winner,
carrying 46 of the 48 states.
Believe it or not, Coughlin kept his word and discontinued not only
his radio program, but also the NUSJ. Then the vatican elected to
forbid him from directly leading a political movement. But the mighty
mouth of father Coughlin did not remain closed for long. He soon
returned to the air, claiming it was the last wish of bishop Gallagher,
who died in January 1937. The period immediately following the
installation of archbishop Edward Mooney as Gallagher's successor
was rather calm. Coughlin's broadcasts resumed and he continued
work on his Social Justice magazine. The quiet period came to an
abrupt halt in October 1937 as Coughlin attacked the Congress of
Industrial Organizations (C.I.O.) which was coming into its own
around that time. He claimed communists held key posts in the
organization and its principles ran counter to christian teachings. As
in the silver situation, Coughlin was simply looking out for his own
interests. It so happened that the C.I.O. was competing with the
Automotive Industrial Workers Association, a union Coughlin
founded in the hopes that it would organize the nation's auto workers.
Mooney was not pleased with Coughlin's comments and quickly
disassociated the archdiocese from Coughlin's views. Coughlin drew
up a response to Mooney's statement, but was denied permission to
issue it. Feeling that Mooney was trying to censor him, Coughlin
cancelled his radio series for the 193738 season. With the vatican
backing Mooney's actions, it appeared the big mouth of the "Little
Flower" had finally been silenced. Unfortunately, this period of
silence was also all too short. Supporters of the priest deluged the
vatican with mail praising his actions. After a vatican officialmet with
Coughlin, it was announced that Coughlin's broadcasts would
resume January 9, 1938, with Mooney's approval. Coughlin's. sermons quickly began setting new standards for defamation of character as his political philosophy began to shift to the extreme right.
Austin, Texas

Anti-Semitic tirades became Coughlin's trademark. He accused iews

of every social ill of which he could think. He attacked them for
believing they were god's chosen people and accused them of
thinking of themselves as messiahs, destroying medieval christian
civilization, and threatening modern christianity. He played heavily
on the contradictory notion that jews were both international bankers
(decadent, evil capitalists) and international communists who introduced communism to Russia.
During this period, Adolf Hitler was in power in Germany with his
Nazi party heavily persecutingjews. Quite a number of ministers and
christian groups became Nazi sympathizers. Reverend Gerald Winrod of Wichita, Kansas, a man with a heavy following among the
evangelical protestant sects, began issuing a monthly publication
called The Defender. In it, he attacked jews, Blacks, catholics, and
communists. Winrod was friendly with Julius Streicher, who would
later be one of twelve major war criminals condemned to death at
Nuremberg, and Ulrich Fleischauer, head of World Service, the
official English language propaganda wing of Joseph Goebbels'
"Ministry of Information." Joe McWilliams, a common street punk,
organized the "Christian Mobilizers" in New York City. The group
was dedicated to bring Nazism to the United States by the use of
street fighting tactics along the lines of Hitler's storm troopers.
McWilliams had two heroes: Adolf Hitler and father Charles Coughlin.

Coughlin and his contemporary fascist "god" -

B. Mussolini

Not to be outdone, Coughlin founded an organization known as

"The Christian Front." The Michigan madman urged christians to
understand that, even though the United States was a christian
nation, its policies, education, industry and finance were controlled
by "communists, non-christians, and pagans." He urged "Christian
Front" members to seek control of those facets of American life.
Coughlin's group was unconcerned with being called anti-Semitic.
This was reinforced by Coughlin telling his followers that "antiSemitic" was only another phrase of castigation in communism's
glossary of attack. Many members of the organization embraced Nazi
ideals and employed Nazi tactics. They organized "buy christian
only" movements and boycotted jewish merchants. Between 1938
and 1940 they made streets, subways, and movie theatres in many
cities unsafe for jews. They even went as far as to attack jewish
women and elderly jews.
Coughlin's Nazi and fascist leanings were becoming very obvious.
He became a hero of the far right, with most of the pro-Nazi fascist

October, 1983

Page 27

groups of the day considering Coughlin as their leading spokesman.

In the December 30,1938 issue of The New York Post, it was shown
that excerpts from an article by Coughlin were virtually identical to
that of a speech given by Hitler's propaganda minister Joseph
Goebbels. Coughlin even managed to out-exaggerate Goebbels. In a
section where Goebbels said an alleged communist-Atheist-jew had
murdered 20 hostages in Budapest, Coughlin inflated the total to
20,000. Around that time, II Regime Fascista, the Italian fascist
journal, published an article praising Coughlin as a man who
"appreciates our line of conduct" and as an "apostle of christianity." It
should be noted that Italy was at that time under the rule of the
infamous Benito Mussolini, a man supported by the roman catholic
church and portrayed as a hero in the pages of Social Justice.
In September 1939, war broke out in Europe. The Roosevelt
administration was working toward repeal of an arms embargo so
weapons could be sold to England. Coughlin adamantly opposed this
and used his radio program as a forum to voice this opposition,
insinuating jews were behind the attempt to lift the embargo. His
broadcast resulted in a flood of mail to the Senate, urging its members
not to repeal the embargo. Numerous protests were made over
Coughlin's use of the airwaves to stir racial prejudice and promulgate
controversial ideas without opposition. Pleas were made to the
Federal Communications Commission and the National Association
of Broadcasters to bring about balance in the airing of controversial
opinions. In October, the Code Committee of the NAB adopted new
rules which placed rigid limitations on the sale of air time to
"spokesmen of controversial public issues." An NAB spokesman, in
regard to Coughlin's opposition to the arms embargo repeal, said,
"While allAmericans desire to stay out of war and preserve neutrality,
the methods of achieving and maintaining the same are matters
automatically falling within the sphere of public controversial issues
and as such should be presented on free time and not sold." The new
code, which permitted controversial public issues to be discussed on
free time set aside for such broadcasts while denying individuals the
right to buy time to advocate controversial positions, left little doubt
that Coughlin was its chief target. The code played a big part in finally
driving Coughlin from the air, leaving him with only Social Justice as
an avenue of expression for his ideas.
By late 1939, the "Christian Front" became closely allied, in the
public eye, with the pro-Nazi German-American Bund and the
policies of Hitler. Seventeen members of the "Christian Front" were
arrested in Brooklyn and charged with plotting the overthrow of the
United States government. These incidents caused Coughlin's all-out
support of the organization to falter. After sedition charges against
the seventeen were filed, Coughlin stated that he had only approved
of the anti-communist principles of the alliance, "not its leadership or
actions."
As the United States entered into World War II, Coughlin's Nazi
leanings took on serious overtones. The office of the Attorney
General of the United States viewed Coughlin's crusade as an effort
to exhort the nation to failure during the pressure of the war effort and
began investigating him for possible sedition activities. Late in the
winter of 1942 FBI men, accompanied by moving vans, arrived at
Coughlin's church and served him with papers authorizing the
seizure of the records of all the corporations he had established, along
with his personal papers. Attorney General Francis Biddle, noting'
similarities between enemy propaganda and items appearing in Social
Justice, sought to have the second class mailing privileges of the
publication revoked on the grounds that it had violated Section 3 of
Title I of the Espionage Act of 1917. The act mandates penalties for
obstruction of the United States war effort by conveying false
information in aid to the nation's enemies.
Assistant U.S. Attorney General O. John Rogge, who had helped
amass a wealth of evidence against Coughlin, wanted to indict him on
charges of sedition, but the Roosevelt administration did not wish to
indict a priest on such a charge, and Biddle did not want to give
Coughlin a chance to portray himself as a martyr before a nationwide
audience to lend his beliefs more credibility. Thus a deal was worked
out with the roman catholic church to silence Coughlin in the best
interests of the United States. On May 1,1942, archbishop Mooney
Page 28

October, 1983

met with Coughlin and ordered him to cease his writings and his
non-religious activities or be defrocked. Coughlin succumbed to the
wishes of his superior. Shortly afterward, the mailing privileges of
Social Justice were officially revoked.
Questions were raised over how the Roosevelt administration had
handled the Coughlin situation, the major question being that if
Coughlin were indeed guilty of sedition, why was he being treated
differently from anybody else guilty of such an act. One reason given
was that a grand jury indictment of Coughlin, because of his large
following, might have caused division among the people and damaged
the war effort. It's my opinion that the Roosevelt administration did
not want to raise the ire of the roman catholic church and its
American flock by indicting a catholic priest. Thus the alternative
method of stopping Coughlin was chosen, more to the benefit of the
church than the benefit of justice.
Coughlin should have been tried like any other criminal. His actions
and attitudes reflected a definite criminal mentality. Note this
statement Coughlin made in the early 1930s, during the early stages of
his career as a public figure:
"Do you know how I would live if I renounced religion and
was illogical enough to disbelieve in a life beyond - in the real
life? Why, if I threw away and denounced my faith, I would
surround myself with the most adroit hijackers, learn every
trick of the highest banking and stock manipulations, avail
myself of the laws under which to hide my own crimes, create a
smoke screen to throw into the eyes of men, and - believe me,
I would become the world's champion crook. If I didn't believe
in religion and a happy beyond, I would get everything for
myself that I could lay my hands on in this world."
Here is an example of a man, who otherwise would have likely
become a hardened criminal, using the prestige of religion and the
power of the media to bilk and deceive the public. Coughlin did a good
job of getting everything he could for himself using the guise of
religion. He used a tax-exempt church for the headquarters of his
profit-seeking corporations. He used contributions collected for
other purposes to purchase stocks and real estate, establish a profitmaking corporation which published a newspaper, and to organize
the National Union for Social Justice. With the frock of a priest to
protect him, Coughlin was able to preach bigotry and fascism, twist
the minds of thousands of people, and work against the United States
war effort, escaping with only a slap on the wrist as punishment.
Religion provided the perfect outlet ~ and smokescreen - for
Coughlin's anti-social behavior.

"Falwell does not need the huge following

Coughlin had to pose a major threat because
he has something Coughlin did not: extremely
powerful political friends."
Many observers feel that someone like Coughlin could not rise to
prominence today. They cite the circumstances of Coughlin's era as
the reasons why he had such a vast influence. The emotional climate
caused by the Depression; the lack of a fairness doctrine; no
competition from other radio ministries. These are circumstances
which cannot be duplicated. But the contention that, because of this,
another Coughlin could not arise is totally ridiculous. A completely
different set of circumstances could produce results just as bad - or
worse.
Could Jerry Falwell become another Charles Coughlin? With the
vast competition among today's video vicars, it would be extremely
difficult for Falwell to attract as large of an audience as Coughlin had.
But with the major growth of cable television, and with christian
broadcast stations springing up across the country like dandelions in
a back yard, Falwell has the opportunity for significant growth in his
already formidable legion of supporters. Falwell does not need the
huge following Coughlin had to pose a major threat because he has
something Coughlin did not: extremely powerful political friends. In
Ronald Reagan, we have a president who wholeheartedly embraces
the Falwellian fundamentalist philosophy. We also have Jesse Helms,
The American Atheist

an influential U.S. Senator who, if Reagan decides not to seek reelection, is favored to become the republican presidential nominee. If
this trio has its way, we willall return to the days when women were
kept barefoot and pregnant, homosexuals stayed in the closet,
human rights depended on the color of your skin and the weight of
yourpocketbook, and religion dominated all. That is, if they don't
nuke our planet to bits first. If Coughlin had a puppet in the White
House like Falwell does, our nation could very well become a fascist
theocracy. It is my contention that, because of the vast political
influence he has, Falwell presents a far more serious threat to
democracy than Coughlin ever did ..
There is, however, one obstacle Falwell has to contend with which
Coughlin did not. That is the American Atheist organization. When
religionists deal with areas which affect human rights, American
Atheists are generally the first to bring it to the attention of the public.
We willcontinue to oppose Falwell, Reagan, Helms, and the moral

majority in the free marketplace of ideas. We willcontinue to keep a

wary eye on the religious community, attempting to stop would-be
religious demagogues like Coughlin before they gain significant
influence. That is a responsibility we, as Atheists, must all share.
Please, fellow Atheists, take it seriously.
REFERENCES
Forerunners of American Fascism. by Raymond Gram Swing, Julian
Messner, Inc.
Demagogues in the Depression: American Radicals and the Union
Party, 1932-36. by David H. Bennett. Rutgers University Press
Father Coughlin: The Tumultuous Life of the Priest of the Little
Flower. by Sheldon Marcus. Little, Brown, and Company
Prime Time Preachers. by Jeffrey K. Hadden and Charles E. Swann.
Addison-Wesley. ~

THE GODFATHER
Once upon a time, far away in the "New World," there was a
strange land called America. The difference between America and
places like "Oz" and "Wonderland" was that many people believed
that America actually existed! True enough, there did exist a
geographic location called the U.S. of A., but it certainly could not be
compared to that esoterically descript land of brotherhood and
opportunity portrayed in fictional history books.
Here, then, is the story of "America" and how, through vivid
imagination and folklore, it came to be so realistically portrayed.
People from the "Old World" (especially Rome and England) had
long before decided how "kingdoms" should be established and
operated. First and most importantly, there had to be a "godfather."
More accurately, I should say there had to be "two" godfathers; the
executive godfather (or creator), and the vice godfather (or ruler of
the kingdom). (However, some people knew that the executive
godfather was actually a figment of the vice godfather's imagination.)
This arrangement came about in a rather unusual manner - i.e.:
eons ago, when people first began regarding themselves as being
different from other animals, Mr. Moog was out eating wild berries in
the forest. Suddenly, Mr. Ug leaped out of the bushes and hit Moog in
the lips for stealing his berries! Moog, seeing that he was no match for
the much larger Ug, ran back to his cave and enlisted the aid of two of
his clansmen. Returning to the scene of the berry incident, Moog and
his friends quickly attacked Ug. Yet, even against such odds, Ug was
"holding his own." It was then that Moog got this fantastic idea! He
picked up a huge rock and bashed Ug's skull. Moog's friends were
astonished. How had he (Moog) come to think of such an amazing
way to dispatch an enemy, they questioned. Wanting to capitalize on
his newly discovered skill, Moog told his friends that the" creator" had
secretly instructed him in such matters. Moog's friends - whose
collective intelligence was about 3 hops short of a leap - were
overwhelmed by Moog's "spiritually enhanced powers." From that
day on Moog was designated as vice godfather of the tribe on account
of his "special connections."
Now, "godfathers" have since been given any number of names or
titles and have been endowed with an endless number of "powers"
and capabilities. They still, however, come in the two original varieties
- the "executive" (creator) and "vice." Vice godfathers have been
called emperors, kings, priests, rabbis, ayatollahs, presidents, etc.,
etc. Executive godfathers have received such titles as god, yahweh,
Austin, Texas

ra, thor, etc., etc. The basic principle is still maintained in this system
- only the vice godfather can "understand" and" communicate with"
the" creators" and everyone else involved must remain as dim-witted
as were the original members of Moog's tribe ages before! The
system, thus having provided the vice godfathers with unlimited
privilege, had to be preserved if the Moogs of society were to prevail.
So, early on, the vice godfathers instructed that the symbolic "tree of
knowledge" must be hewn and converted into paper pulp so that
explicit instructions on how to remain dim-witted could be drawn in
the form of "holy books." Ignorance and stultification were thus
glorified and people, driven by necrophobia, vied for individual
insignificance and prominent stupidity'. Progressive education and
science were labelled as ungodly tools of" evil" - thus to be feared by
the common subjects of the kingdom. Only ideas that enhanced the
godfather concept were tolerated and only the ruling vice godfathers
were permitted to recognize those "ideas." What a "perfect" system!
They were a very cunning group - the vice godfathers! To this very
day the total absence of realism is deemed a badge of honor and a
mark of "laboriously achieved" stupidity. So long as the elitist vice

"T0 this very day the total absence of realism is

deemed a badge of honor and a mark of
'laboriously achieved' stupidity."
godfathers rewarded the "happy," reverently stupid masses with an
occasional goodie (like indoor plumbing and pot-bellied stoves) there
remained an indigent peace within the kingdom. Of course, there
were numerous flurries (wars) when rival godfathers came at odds.
Skull-bashing rocks were eventually replaced by bows and arrows
and black powder cannons, but, by and large, nothing changed very
much.
So it was that a disgruntled group of reverently stupid commoners
decided to load themselves into leaky, rat-infested sailing ships and
set sail for the "New World." As they approached their shangri-la
destination, much to their horror, they discovered that their beer
rations were dangerously low (see "BEER, the history of' in some of
the older encyclopedias) so they hastily landed at the first available
landfall. In a Moog-like manner they quickly dispersed the natives
who had welcomed them with curious interest and claimed the "new

October, 1983

Page 29

land" for their vice godfather across the sea. In relatively short order,
however, a few opportunists amongst them decided it was time for a
new vice godfathers hip, and the U.S. of A. quickly evolved. Herein
gestated the fantasy that the happy reverently stupid commoner
would now become his own vice godfather - the subjects would rule
the kingdom. So - what did they do? In their inherently ignorant
manner they appointed a coalition of supervisory religio-ppliticians to
take care of the matter. Now an entirely new species of vice
godfathers had been conceived! - Congressmen!
Things then rocked along in much the same manner as they always
had except that the happy, ignorant subjects now clucked and
boasted that they had established their own godfather system; of the
stupid, by the stupid, and for the stupid! Little did they notice that the
same "class system" they had "escaped" was now, once again,
beginning to coil around them in the form of an economic octopus. An
elite group of monied barons began to coercively influence the
administration of the new system. In short order the industry and
resources of mythical America were swallowed up by the true
godfathers of the U.S. of A. The reverently stupid subjects were
systematically reassured, through ignorance, that opposing bureaucratic hopefuls, seeking electoral favor in their political jousting,
would somehow tend to the needs of the vassal masses of the
kingdom! What was actually happening was that the two main
Lilliputian political parties were simply taking turns at temporarily
capturing the adoration of the true vice godfathers - the captains of
industry and commerce - the "royalty" of the new world! As time
went on, the jousting became more intense. Honesty and integrity
became a burden. Assassins' bullets began to trim the list of political
aspirants. Ultra-conservative idealists became the only sinister
choice for the still reverently stupid subjects.
It was during this terrifying era that a new and little noticed reality
emerged. Had this nation of ignorant dreamers unwittingly experienced the surfacing of a previously shadow-hidden godfather?
Everyone was aware of the "underworld" - the Mafia - the Cosa
Nostra! Where had these phantoms of Old Chicago gone? There
were no more Capones or Dutch Schultzes! Of course, there had
been inferences that similar characters had long since infiltrated the
"legitimate" business world and that they were now operating in the
"twilight zone" between drugs, gambling, and controlled prostitution
and the more mentionable areas of union bossing and acceptable

enterprise. There were also on numerous occasions reports of

"connections" between them and politicians and/or "law" enforcement agencies. Was it now possible that these "lords of. the
underworld" were no longer stalking dark streets and back alleys?
Could it be that such devious and opportunistic characters had finally
realized where their "promised land" was actually centered? Why
could they not nestle within the tax-exempt structure of the church?
Here they would never be suspected by the blank-minded religious
fanatics of the land. Could they also be cautiously invading the very
stronghold of the captains of commerce - the banking industry?
Here, given time, and with the aid of carefully placed bureaucratic
stooges, they could even manipulate the interest rates of the
economy. If it were carefully planned, this venture could also be
camouflaged under the cloak of religiosity. Usury, privilege, and
special interest controls have always been the tools of those who seek
illicit demagoguery.
Strange things can be made to happen when people are afraid. The
mere mention of the words "nuclear war" can stampede 230 million
people into doing the most astonishing things! Intellectually blinded
by a persistent lack of common sense, the masses of people will
adamantly support those same degenerate representatives who
repeat such frightening words most often! And so, the godfather
system perpetuates itself. It continually changes scenes, scripts and
characters but the main ingredients remain stable. Laws, whether
civil or "divine" only tend to corrupt the formats laid down by the
"lawmakers" - the vice godfathers who design their own authority.
The "genius of Moog" simply makes their efforts more effortless. It's
doubtful that "happy" vassals willever truly realize what really makes
the game! If Moog's two friends had somehow possessed brains
enough to be able to contain the hostility generated in the MoogfUg
incident, might a conciliatory arrangement have been struck whereby
the wild berries could have been proportionately divided between the
tribes? One thing is for sure; Ug is no longer a problem! Neither are
those pathetic native Americans who "curiously" greeted the newcomers to this "new world." In time, the millions of jobless citizens of
today will join the ranks of the unknown and forgotten. After all,
common people have a unique quality - they are disposable! Their
only significance lies in the fact that, for particular and short periods of
time, they are essential to the needs of history's Moogs. Without
them, what would a godfather do? ~

~~~4i
r

-~

. ,..~

--....s

"Is that what we've been carrying around in the Ark of the Covenant all this time?
Moses' toiletries and shaving gear!"
Page 30

October, 1983

The American Atheist

REPORT FROM INDIA / Margaret Bhatty

---

TANTRA
- THE FOUR LETTER WAY
TO ENLIGHTENMENT
In the introduction to The Perfumed Garden, translated by the
19th century scholar and adventurer, Richard Burton, who also gave
the west the Kama Sutra, Alan Hull Walton says that "for the
Oriental, orgasm symbolized the ecstasy of the soul possessed by, or
in union with, god, even though it remained imprisoned within the
confines of the flesh."
It is interesting to speculate just how this notion got around that
oriental coitus is more religious in content than the occidental sort.
Indians themselves are prepared to believe it. I recall reading a letter
to the editor of The Times of India condemning the permissive
sexuality of the west and glorifying in the fact that we Indians have
learnt to sublimate sex and turn it to higher purposes. Probably the
writer saw our population explosion as a manifestly religious phenomenon - fervent spirituality running riot, no doubt,'
As it happens there are very pious Indians who practice tantra and
observe strict celibacy together. And there are others who combine
tantra with ritualized orgy-type sex. Historically there were three
kinds of tantra. One probably disappeared in the late 19th century
since it involved the use of human skulls and rigorous austerities
performed while perched on the corpse of a man sacrificed for the
ritual. The second sort of tantra is openly practiced, involving as
Nirad Chaudhuri says "a course of esoteric self-mortification and
gymnastics based on the most absurd physiological and psychological notions."
The third form, which is enjoying a boom in the west, takes these
same notions and makes tantra into a cult of ecstasy to achieve a
four-letter spiritual high. Godman Rajneesh has latched onto this one,
filledit out with bits and pieces from western cult notions and turned
out a full-blooded mix of hedonistic nonsense to guarantee the
achievement of "super-consciousness."
Drop-outs and hippies attached themselves to Indian godmen to
give their drug experience meaning and significance. Sexual permissiveness finds tantra an easy pathway to god. Hinduism is gentler
on the conscience than christianity.
As a cult of ecstasy the origins of tantra are obscure. It could be a
carry-over from ancient fertility rites. Thereafter it has probably
persisted as a surreptitious protest against brahmanical stringency on
sex. Turning hindu celibacy inside out, it uses sex as a means of
achieving spiritual bliss. The orgasm is a" divine" ecstasy which raises
the participants to "transcendental states of consciousness." A
cosmic bang!
Women get a look in on this scene since they symbolize the female
principle in creation. They are first worshipped and then become
partners in ritual coitus. This form of tantra also rejects hindu
concepts of purity. Tantriks indulge in taboo foods and liquor during
the ceremony. Five m's are allowed as gratification in worship madya (alcohol), mamsa (meat), matsya (fish), mudra (grain), and
maithun (coitus).
Erotic tantrism was widely practiced by Tibetan buddhists and in
Nepal, Bengal and Assam. Orthodoxy drove it underground, but
western interest in it has now brought it out into the open.
Tantra assumes the existence of an inner or "subtle" body within
the physical one. Meditation is centered on esoteric diagrams
symbolizing male-female concepts. The meditator first visualizes the
cosmos, then the earth and planets, imagining his spine is the central
axis on which all turns. He then focuses on a string of chakras, or
Austin, Texas

wheels shaped like lotuses in his subtle body. The first chakra is at the
base of the pelvis behind the genitals: Here there lies coiled a familiar
friend from another fairy tale - a serpent. Kundalini sleeps a lot,
wrapped around an inner subtle lingam (penis) covering its mouth
with hers. The tantrik's job is to rouse her by yogic exercises and
breath control. She must then be induced to straighten up and move
upwards along the spinal column, piercing each chakra as she rises.
Evidently, the first happening is quite disconcerting and jolts the
meditator. One tantrik describes the coiled serpent as a "powder
magazine," which probably accounts for the sensation of a blast-off.
Having pierced all the six chakras, kundalini bursts through the top of
the palate and enlightenment occurs.

In the erotic ritual woman stands for shakti or power and men for
shiva, with the final union of shivashakti. Rites involve meditation on
esoteric diagrams, the paraphernalia of a puja using skulls, flowers
dipped in sandalwood paste and water pots for purifying the food.
Liquor is passed around in a human skull and the taboo foods are
eaten. Participants address each other as mother and father. In the
final scene a male approaches a female with the plea "Mother, please
permit me to achieve enlightenment." They enter into elaborate
foreplay which would gladden the heart of a Havelock Ellis, Van de

October, 1983

Page 31

Velde, Johnson and Masters or David Reuben. The kundalini is raised

through each chakra by concentrating on that part of the anatomy
where each is located - the genitalia, abdomen, navel, chest, throat
and a spot between the eyebrows. The belief is that at the height of
ecstasy the body turns cold and the brain white hot. After it is done,
the serpent sleeps again. Another gangbang of immense cosmic
significance is over.
Conventional Indians are shocked at such goings-on? They thoroughly disapproved of Rajneesh and his cavorting devotees. To them
kundalini yoga is pure and clear of all carnality. Ashrams and yoga
institutions teach it, and these proponents express disgust over the
perversion of this meditative form. One such is a godwoman. the
60-year old Nirmala Devi or H.H. Mataji - her holiness, the Mother.
Hers is still a middle-sized outfit, trailing far behind the big league of
maharishi Mahesh, Prabhupad, and Rajneesh. But she is fast catchmg
on among middle-class Indian womanhood in search of aid and
comfort. "Don't fallat my feet. I am the Mother. You can sit on my lap
or even my head."
She can raise your kundalini to "instant realization." Duplicating
the.famous Indian rope trick, your coiled serpent immediately shoots
upward in her presence and pierces the fontanel bone. No contortions, no rigorous piety. Hold your palms up in front of her and it
happens. Even her picture has the power. One of these show her
palms decorated with a crimson cross because her beginnings are
christian. Her condemnation of Rajneesh and tantric six has a familiar
ring - satanic fornicators are spreading demonic vibrations, she
claims, and she vows she will repel the onslaught qf. the forces of
darkness.
When Nirmala Devi makes the kundalini rise, you feel a breeze on
your palms and temples. This is IT! This is your hot line of communication to the Universal. Her yoga bestows immense power. She has
cured terminal cancer in ten minutes flat! But she doesn't set up
cancer cure centers because "enlightenment" comes first, she says.
Vegetables on farms "doubled in size" when given "vibrated water"
touched by her.
She is scathingly contemptuous of Rajneesh's tantrism and group
grope therapies. She believes he is out to destroy the virtue of Indian
women. "Westerners are wicked, dirty and morally corrupt," she
says. "We Indians are paragons of virtue."
Despite her xenophobia she lives in luxury in London as wife of a
former shipping director and, having a produced a family, proves she
is not against sex of the down-to-earth sort. She is against celibacy for
women and believes they must marry to keep society from disintegrating. "I am god," says she - so now you know that god is
female, bangled, bejewelled, perfumed, sari-clad and, with some
justification, proud of her excellent rice pilafs.
Tantric concepts have significantly influenced the best in hindu art
and sculpture. Modern painters borrow heavily from its symbolism of
male and female cosmograms. Outsiders are often puzzled about this
prominent exhibition of sexuality alongside Indian victorianism.
Most religions condone sex only as a nasty necessity. Similarly,
Indian religions see detachment as a sublime condition where worldly
reality becomes the illusion replaced by a spiritual reality. Anything
which interposes between this kind of vision is rejected as pernicious.
The apostle Paul would have thoroughly approved of Indian saints.
and their celibacy. For instance, Ramakrishna (1836-1886) after
whom the Ramakrishna mission is named, warned against the lures of
the flesh and identified "woman and gold" as the main obstacles to
"seeing god."
Koestler described hindus as being "semen-obsessed." Magical
properties are ascribed to semen which are drained by sexual
intercourse. Virtue is therefore attached to celibacy. According to
one legend, swami Vivekanand, the disciple of Ramakrishna who first
took hinduism to the U.S., was consumed by the "fire in his loins." To
burn the "biological fire" with "physical fire" he sat on a red hot
griddle. Thereafter he was able to read through the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in a couple of days. When someone dared to
doubt this, he recited pages word for word. "My photographic
memory is due to my observing celibacy or brahmacharya. Breath
control also helped me," said he.
Page 32

October, 1983

If sexual abstinence enhanced intellectual ability, the complete

control of the mechanism of sex could achieve even greater marvels.
According to some ancient texts on yoga it is possible to suck in milk,
water and mercury through the penis. Semen ejaculated into a
woman and drawn up again makes a man immortal. Those whose
semen travels upwards are like the gods and those who retain it are,
like them, immortal. (Women don't have a chance here because of
their ridiculous physiology.)
Celibacy is practiced by Indian religious leaders and some politicians to gain physical courage, mental vigor and spiritual power.
G handi used this "power" in his non-violent movement. It is said when
some mass movement failed he conceded it was because he had
"failed" to remain completely celibate mentally and spiritually.
Sexual abstinence gives rise to new lifepower and when this power
is directed into higher centers of consciousness it achieves "selfrealization." Semen is a manifestation of grossness and coitus
reservatus can be an act of mystical significance. However, the more
rational hasten to explain it's not the retention of gallons of semen in
the system which is significant. More importantly, the motive and will
to procreate is turned inwards and transformed into a metaphysical
event. But of course it is too much to expect "mere westerners" to
achieve this mastery. True tantrism is too deep for their "shallow"
understanding. So instead they have taken up the licentious and
degrading form of tantra which no "respectable" Indian would touch.

KNOCK KNOCK !
WHO'S THERE ?
CENSURE.
CENSURE WHO

CENSURE SO SMART
WHY AREN'T YOU
AN ATHEIST
?

.('J

LET ME DIE
BEFORE I WAKE
By Derek Humphry (author of Jean's Way)

Unique guide to aelf-deliverance for dying persona

$11 pip. Membership (incls. newsletter) $15. Nonprofit.
Hemlock Society, P.O. Box 66218
Los Angeles, CA 90066. Phone (213) 391-1871

The American Atheist

THE ANGRY OLD A THEIST / Merrill Holste

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

ANALYZED
"9. THOU SHALT NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS
against thy neighbor
"10. THOU SHALT NOT COVET thy neighbor's house,
thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his manservant,
nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is
thy neighbor's."
exodus 20:1-17.

"And god spoke all these words, saying, I am the lord thy
god, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the
house of bondage.
"1. THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE
ME.
"2. THOU SHALT NOT MAKE UNTO THEE ANY
GRAVEN IMAGE, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor
serve them: for I the lord thy god am a jealous god, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy
unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
"3. THOU SHALT NOT TAKE THE NAME OF THE LORD
THY GOD IN VAIN; for the lord willnot hold him guiltless that'
taketh his name in vain.
"4. REMEMBER THE SABBATH DAY TO KEEP IT HOLY.
Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh
day is the sabbath of the lord thy god: in it thou shalt not do any
work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor
thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within
thy gates: For in six days the lord made heaven and earth, the
sea, and all that in them is, and rested the blessed sabbath day,
and hallowed it.
"5. HONOR THY FATHER AND MOTHER: that thy days
may be long upon the land which the lord thy god giveth thee.
"6. THOU SHALT NOT KILL.
"7. THOU SHALT NOT COMMIT ADULTERY.
"8. THOU SHALT NOT STEAL.
Austin, Texas

What passes for the ten commandments is printed above in

capitals. The parts left out must be considered to get a better idea of
what the commandments are all about. The catholic and lutheran
churches combine 1. and 2. into one commandment. But we will
follow the tradition of the protestants and orthodox churches as the
commandments are above. The catholics and lutherans divide the
10th commandment into two.
The first commandment shows that the Israelites were originally
polytheists, and that they believed the gods of the neighboring tribes
were every bit as real as their jehovah. So, their priests, the levites,
who wanted a complete monopoly on the god business, forbade the
Israelites to have anything to do with the other gods. The levites were
afraid that some other god's priests would cut into their profits. So,
they were constantly fulminating against backsliding Israelites who, to
use their cute expression, "went a whoring after other gods." See:
"Take heed to thyself, lest thou make a covenant with the
inhabitants of the land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare
in the midst of thee: But ye shall destroy their altars, break their
images, and cut down their groves: For thou shalt worship no
other god: for the lord, whose name is 'Jealous,' is a jealous
god: Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the
land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice
unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;
And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their
daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make thy sons go a
whoring after their gods." exodus 34:12-16.
"And they shall no more offer their sacrifices unto devils,
after whom they have gone a whoring. This shall be a statute for
ever unto them throughout their generations." leu. 17:7.
"Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will
rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the
land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me,
and break my covenant which I have made with them."
deuteronomy 31:16
"And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they
went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto
them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers
walked in, obeying the commandments of the lord; but they did
not so." judges 2:17.
"And they transgressed against the god of their fathers, and
went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom
god destroyed before them." i. chronicles 5:25.
"Thus saith the lord god, 'Because thou hast not walked in
the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king
of Judah, But hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and
hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a
whoring, like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab, and also
hast slain thy brethren of thy father's house, which were better
than thyself: Behold, with a great plague willthe lord smite thy
October, 1983

Page 33

people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy goods.' " ii.
chronicles 21:1214.
"Yet willI leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall
escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be
scattered through the countries. And they that escape of you
shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be
carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart,
which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a
whoring after their idols: and they shall loathe themselves for
the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.
And they shall know that I am the lord, and that I have not said
in vain that I would do this evil unto them." ezekieI6:8-1O.
"And they shall deal with thee hatefully, and shall take away
all thy labor, and shall leave thee naked and bare: and the
nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be discovered, both thy
lewdness and they whoredoms. I willdo these things unto thee,
because thou hast gone a whoring after the heathen, and
because thou art polluted with their idols." ezekieI23:29-30.
And note the peculiar way the first commandment is worded. It
appears to say that the Israelites were not to place or locate other
gods before their jehovah, no doubt meaning that statues or images of
these gods should not be placed in front of an image of their jehovah.
Such an interpretation fits in perfectly with the religious beliefs and
customs of the Semitic tribes that inhabited the lands east of the
Mediterranean Sea. Numerous images, anthropomorphic and phallic, have been found in this area by archeologists. In the beginning the
Israelites were only one tribe among many related Semitic tribes.
Their language, culture and religious ideas were all practically the
same. Many traces of primitive original beliefs and customs remain in
the bible regardless of the interpolations and revisions made by later
priests and copyists, persons who had ulterior profit motives for
making the changes.
Moab, east of the Dead Sea, was one of these neighbor tribes. At
one time the Moabites had a king named Mesha who ruled against
Israel. Archeologists found a monument, or stela, on which was
engraved a record of Mesha's rebellion. We quote in part Mesha's
inscription as given in the New Standard Bible Dictionary (Funk &
Wagnall's Co. 1936):
"And the men of Gad had dwelt in the land of 'ataroth from of
old; and the king of Israel had built for himself 'ataroth. And I
fought against the city, and I took it. And I slew all the people
(from) the city, a gazingstock unto chemosh, and unto Moab,
And I brought back (or took captive) thence the altar-hearth of
dawdoh (?), and I dragged it before chemosh, in Keriyyth ....
"And chemosh said unto me, 'Go, take Nebo against Israel.'
And I went by night, ...
"And I took it, and slew the whole of it, 7000 men .... for I had
devoted it to 'ashtor-chernosh. And I took thence the (ves)sels
of yahwe, and I dragged them before chernosh.'
This translation, which seems to be word for word, would be clearer if
it is slightly rearranged to be as we would say it in our English
language:
"... and the king of Israel had built for himself 'ataroth. And
the men of Gad dwelt in the land of 'ataroth from of old; And I
fought against the city, and took it and I slew all the people from
the city, and I brought back (or took captive) thence the altar
hearth of dawdoh (?), And I dragged it before chemosh in
Keriyyoth ... a gazingstock unto chemosh and unto. Moab ....
"And chemosh said unto me, 'Go take Nebo against Israel.'
And I went by night, and I took it, and slew the whole of it, 7000
men ....
"And I took thence the vessels of yahwe, and I dragged them
before chemosh."
Victorious Mesha took many war trophies, "gazingstocks," to be
placed before his gawd, shamash, for his gawd to gloat over with
scorn and contempt. The Moabite shamash probably was no more
than an image thought to harbor the immanent presence of their
gawd. The Moabite sanctuary was built upon a high hill according to
the custom among early Semitic religious cults including the IsraelPage 34

October, 1983

ites. See:
"For they also built them high places, and images, and
groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree." i kings
15:23.
"And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were
not right against the lord their god, and they built them high
places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the
fenced city. And they set them up images and groves in every
high hill, and under every green tree: And there they burnt
incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the lord
carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to
provoke the lord to anger." ii. kings 17:9-11
"The hill of god is as high as the hill of Bashan; a high hill as
the hill of Bashan. Why leap ye, ye high hills? This is the hill
which god desireth to dwell in; yea, the lord will dwell in it for
ever." psalms 68:15-16.
"And say, "Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the lord
god; "Thus saith the lord god to the mountains, and to the hills,
to the rivers, and to the valleys; 'Behold, I, even I, will bring a
sword upon you, and I willdestroy your high places. And your
altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I
will cast down your slain men before your idols. And I will lay
the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before their idols;
and I willscatter your bones round about your altars .... Then
shall ye know that I am the lord, when their slain men shall be
among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill,
in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and
under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet
savor to all their idols.' " , " ezekieI6:3-5,13.
The translator of the Mesha stela offers the alternate reading, "(or
took captive)," in regard to the captured altar hearth. This indicates
that the Moabites regarded the altar hearth with more superstitious
awe than the other items of booty. No doubt they thought that altar
hearth contained the same immanent presence of the Israelite gawd,
yahwe, in the same way that they thought that their sacred image was
the evidence of the presence of shamash. This was the universal belief
among the people in those primitive times and amongst primitive
people today. They think that physical objects such as trees, stones,
rivers, animals, people, etc., etc. do contain indwelling, or animating
spirits. We still have today some primitive people of our churches that
act as though they still believe that statues of the "virgin mary,"
"jesucrist," etc. do contain indwelling, o'r animating spirits of those
mythical personages. That was the thought of all the early Semitic
tribes in those early days.

"The levites wanted a monopoly on the profitable god-business in Israel without any competition from the priests of pagan gods. For this
reason they put their proscription, 'Thou shalt
have no other gods before me' in the number
one position in the decalogue."
The levitical priesthood struggled for many centuries to put an end
to the worship of pagan gods among the Israelites as is shown by
psalm 68 attributed to king David and the fulminations of Ezekiel and
Jeremiah. I quote jeremiah 2:28, "according to the number of thy
cities are thy gods, 0 Judah." The levites wanted a monopoly on the
profitable god-business in Israel without any competition from the
priests of pagan gods. For this reason they put their proscription,
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me" in the number one
position in the decalogue.
Finally, before leaving 1 and2, we must note the part in which gawd
says he will"visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the
third and fourth generation." Morality in those days was different
from what it is today. It was the thing to do to punish unoffending
children for misdeeds of their father, letting the father suffer
vicariously instead of him being punished personally. We, in these
effete modern days consider that highly unjust. Some of us maintain
The American Atheist

that the Israelite gawd that the christians borrowed was and still is a
vicious monster. There are instances related further on in the bible
telling how our fiendish gawd punished, even killed, children for their
fathers' misdeeds. Most notable is the case of old king David and
Bathsheba (Read ii. samuel chapters 11 and 12). Old king David sent
his army to fight against Rabbah. David stayed home and one evening
saw Bathsheba, the beautiful wife of his faithful soldier, Uriah, bathing
in the top of her house. Immediately he had her sent-to him. And,
being absolute monarch, no one dared refuse the king anything.
When she found herself pregnant, she so informed king David. He
then ordered his general, Joab, to put Uriah into the hottest part of
the battle and to order allthe other men to retreat so as to leave Uriah
alone to be killed by the enemy. And so, David could then take the
widow, Bathsheba, into his harem.
According to the bible story, Nathan, the prophet, informed David
that their gawd is angry with him. Nathan told David, "Thus saith the
lord, 'Behold, I willraise up evil against thee out of thine own house,
and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy
neighbor, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For
thou didst it secretly: but Iwilldo this thing before allIsrael, and before
the sun.' And David said unto Nathan, 'I have sinned against the lord.'
And Nathan said unto David, 'The lord also hath put away thy sin; and
thou shalt not die. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given
great occasion to the enemies of the lord to blaspheme, the child also
that is born unto thee shall surely die.' " (ii. samuel 12:1114)
Notice that the promised punishment did not fall upon David
personally, but upon the infant son and David's .harem of wives..
Whether his harem of women thought of this as a hardship or not, we
do not know. This raping probably amounted to no more than trading
one old lecher for another.
There are many instances related in the Hebrew-christian bible in
which their gawd punished unoffending posterity for the misdeed of
some ancestor. The first and most notable instance is related of Eve,
our mythical ancestor. Supposedly, all Eve's descendants suffer the
pains of childbirth because Eve swiped one of gawd's magic apples,
the apple that conferred intelligence upon the eater. Go to gen. 3:16:
"Unto the woman he said, 'I willgreatly multiply thy sorrow
and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children;
and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over
thee.' "
for that story. See also:
"For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will
smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast;
and against all the gods of Egypt I willexecute judgment: I am
the lord .... And it came to pass, that at midnight the lord smote
all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of
pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the first-born of the captive
that was in the dungeon; and allthe first-born of cattle." exodus
12:12,29.
"... for I the lord thy god am ajealous god, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation of them that hate me." exodus 20:5
" ... and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the
children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation." exodus 34:7.
"The lord is long-suffering, and of great mercy, forgiving
iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing the guilty,
visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the
third and fourth generation." numbers 14:18.
"Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no
fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the
beloved fruit of their womb." hosea 9:16.
We will consider 3 and 4 together as they continue outlining the
demands the Semite gawd makes upon everyone. Note in 3 that
everyone who takes the name of this gawd in vain is guilty, and in 4 it is
demanded that no one work on Sunday. Any miscreant who
disobeyed either 3 or 4 was probably considered guilty under the
terms of #2. No mercy was to be shown to his or her descendants
unto the third, fourth or tenth generation. But, because of the
Austin, Texas

changes in the calendar during the past millenia, no one knows which
is the seventh day, or Sunday. This command is not really for the rest
of the people who work; it says only that gawd rested. The real
purpose was to benefit the priests who invented the gawd myth. They
wanted all the people to go to the temple to bring their offerings of
silver and of meat burnt (?) offerings at regular intervals. The levite
priests were very fond of lamb roast at mealtime.

"This (4th) command is not really for the rest of

the people who work it says only that gawd
rested. The real purpose was to benefit the
priests who invented the gawd myth. They
wanted all the people to go to the temple to
bring their offerings of silver and meat for
burnt (?) offerings at regular intervals. The
levite priests were very fond of lamb roast at
mealtime."
Note the explanation appended to commandment #5. One must
honor parents so that his days may be long upon the land. This is
essentially a selfish motive and not necessarily of benefit to the
parents.
Commandments 6 to 9 may be considered together. We see that
no explanation is appended to 6,7 and 8. But commandment #9
carries the explanation, "against thy neighbor." The same qualification presumably applies to all four commandments, and we can easily
see that the ten commandments are a code of conduct applying only
to the members of one's tribe, not to humanity as a whole. In their
relationship with foreign tribes, the Israelites were permitted, even
commanded, to kill, to steal from them, and to have forced sexual
relations with their women. Adultery, to an Israelite tribesman, meant
having sex with a woman who was a fellow tribesman's property, the
penalty being death to both by stoning. If the rape occurred with a
virgin not betrothed, the penalty was 50 shekels of silver:
"If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed,
and lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found; Then
the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father fifty
shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath
humbled her, he may not put her away all his days." deuteronomy 22:28-29.
Ifa man married a woman who was represented to him as a virgin, but
he found she was not, the father was assessed 100 shekels of silver.
Or, ifthe bridegroom made the false accusation, he was fined the 100
shekels. See:
"If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, And
give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name
upon her, and say, 'I took this woman, and when I came to her, I
found her not a maid': Then shall the father of the damsel, and
her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's
virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: And the damsel's
father shall say unto the elders, 'I gave my daughter unto this
man to wife, and he hateth her; And, 10, he hath given occasions
of speech against her, saying, "I found not thy daughter a
maid;" and yet these are the tokens of my daughter's virginity.'
And they shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city.
And the elders of that city shall take that man and chastise him;
And they shall amerce him in a hundred shekels of silver, and
give them unto the father of the damsel, because he hath
brought up an evil name upon a virgin ofIsrael: and she shall be
his wife; he may not put her away all his days. But ifthis thing be
true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel:
Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father's
house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that
she die: because she hath wrought folly in Israel, to play the
whore in her father's house: so shalt thou put evil away from
among you." deuteronomy 22:13-21.
As to killing,only the killingof a fellow tribesman was considered to be

October, 1983

Page 35

murder. Killingof foreigners was often commanded. See:

"So Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the
south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings: he
left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as
the lord god of Israel commanded." joshua 10:40.
"And it came to pass, when he reigned, that he smote all the
house of Jeroboam; he left not to Jeroboam any that breathed,
until he had destroyed him, according unto the saying of the
lord, which he spake by his servant Ahijah the Shilonite:" i.
kings 15:29.
"When thou comest nigh unto a city to .fightagainst it, then
proclaim peace unto it. And it shall be, ifit rriake thee answer of
peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people
that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they
shall serve thee. And if it willmake no peace with thee, but will
make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it: And when the
lord thy god hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite
every male thereof with the edge of the sword: But the women,
and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even
all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt
eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the lord thy god hath given
thee. Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off
from thee, which are not of the cities of these nations. But of the
cities of these people, which the lord thy god doth give thee for
an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But
thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the
Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and
the Jebusites; as the lord thy god hath commanded 'thee: That
they teach you not to do after alltheir abominations, which they
have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the lord
your god." deuteronomy 20:10-18.
"When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and
the lord thy god hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou
hast taken them captive, And seest among the captives a
beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou
wouldest have her to thy wife; Then thou shalt bring her home
.to thine house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails;
And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and
shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her
mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her,
and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife. And it shall be, if
thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither
she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt
not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled
her." deuteronomy 21:10-14.
"Now therefore killevery male among the little ones, and kill
every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all
the women children, that have not known a man by lying with
him, keep alive for yourselves." numbers 31:17-18.
The 10th commandment likewise legislates an Israelite's relationship to his neighbor-fellow-tribesman. In the dictionary "covet" is to
long for or crave some thing belonging to someone else. So, the
Israelite wife was a mere thing, a piece of property. Note that the 10th
commandment lists things not to be coveted in descending order of
value - the house first, the wife next, followed by the man slave,
woman slave, ox, ass and the odds and ends. A "servant" in the old'
testament was actually a slave. Jeremiah 2: 14 ("Is Israel a servant? is
hea home born slave? why is he spoiled?") uses the two words
synonymously. The complete bible by Smith and Goodspeed and the
new world translation do use "slave" instead of "servant" at exodus
20:17 in the 10th commandment. Old testament women were bought,
sold and given away by men. See:
"And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, 'I will serve thee seven
years for Rachel thy younger daughter.' And Laban said, 'It is
better that I give her to thee, than that I should give her to
another man: abide with me.' And Jacob served seven years for
Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love
he had to her. And Jacob said unto Laban, 'Give me my wife,
for my days are fulfilled, that I may go in unto her.' And Laban
gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.

And it came to pass in the evening that he took Leah his

daughter, and brought her to him; and he went in unto her. And
Laban gave unto his daughter Leah Zilpah his maid for a
handmaid. And it came to pass, that in the morning, behold, it
was Leah: and he said to Laban, 'What is this thou hast done
unto me? did not I serve with thee for Rachel? wherefore then
hast thou beguiled me?' And Laban said, 'It must not be so done
in our country, to give the younger before the first-born. Fulfill
her week, and we will give thee this also for the service which
thou shalt serve with me yet seven other years.' And Jacob did
so, and fulfilledher week: and he gave him Rachel his daughter
to wife also. And Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah his
handmaid to be her maid. And he went in also unto Rachel, and
he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet
seven other years." genesis 29:18-30.
"Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they
came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their
father's flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away:
but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, 'How is it
that ye are come so soon today?' And they said, 'An Egyptian
delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew
water enough for us, and watered the flock.' And he said unto
his daughters, 'And where is he? why is it that ye have left the
man? call him, that he may eat bread.' And Moses was content
to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his
daughter." exodus 2:16-21.
"And ifa man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall
not go out as the menservants do. If she please not her master,
who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be
redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no
power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her." exodus
21:7-8.
"Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I
purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon
his inheritance, that the name of the dead be not cut off from
among his brethren, and from the gate of his place: ye are
witnesses this day." ruth 4:10.
The relative money value of men slaves to women slaves was 50
shekels to 30. See:
"When a man shall make a singular vow, the persons shall be
for the lord by thy estimation. And thy estimation shall be of the
male from twenty years old even unto sixty years old, even thy
estimation shall be fifty shekels of silver, after the shekel of the
sanctuary. And if it be a female, then thy estimation shall be
thirty shekels. And ifit be from five years old even unto twenty
years old, then thy estimation shall be of the male twenty
shekels, and for the female ten shekels. And if it be from a
month old even unto five years old, then thy estimation shall be
of the male five shekels of silver, and for the female thy
estimation shall be shall be three shekels of silver. And if it be
from sixty years old and above; if it be a male, then thy
estimation shall be fifteen shekels, and for the female ten
shekels. But if he be poorer than thy estimation, then he shall
present himself before the priest, and the priest shall value him;
according to his ability that vowed shall the priest shall give
him." leuiticus 27:1-8.
(Special note to our women readers; see the "law of jealousies":
"If any man's wife go aside, and commit a trespass against
him, And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes
of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and there
be no witness against her, neither she be taken with the
manner; And the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be
jealous of his wife, and she be defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy
come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, and she be not
defiled: Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, and he
shall bring her offering for her, the tenth part of an ephah of
barley meal; he shall pour no oil upon it, nor put frankincense
thereon; for it is an offering of jealousy, an offering of memorial,
bringing iniquity to remembrance. And the priest shall bring her
I

Page 36

October, 1983

The American Atheist

near, and set her before the lord: And the priest shall take holy
water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is in the floor of
the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water:
And the priest shall set the woman before the lord, and uncover
the woman's head, and put the offering of memorial in her
hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in
his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse: And the priest
shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, 'If no man
have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to
uncleanliness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free
from this bitter water that causeth the curse: But if thou hast
gone aside to another instead of thy husband, and if thou be
defiled, and some man have lain with thee beside thine
husband:' Then the priest shall charge the woman with an oath
of cursing, and the priest shall say unto the woman, The lord
make thee a curse and an oath among thy people, when the
lord doth make thy thigh to rot, and thy belly to swell; And this
water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make
thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot:' And the woman shall
say, 'Amen, amen.' And the priest shall write these curses in a
book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water: And he

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shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the
curse: and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her,
and become bitter. Then the priest shall take the jealousy
offering out of the woman's hand, and shall wave the offering
before the lord, and offer it upon the altar: And the priest shall
take a handful of the offering, even the memorial thereof, and
burn it upon the altar, and afterward shall cause the woman to
drink the water. And when he hath made her to drink the water,
then it shall come to pass, that, ifshe be defiled, and have done
trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the
curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall
swell, and her thigh shall rot: and the woman shall be a curse
among her people. And if the woman be not defiled, but be
clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed. This is the
law of jealousies, when a wife goeth aside to another instead of
her husband, and is defiled; Or when the spirit of jealousy
cometh upon him, and he be jealous over his wife, and shall set
the woman before the lord, and the priest shall execute upon
her all this law. Then shall the man be guiltless from iniquity,
and this woman shall bear her iniquity." numbers 5:123i) ~

ATTENTION ALL ATHEISTS

IN THE CENTRAL ILLINOIS AREAl
In a previous column I mentioned my desire to organize a
chapter of the American Atheists in my area. The groundwork for
that venture has been laid and the time for organization is NOWII
live in the central Illinois area and am planning a chapterto cover
that region of the state. I would like to hear from all Atheists living
in central Illinois who would be willing to help support an
American Atheists chapter and take part in chapter activities. A
voice of reason and sanity is much needed in this christian
stronghold. Please write to Jeff Frankel/P.O. Box 2422/0ecatur,
IL 62526 if you are interested in helping to get this very important
venture off the ground. Comments or criticisms pertaining to my
column may also be sent to that address (They have far better
things to do at the center than sorting my mail).

Atheists to form a chapter and a Dial-an-Atheist

service in the Tri-State area of Southwest Missouri,
Northwest Arkansas, and Northeast Oklahoma. In
the vicinity of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Fayetteville, Arkansas, Springfield, Joplin and Neosho, Missouri.

AAARG'
AMERICAN ATHEIST
ADDICTION RECOVERY GROUPS

Contact:
John Lipe
c/o American Atheists
P.O. Box 2117
Austin, TX 78768

2136 South Birch Street

Denver, Colorado 80222
303/758-6686

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AMERICAN A THEIST RADIO SERIES / Madalyn Murray O'Hair

AMERICAN ATHEISTS
AND FREETHINKERS
\
In our quest for an "identity" of Atheists, we have been looking into
their history, their sociology, their personalities, their philosophy and
their ideology generally.
And, again, I have just recently discovered some quite extraordinary tidbits of the persons who have fought so valiantly for the
freeing of the human mind.
For example, I know now that there was a person named Matthias
Knutzen, who was born in Oldensworth, Holstein in 1645. He lost his
parents when he was a child and was brought to an uncle who lived at
Konigsberg, and he went to school there, and eventually studied
philosophy there. Finally he took to the adventurous life of a
wandering scholar and propagated his principles in many places. In
1674 he preached Atheism publicly at Jena, in Germany, and had
followers who were called "Gewissener" from the fact that they
acknowledged no other authority than conscience. I~is recorded now
that there were 700 hundred in Jena alone. What became of this man,
and of these persons, is unknown. There appears to be left only one
major letter, dated from Rome, which gives his principles. He denied
the existence of either god or the devil, deemed churches and priests
as useless and held that there is no life beyond the present, for which
conscience is a sufficient guide, taking the place of the bible, which
contains great contradictions. He also wrote two dialogues. I have not
been able to get this material. We simply have the report on him, and
his general beliefs now, in our Atheist Library and Archives.
And, then, there was Adam Duff OToole, an Irishman, be-gorra,
who was burnt to death at Hogging Green, Dublin, Ireland in 1327.
The indictment for his death reads as follows:
he " ... denied obstinatelie the incarnation of our savior, the
trinitie of persons in the vnitie of the Godhead and the
resurrection of the fleash, as for the Holie Scripture, he said it
was but a fable; the Virgin Marie he affirmed to be a woman of
dissolute life, and the Apostolike see erronious." (original
spelling)
I am very surprised at the Americans. There was, for example,
Abner Kneeland. He was born in Gardner, Massachusetts on the 7th
of April in 1774. He became a baptist minister at first but later became
a universalist minister. He invented a new system of orthography,
published a translation of the new testament in 1823 ... and, a two
volume work called the Deist in 1822. In 1829 he wrote The Fourth
Epistle of Peter and a Review of the Evidences of Christianity. This
last book was a compilation of a series of lectures he delivered in New
York in 1829. He moved to Boston, Massachusetts in that same year,
and in April 1831 began a magazine titled the Boston Investigator
which was one of the very first put out in America which could be
classified as "freethought" or Atheist. In 1833 he was indicted and
tried for blasphemy for saying that he "did not believe in the god which
the Universalists did." He was sentenced on the 21st of January, 1834
to two months' imprisonment and a fine of $500 which was a great
deal of money in those days. The verdict was confirmed in the Court
of Appeals in 1836, and he received a two months' imprisonment.
Kneeland was a pantheist. By that is meant to deny that god has a
personality, and instead to identify god with Nature and to say or
believe that god is some kind of transcendental reality of which the
universe and man are only a manifestation.
After he got out of jail he gave over the editorship of his magazine to
several others and retired.to a farm at Salubria, Massachusetts where
he died on August 27th, 1844. We are trying now to get copies of his
magazine and his books.
Page 38

October, 1983

Then, there was William Plumer who was born in Newburyport,

Massachusetts on the 25th of June, 1759. He was a United States
Senator. In 1780 he became a baptist preacher, but later had to resign
this on account of his skepticism. He remained a deist - that is, he
believed in "nature and nature's god." He served in the legislature for
eight terms, during two of which he was Speaker. He was governor of
New Hampshire from 1812 to 1818. He wrote to the press as an
antichristian under the signature of "Cincinnatus" and even published a bookAn Address to the Clergy in 1814. He lived until the 22nd
of June, 1850. We are now trying to get copies of his works.
Then there was Arnold Krekel. He was born in Langenfeild, Prussia
on the 14th of March, 1815, but he came to America with his parents
when he was 17 years old. The family settled in Missouri. In 1842 he
was elected to be Justice of the Peace and afterwards County
Attorney. In 1852 he was elected to the Missouri State Legislature. He
served in the Civil War as an elected Colonel and was president of the
Constitutional Convention of 1865. He signed the ordinance of
emancipation by which the slaves of Missouri were set free. He was
appointed judge by President Lincoln on the 9th of March, 1865. He
was a pronounced agnostic and when he realized he was about to die
he requested his wife not to wear mourning, saying that death was as
natural as birth. He died in Kansas on the 14th of July, 1888.
I was even fortunate enough to find just a little information on
George Hoadley. He was born in New Haven, Connecticut on the
31st of July, 1836, and studied law at Harvard University. He was
admitted to the bar and later elected judge of the superior court of
Cincinnati. He later resigned his place on the bench and established a
law firm. And, at a time when the matter was first before the state
courts of our nation he was one of the attorneys who successfully
opposed compulsory bible reading in the public schools.
A feisty little woman Ellen Elvira Gibson, born in Winchenden,
Massachusetts on the 8th of May, 1821 became a public school
teacher first and later a lecturess. At the outbreak of the American
Civil War she organized a Ladies' Soldiers' Aid Society and was
elected a chaplain to the First Wisconsin Volunteer Artillery.
President Lincoln endorsed the appointment, which was questioned.
She was a militant freethinker, which is to say, an Atheist.
There was also De Robigne Motrimer Bennett! What a name and
what a man! He was born of poor parents in Springfield, New York in
December, 1818. At the age of fifteen he joined the shaker society in
New Lebanon and stayed there for thirteen years. About that time he
lost faith in the shaker creed, got married, and went to Louisville,
Kentucky, where he started a drug store. He became an Atheist
about this time also. In 1873, he began to write letters to the editor of
the newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky and that newspaper refused to
print them, so he simply resolved to start a paper of his own where
Atheists could say what they wanted to say. The result was a paper
called the Truth Seeker and it was started as a weekly in 1876. He
printed pamphlets also and when Ezra H. Heywood wrote a pamphlet
on the marriage question in respect to the clergy, Bennett sent it
through the mails. He was tried and sentenced to thirteen months in
prison, in 1879 for sending this pamphlet through the post. He had
written an article An Open Letter to Jesus Christ which was read to
the jury in open court to bias the jury. He was sent to jail. A petition
with 200,000 names on it was presented to President Rutherford B.
Hayes asking his release from jail but President Hayes would not
accede to the commuting of the sentence. By the time he got out, he
had so many admirers that they sent him on a voyage around the
The American Atheist

world. He wrote a great number of Atheist books, and we are trying to

obtain these for our Atheist Library and Archives now. Mr. Bennett
died in 1882.
We also now know about Francis Ellingwood Abbott who was born
in Boston on November 6th, 1836. He graduated from Harvard
University and began his adult career as a unitarian minister, but he
became too broad for that church and resigned in 1869. He started
the Index, a famous journal of free religious inquiry and antisupernaturalism at Toledo, Ohio, but moved it to Boston in 1874. His
first major book was titled Impeachment of Christianity written in
1872. He was a reknowned lecturer.

Dr. Joseph Rhodes Buchanan of Frankfort, Kentucky, born in

1814, a professor of physiology and an M.D. published an Atheist
magazine known as Buchanan's Journal of Man.
Richard Mentor Johnson, a Colonel in the American Army, was
born in Kentucky in 1781. He studied law and became a member of
Kentucky's Legislature in 1805. In 1812 he raised a regiment of cavalry
and fought with distinction against British and Indians. He was a
member of Congress from 1807 to 1819 and from 1827 to 1837 - a
total of 20 years. In addition, he was a United States Senator from
1819 to 1829 and Vice President of the United States from 1837 to
1840. His speeches in favor of rights of conscience are most notable

"(Francis Ellingwood Abbot) graduated from Harvard University and began his adult career as a
unitarian minister, but he became too broad for that church and resigned in 1869. He started the
Index, a famous journal of free religious inquiry and anti-supernaturalism."
- and he fought a valiant fight to see that the mails would go through
We are now beginning to get at least the names of these persons
in America - even on Sundays, at a time when religion closed down
who fought so valiantly for separation of church and state, and for the
that service on that day.
right not to believe. There was Stephen Pearl Andrews, a sociologist
We try to find out more about these people, and if you have any
who was born in 1812.Susan B. Anthony, born in 1820,was one of our
information or any of their books - won't you get them to us please?
first suffragettes. William S. Bailey began an Atheist magazine, The
We know that Courtlandt Palmer, an American reformer born in
Liberal in Nashville, Tennessee - of all places!!! He was an advocate
of abolition in that slave-owning state also. We only know that he died . New York in 1843 established a club for "utmost liberty of public
discussion."
in 1886.
We are in contact now with the Boston Public Library because
We now know about Joel Barlow, an American statesman, writer
Theodore Parker bequeathed them 13,000 books which he had
and poet who was born in Connecticut in 1754. W was to him that
Thomas Paine entrusted the first part of the manuscript of the Age of collected. He was born in 1810, became a unitarian minister in 1837,
Reason. He was our nation's minister to France in 1811, and an but became such an iconoclast that even the unitarian body rejected
him. A society was established to give him a hearing in Boston, and his
ardent deist - an antichristian.
fame was soon established. As all - or almost all - Atheists and
There was William S. Bell, born in Pennsylvania in 1832 who
denounced his ministry with the methodist church to become an freethinkers of that day, he was a fearless opponent of the Fugitive
Slave Law and actually sheltered slaves in his own house. We hope
Atheist and freethinker.
There was Dr. George William Brown of Rockford, Illinois, who at that we willbe able to get some copies of some of his books, notably
his Discourse on Matters Pertaining to Religion.
age 17 was expelled from the baptist church for repudiating the
Send us anything you may have on these brave people - and send
dogma of an endless hell. He was born in 1820. He established an
Atheist or Freethought journal titled the Herald of Freedom and it a contribution, too, so that we may use those funds to enlarge our
was printed and its office was in Kansas .
Archives.

00

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Des Moines, Iowa

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Lexington, Kentucky

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Dial-a-Gay-Atheist

(713) 457-6660

New Orleans, Louisiana

(504) 897-9666

Salt Lake City, Utah

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Boston, Massachusetts

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Northern Virginia

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Virginia Beach, Virginia

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Eastern Missouri

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Austin, Texas

October, 1983

Page 39

THE. COPPER BEECH

by Michael Bettencourt

Something stupendous in trees comes from their solidity, their

quiet "thereness." The thick, horny, supple hide of the bark, the zen
sibilance of leaves in wind, the spines of branches grazing the sky
above, all remind us of what we are not now: rooted, continuous,
fleshed out and arching upwards. Compared to the mayfly quality of
our lives, trees are the closest cousin we have to immortality and
eternity, a shuttle for Lachesis' thread of life on a loom much larger
and longer-lived than ourselves.
From the library I could watch the huge copper beech from an
air-conditioned distance. The tree reminds one of nothing so much as
an explosion in freeze-frame. Its dark hueless leaves spill out in rough
sharp-eaved parabolas while its trunk spews upward in grey silence a
splay of splined branches. From where I sit the tree is perfect,
harmony, the roiling symmetry of its presence soothing my jangled
asymmetrical nerves.
Then I left the library to stand underneath it and hear, in the echo
chamber of my imagination, what it might by saying to me, wanting, of
course, to hear about longevity and permanence. But the grey
convoluted trunk is splitting in places. Some branches, small ones to
be sure, had no leaves, the tributaries dried out. Above me other
branches, broken off by wind or intrepid climbers, hung like rabbits in
a butcher's shop, waiting for entropy to make a meal of them. The
knuckled roots were stillstrong, spiked into the ground with the force
of an irrefutable argument, yet it came clear to me then, as it should
have been clear to me all along save for my misty romanticism, that
even this magnificent spasm of life will, too, pass away into forgetfulness and disheveled anarchy, no different and no stronger than any
mayfly of the moment.
I am always surprised when, in the midst of my machinations for
happiness, the obvious boxes my ears, that I willdie without choice in
the matter. I am not especially depressed by that fact; I see no
Page 40

October, 1983

brutality or denigration in it. On the contrary, it is probably the

greatest spur we have to live a full and decent life. Like Thoreau, we
should not want to find out that when we came to die we had not lived.
The only way, then, to insure that that doesn't happen is to live as if
death were imminent; or, as the character in Breaker Morant says,
"Live every day as ifit were your last, because one day you'll be right."
Death puts a gloss on everything in a way that an afterlife cannot. If
you believe that some god will.take care of you in an eternal day-care
center (see Twain's Lettersjrom the Earth about this), then you've no
particular impulse to make the best of this lifebecause, by god, you've
got eternity waiting for you just around the corner. Even ifthere be an
afterlife I think it would do us well to forget about it, not only because
we have no idea if it is better or worse than the life we now have, but
also because it devalues the lifeyou have now by allowing you to skim
like a water-skater over the fearsomely beautiful depths of the pond.
But ifyou don't allow an exemption for an afterlife, you willfind that
the world around you is suddenly more precious because of the
precarious waltz you are sharing with it. Most of us do not look closely
enough at the world around us, do not really see anything. Oh, we get
fleeting light images across our retina, like irritating itches, and we
associate these with things we know. But we never really inspect
things in all their detail, in all their "thereness." To do so takes work,
and most of us are lazy. To do so takes patience, and most of us are in
a hurry. To do so takes humor, and most of us are dour and tired.
Think of all the animals that have died for you, all the paper made,
asphalt laid, buildings erected, plants grown. Think of all the
innumerable connections that bind you to everything else, how, in
one way, you are the center of a universe of messages transmitted
and received. Think of all this, and more, and an afterlife willpale into
the airiness that it really is. This life, substantial, painful, intricately
marvelous, is our only stomping ground wherein we are responsible
for making whatever wine of happiness or bitterness we drink in this
life.

"Think of all the animals that have died for you,

all the paper made, asphalt laid, buildings
erected, plants grown. Think of all the innumerable connections that bind you to everything
else. . . . Think of all this, and more, and an
afterlife will pale into the airiness that it really

IS.

"

What about the fear, you say. I can say nothing about that. Ernest
Becker has eloquently spoken about this fear in his Denial of Death,
the "worm in the apple" as he calls it. The fear of leaving the known,
the death of our fantastic brain, the complete and utter absence of our
selves from the hands of the earth - all of this we try to deny, which
leads some to sickness, some to religion, some to existential rebellion,
and some to happiness. It seems to me that the fear one feels is
proportional to the lifeone doesn't lead. A person who tries to live his
lifeso fullythat he can have no regrets, or at least only minor ones, on
his deathbed is a person who is not afraid to die because he knows
what he has seen, knows to the lees the endless repetitiveness and
variety of life, and thus has had his curiosity satisfied again and again.
It is only when we are timid, when we refuse to reach out into the life
around us, when we hold back from plunging into the stream, that the
fear becomes magnified. Because it is in reality two fears: one, that
you willnot have lived a fulllifewhen you die; and, two, that when you
die you willnot have a chance to live a fulllife.The only antidote to this
is to live; the only cure for the fear of death is more life.

The American Atheist

SUGGESTED AMERICAN ATHEIST

INTRODUCTORY READING LIST
Knowing that Atheist material is very hard to find in most public library sources in the United States,
American Atheists suggest the following publications which are available from us as an introduction into the
multifaceted areas of Atheism and state/church separation. To achieve the best understanding of thought in
these areas the featured publications should be read in the order listed. These by no means represent our
entire collection of Atheist and separationist materials. A more complete catalogue is available upon request
for $1.00.
All the Questions You Ever Wanted to Ask American Atheists with All of the Answers
by Jon Murray and Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair [paper, 360 p.]
Freedom under Siege, The Impact of Organized Religion on Your Liberty And Your Pocketbook
by Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair [cloth, 282 p.]
Separation of Religion and Government
by Frank Swancara [cloth, 246 p.]
Why I Am An Atheist, including a history of materialism
by Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair [booklet, 40 p.]
What on Earth Is An Atheist! (A collection of programs from the American Atheist Radio Series)
by Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair [paper, 287 p.]
The Case against Religion: A Psychotherapist's View
by Dr. Albert Ellis [booklet, 17 p.]
Pagan Origins of The Christ Myth
by John G. Jackson [booklet. 30 p.]
Sex Mythology
,'
by Sha Rocco [booklet, 55 p.]
Ingersoll The Magnificent
by Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair [booklet, 56 p.]
A Few Reasons for Doubting the Inspiration of The Bible
by Col. Robert G. Ingersoll [booklet, 30 p.]
Atheist Truth vs. Religion's Ghosts
by Col. Robert G. Ingersoll [booklet, 45 p.]
The Logic and Virtue of Atheism
,
by Joseph McCabe [booklet, 58 p.]
An Atheist's Bertrand Russell
ed. by Jon G. Murray [booklet, 50 p.]
Essays in Freethinking, Vol. I
Essays in Freethinking, Vol. II
Essays in Freethinking, Vol. III
Essays in Freethinking, Vol. IV
by Chapman Cohen [booklets, 112 p.]
$4.00 each, or set of four vols:
American Atheist Heritage: Jefferson, Franklin, Lincoln, and Burbank
by Joseph Lewis [booklet, 55 p.]
Our Constitution - The Way It Was
by Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair [booklet, 54 p.]
Women and Atheism, The Ultimate Liberation
by Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair [booklet, 22 p.]
Fruits of Philosophy
by Charles Knowlton, MD [booklet, 58 p.]
Why I Left The Roman Catholic Church
by Charles Davis, formerly Britain's leading catholic theologian
Letters from A Roman Catholic
by Carolynne Simms [two in one booklet, 27 p.]
War in Vietnam - The Religious Connection
by Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair [booklet, 83 p.]
An Atheist Epic: Bill Murray, The Bible and The Board of Education
by Dr. Madalyn Murray O'Hair [paper, 316 p.]
Essays of An Atheist Activist
by Jon G. Murray [booklet, 67 p.]
The Ten Commandments
by Joseph Lewis [cloth, 644 p.]
Order from:

American Atheist Press

P.O. Box 2117
Austin, TX 78768-2117

$6.95
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AMENDMENTI

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