Atheists Newdow and O’Hair leave their mark

Wednesday’s ruling on the Pledge of Allegiance tops today’s RNS report. Adelle M. Banks and Rich Preheim report that conservative Christian groups are calling on teachers to practice civil disobedience and lead their students in the pledge in defiance of the ruling in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento. Judge Lawrence K. Karlton said that […]

Wednesday’s ruling on the Pledge of Allegiance tops today’s RNS report. Adelle M. Banks and Rich Preheim report that conservative Christian groups are calling on teachers to practice civil disobedience and lead their students in the pledge in defiance of the ruling in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento. Judge Lawrence K. Karlton said that he was bound by a 2002 appeals court ruling that “the pledge is an unconstitutional violation of the children’s right to be free from a coercive requirement to affirm God.”

Madalyn Murray O’Hair probably would have agreed with this ruling. Her legacy as America’s most outspoken atheist is the subject of Rebecca Phillips’s report today. Phillips writes: O’Hair was known for her role in the landmark 1963 Supreme Court decision that ended school prayer in public schools across the U.S. and turned her into the self-described “most hated woman in America.” Now, 10 years after her mysterious disappearance, which culminated in the discovery years later of her grisly murder by a former employee, the legacy of this controversial activist still influences atheists in America today.”Madalyn gave legitimacy to the atheist movement,” said Ann Rowe Seaman, author of a recent O’Hair biography. “She put it on the map as a viable thing.”

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