In the 1960s, Madalyn Murray O'Hair participated in successful court battles to ban prayer and Bible-reading in our public schools. Though it took 30 years, she apparently has tasted the bitter fruit of the gospel of atheism she so fervently preached. But getting what we want is not always good.
Mrs. O'Hair called herself the most hated woman in America, and she disappeared in 1995. Some speculated that the ailing O'Hair, then about 70, had gone somewhere to die so that Christians would not be able to pray over her.
Since she had disappeared with two other family members and $500,000 in gold coins, authorities suspected foul play. But five years of exhaustive searching failed to uncover any bodies–until recently.
Forensic tests have confirmed that human remains found on a ranch about 125 miles from San Antonio, Texas, in January 2001 are those of the missing trio. Their deaths were violent; the victims' legs had been cut off and placed on top of each other. Other details are even more gruesome.
Mrs. O'Hair did not believe that school children should be taught that there is a God. For to truly believe in a God who is both Creator and Judge commits a person to adhere to His rules for an orderly society. But some chafe at the very idea of being subservient to an unseen Higher Power. Mrs. O'Hair must have been one of those.
The constraints God places on behavior are for our good and general long-term well being. When He tells us not to kill, steal, covet what someone else has, or commit adultery, it's with good reason. These activities will cause disruption, disorder, and degradation both of individual morality and society at large. But Mrs. O'Hair didn't want school children being taught God's rules.
After striking a plea bargain, O'Hair's former office manager, a schoolboy himself in the 1960s, led authorities to her shallow grave. I wonder if he would have behaved differently had he been taught that God says it's wrong to steal and kill–and holds us accountable for our actions. But O'Hair had apparently converted him with her gospel.
Robert G. Ingersoll, 19th century secular humanist and infidel, once said, "Life is a narrow vale between the cold and barren peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry loud, and the only answer is the echo of our wailing cry. From the voiceless lips of the unreplying dead there comes no word…."
Ingersoll was wrong; the dead do speak. Mrs. O'Hair now preaches another gospel–her best sermon–from the grave. And here is its message: There is a God, and His most severe earthly judgment on those who reject Him is to give them what they want.
Copyright 2001 James McAlister
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