UNGODLY -- The Life Of A Discordian Saint

Allow me to introduce Madalyn Murray O'Hair.  I've just been reading about her in Ted Dracos's remarkable biography, Ungodly, ISBN 978-0425201169.



WOW.  This chick is the real thing!



She LOVED controversy and confrontation, and when there wasn't enough hassle going on around her she'd MAKE some.  She's best known for ABOLISHING PRAYER in the public schools. She was also the very first guest Phil Donahue ever had on his talk show.  The audience was so affronted by her F-bombs and the way she tore a page out of the Bible in front of everyone, that Phil asked for a hand mike that allowed him to pass among the studio audience so he could get their feedback directly.  Their questions were much better than the ones he'd had lined up in advance.  He realized the audience reaction meant he was onto something.  And the rest is history!  Both Madalyn and Phil went on to stardom -- Madalyn in a very Discordian way. 



Madalyn became the head of an iconoclastic, if not dyspeptic, atheist publishing empire. She amassed donations, gifts, and all manner of underwriting from her supporters.  If she wanted something and couldn't get anyone to give it to her, she appears to have just stolen it.  For a considerable period of her life she was a fugitive from justice, and she carried lifelong scars from a literal knock-down-drag-out with the police.  This is a woman stole from the people who helped her, double-crossed the people who loved her, befriended her enemies so she could use them shamelessly, and dared anyone to say a word about it. 



She got some of her own treatment back from others.  The son on whose behalf she sued to have prayer removed from the schools, Bill, had a religious vision and became a full-time evangelical Christian.   I daresay that rankled for the rest of her life.  She was dumped by one man after another -- part of the reason she never married the fathers of her sons. Her most trusted employee eventually killed her, sawed her legs off, did the same to her son and granddaughter, and slung them all in a clandestine grave. So hated was she that it took a year before the authorities even started to look for her, despite numerous complaints. 


Now THAT's hate.



The word Dracos uses over and over in this book is CHAOS.  He says she couldn't stand to be without it. and if even half of what he says in this book is accurate, I believe him.  She just became, not only a new personal hero of mine, but a duly registered Erisian saint.



Note to Madalyn:  The POEE is a non-prophet, irreligious disorganization grateful and proud to have you in our ranks.

See the pentagon in the center of that half apple?  I'm pretty sure that if you sawed Madalyn Murray O'Hair in half, you would find a very different shape indeed.  Gee, maybe we should ask Waters, the guy who killed her...