Most Hated Woman Essay

Commonly referred to as “The Most Hated Woman in America,” Madalyn Murray O’Hair was an atheist who fought for separation between church and state. Madalyn was determined to have division so, as Sean Elder states in “No Reason to Believe,” “she protested when American astronauts read scripture during space launches, and when a nativity scene was mounted on the rotunda of the Texas Capitol. She sued to have ‘In God We Trust’ taken off U.S. currency and to have ‘under God’ removed from the Pledge of Allegiance” (55). All of these court cases furthered her agenda to have total separation. However, she is most commonly known for founding America’s Atheists and the court case that forever changed religion in public schools: Murray v. Curlett. While Madalyn Murray O’Hair was hated for fighting against mandatory religion in public schools, her accomplishments were necessary to comply with the First Amendment. Madalyn’s life was controlled by beliefs, or lack thereof. Ann Seaman spoke of how Madalyn became an atheist at an early age in America’s Most Hated Woman:

Most commonly, this happens when a coach prays before a sporting event. Simon Brown provides a statistic in "The Supreme Court Struck Down Coercive Forms of Public School Prayer 54 Years Ago, but Some Coaches are Playing by Their Own Rules" that “in a space of just five weeks in April and May of [2016], Americans United sent complaints to six different public high schools and colleges regarding prayers at football games” (6). Coaches are not an exception to this law. Forcing prayer onto these students may ostracize non-Christian athletes as well as simply take away from the sole purpose of the game. Many teams now have an optional prayer which is often lead by a student which still makes the students feel obligated to participate, especially if the student leading is a