Ellen Johnson to Speak About Madalyn Murray O’Hair

It’s been nearly two years since the former president of American Atheists Ellen Johnson has made any public appearances.

That reclusion ends this weekend.

In a coup that we never thought possible, New York City Atheists has managed to get Ellen Johnson, the former president of American Atheists, to come speak to us on April 11 to commemorate the birthday of the late Madalyn Murray O’Hair, founder of American Atheists. Johnson’s topic will be: “Madalyn O’Hair: All the Things That She Did Right.”

…

Johnson has consented to speak at New York City Atheists’ Brunch on April 11, 2010 to honor the woman who was brave enough to come out as an Atheist long before it was acceptable — or even safe. Madalyn suffered a beating by the Baltimore police, persecution, vandalism of her home and automobile, loss of her job and verbal vilification such as rarely happens to Atheists today. And Johnson wants us to know that though Madalyn was dubbed “The Most Hated Woman in America,” she was actually beloved by many.

If you’re in the area, this is a talk you won’t want to miss.

Simon

FYI Ellen Johnson spoke for WASH in Maryland in April 2009: http://humanism.meetup.com/218/messages/5468177/
Chris Hallquist

This is embarrassing. Madalyn Murray O’Hair turned off an awful lot of activist atheists with her ethically challenged handling of money and generally bizarre behavior. I’ve never heard a convincing defense of her as someone who made real contributions to the freethought movement. If a believer ever asks me about her, I will tell that person that the nicest thing I can say about her is that she wasn’t involved in the systematic rape of children. And I will say it with complete sincerity.
CS Shelton

The title “Madalyn O’Hair: All the Things That She Did Right” reveals the belief – even among her supporters – that she got a lot of things wrong. George Carlin was a better spokesperson for the cause, frankly. RIP, madame. You were a real American character.
mb

I hope someone will record this and post online. I have only ever heard bad things about O’Hair and would be interested to get a more balanced view of her.
Doug Stewart

Marylyn Murray O’Hare was the Bill Donahue of today; very quick on her feet, very controversial, very charismatic, and the “darling” of the popular media. The only big difference is that Donahue is a vile repulsive monster that thinks that the Catholic Church is more important that exposing priests that f**k little boys up the a**, were O’Hare exposed the truth.
muggle

Funny, that’s how I feel about Ellen Johnson. She’s an ass. Madelyn O’Hair may have been crude but she was a crusader who got civil rights for Atheists up and running.
Shelley Mountjoy

Echoing Simon, Washington Area Secular Humanists hosted Ellen in the time since she has been the President of American Atheists.

http://humanism.meetup.com/218/calendar/9914549/
sandra

muggle, I would say you’re an ass for criticizing Ellen Johnson. You apparently have NO idea how much effort and personal sacrifice she made. I witnessed her hard work on several occasions, and I was awe struck.

If Ellen Johnson failed as the head of American Atheists, it’s because too many of the organization’s members were cheap, selfish, and lazy. Here’s one example: Ellen organized the Godless Americans March on Washington which was surprisingly well attended and a truly awesome event. I was there. Just a couple of years later she organized a second event in DC, to celebrate atheist veterans. I was certain it would be even better-attended than the GAMOW was. I was shocked to witness the poor attendance. What a slap in the face to all of the atheist men and women who served in the military. That day I was ashamed of atheists. So many couldn’t be bothered to make a brief trip to DC to attend an important, respectful, and groundbreaking event. They could have gone just for the day, airfare was not expensive, and many lived close enough to drive or take bus or train.

muggle, why don’t you back up your criticism by doing something … lead an organization, set up a major event … anything other than hurling insult at a person who was a tireless crusader for atheists. I think Ellen is a great atheist leader and I intend to support everything she does, including her current project, Enlighten The Vote.
Kacey Carter

Madalyn Murray-O’Hair: A God hating Atheist who, along with her screwed up son and equally screwed up granddaughter, were murdered by other God hating Atheists. Hmmm. Sounds kind of like the Christian way of doing things. Doesn’t it? Well, either way, she (they) got what she (they) asked for.
Kacey Carter

A “balanced view” of an UNBALANCED, pig of a woman? Good luck!
Kacey Carter

You must be a kid if you’ve never seen this maggot of a woman spew hatred out of her nasty, trash filled mouth.
Kacey Carter

By the way, she WAS by far, no better than what you fools say about Christians. She was STEALING money from her Atheist members when she was murdered and SHE was responsible for her son and granddaughters deaths because if not for her and her hateful ideals, THEY would still be alive ( unless they were killed some other way ). Also, I often wonder what her last thoughts were and if she had the good fortune to witness the deaths of her family before it was her turn to die? Either way, they’re “dancing with the Devil” right now and all is as it should be. One last thing, can it be assumed that all Atheists are murderers and thieves? Since you seem to think that all Priests are child rapists, one can only assume that all Atheists are murderers and thieves ( keeping in mind that her murderers were also members of her little, stupid congregation and they and she were also thieves)? AND if you take a look at the prison system, they are chock full of baby rapers and baby killers. You can’t tell me for one minute that those people believe in God. It’s funny how once they are imprisoned, that’s when they decide to “get religion”? The most likely reason? Because they think it will help them win parole or allow them at some future date to receive some sort of special treatment. You people are just silly.
Kacey Carter

LOL! Aren’t you people just chock full of decency!! Let’s see, Ms. Madalyn Murray-O’maggot was STEALING from her members (using credit card numbers) and was badly in debt. She was convicted of assault and was, in general, just a spiteful, rude, mean bag of assholiness. Much better than ANY Christian! On top of that, she was MURDERED by fellow Atheist David Roland Waters and his accomplices, Gary Karr, Gerald Osborne and Danny Fry.
Danny Fry was also murdered (and dismembered) by Waters along with the O’maggot family. Also, Waters had previous convictions for “violent crimes” ( he beat another teenager to death with a baseball bat ) and there were several
suspicious burglaries during his tenure with the American Atheists, and he pleaded guilty earlier in 1995 to stealing $54,000 from the A.A.
After this Ms. Madalyn wrote a scathing report in an article in the ‘Members Only’ section of the American Atheists
newsletter exposing him, the theft and his previous crimes, including a 1977 incident in which Waters allegedly beat and urinated upon his mother.
Waters’ girlfriend later testified that he was enraged by O’Hair’s
article, and that he fantasized about torturing her in gruesome ways.
So, in short, assuming that all Priests/Christians are child rapers, we can then assume that all Atheists are: Thieves, burglars, Mother beaters, torturers and murderers. I’m so glad that’s been cleared up! I was beginning to think that you you people were perfect! ROFLMAO!!
Kacey Carter

Maggot Murray-O’hairbrained got everything wrong! And at least George Carlin had respect for others.