 Thomas Jefferson and the Separation of Church and
State
Supreme
Court Ruling that altered the First Amendment.
Three Supreme Court Cases
that altered the Prayer School issue.
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"My objective
in life is to dethrone God and destroy capitalism."
Karl
Marx, the founder of Communism
From the 1958 Book, The
Naked Communist
is a list of 45 objectives to destroy America. Listed item
#28
"Eliminate prayer or any
phase of religious expression in the schools
on the ground that it violates the principle of 'separation
of church
and state.' "
From,
the book Let Us Pray, by William J. Murray,
who was the plaintiff in the 1963
U.S. Supreme Court Case which removed Prayer from Public
Schools.
In 1963 William J. Murray III was attending public
school in
Baltimore, Maryland.  His mother was Madalyn Murray O'Hair who
was a militant far left atheist. For a long time she tried to defect to
the Communist Soviet Union where God was never mentioned. Madalyn had
an affair with a married man while serving in the Army during World War
II. Even though she was married to John Roths at the time,
she
wanted to marry William J. Murray, Jr. She became pregnant
and had a son, she named William J. Murray III. William Jr.
was a Catholic,
and divorce was out of the question for him. Madalyn blamed
God
for this, then denounced God as a fraud. She boiled with
growing
anger against God.
In 1955 Madalyn joined the Socialist
Labor party. Over time her socialism developed
into a Soviet-style Marxism. Later she joined the more
radical Socialist
Workers party
which was the renegade group founded by Leon Trotsky, the Bolshevik
leader who masterminded the November Revolution with Lenin in 1917.
Later Madalyn became involved with a Communist pro-Castro
group.
Madalyn wanted to escape Christian America and go to the Soviet Union.
In August 1960 Madalyn and her son William III boarded
the ship Queen
Elizabeth
for France. Once in Paris she headed straight for the Soviet
Embassy. Her request for Soviet citizenship would take months
and
have to be approved by the presidium of the Supreme Soviet.
She was also told that her life in the USSR would be very
hard. Not
wanting to wait, her hopes dashed, she returned to the United States.
This caught the attention of the high Communist Leadership
and
they saw in her, a chance to achieve one of their Communist Objectives.
She became the instrument by which they could use her son to
get
Prayer removed from Public Schools.
Returning to Baltimore she took William to Woodbourne Junior High to
enroll him in school. They entered the building a few minutes
before 8AM. They passed a few rooms where the children were
reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. She asked William, "They
do
this every day?" As they approached another room, they saw
students with heads bowed, reciting the Lord's Prayer. With
an
outburst of obscenities, she shouted to young William, "Why didn't you
tell me about
this?"
A few moments later they were in the counselor's office, where Madalyn
got straight to the point shouting, "Why are those f---ing children
praying? It's un-American and unconstitutional." A
heated
discussion ensued, where Madalyn finally shouted, "This won't be the
last time you hear from me about these prayers in school." In
a
fateful comment, the counselor said, "If you don't like it, why don't
you sue us?" Madalyn stared at him, register the idea and left.
She then instructed William to take notes on what happen during the
school day. She wanted to know about any activities that
would
involve Bible reading, songs, or prayers. William asked why
she
wanted this; her reply was, "The United States is nothing but a fascist
slave-labor camp run by a handful of Jew bankers in New York City.
The only way true freedom can be achieved is through the new
Socialist man. Only when all men know the truth of their
animal
sameness will we have true freedom." Next day, William obeying his
mother started a log.
Madalyn threatened to remove William from school if they continued
prayers at the start of school. Then Madalyn wrote a letter
to
the Baltimore Morning
Sun,
and got an interview from a staff reporter. A few days later William's
picture appeared on the front page of the local section with the
headline, "BOY, 14, BALKS AT BIBLE READING." This was the first time
prayer and Bible reading had been challenged since the school board had
adopted it in 1905. Dr. George B. Brain maintained that
William
who did not want to participate in prayers must remain in the class and
be respectful. Madalyn removed William from school.
Soon
NBC, CBS and ABC plus the major news wire-services were calling to
arrange
interviews with Madalyn and William. Over night the
school prayer issue became a national news story.
In the midst of this a member from the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) called Madalyn to inform her they were entering the case on
their behalf. The ACLU is closely aligned with the Communist
Party. (See below) The ACLU instructed Madalyn to send
William
back to school for legal tactical reasons in an attempt to trap the
school board. William was allowed to spend time in the front
office at school during prayers and the pledge.
An ACLU lawyer by the name of Leonard Kerpelman was assigned to
represent the Murray's pro bono. Madalyn and Leonard were an
odd
pair: Madalyn was anti-Jewish and Leonard was an Orthodox Jew.
The case was presented to local Judge J. Gilbert Pendergast
who
dismissed the petition writing, "It is abundantly clear that
petitioners' real objective is to drive every concept of religion out
of
the pubic school system... Thus the beliefs of virtually all the pupils
would be subordinated to those of Madalyn Murray and her son.
Any
reference to the Declaration of Independence would be prohibited
because it concludes with historic words of the signers...'with a firm
reliance on the protection of Divine Providence.'..." The
next
day Kerpelman & Madalyn filed an appeal to the Maryland Court
of
Appeals.
The next month the Court of Appeals heard the petition. Three
months later on April 6, 1962 the court ruled 4 to 3 against the appeal
stating,
"neither the First nor the Fourteenth Amendment was intended to stifle
all report between religion and government." A month later,
Kerpelman appealed the case to the United States Supreme Court.
On February 26, 1963, the Supreme Court began hearing the case.
At 9:30 AM the justices entered the chamber, with a full
gallery and many reporters.
After a
few preliminary formalities, Kerpelman rose and nervously began his
presentation. He said that prayer in public schools had been
tolerated for so long that it had become traditional and anything that
is unconstitutional does not become constitutional through tradition.
He told the Court that the Constitution had erected a "wall
of separation" between church and state. Justice Potter
Stewart interrupted, asking where this wording appears in the text.
Stewart knew that it did not. Kerpelman was stumped
and an embarrassing silence ensued. When he regained his
composure, he said that the text was not explicit on this point but had
been interpreted to mean that.
This contention opened a brief free-for-all with judges asking
questions of all attorneys and of each other. The meaning of
the "free exercise clause" of the First Amendment was also debated at
length.1
On June 17, 1963 the Supreme Court published its
ruling on the case. By an overwhelming majority vote
of 8 to 1, (Justice Stewart was the descending vote) the Supreme Court
reverse the Maryland Court of Appeals, and ruled that Bible reading and
prayers in school were unconstitutional. The court ruling was
written by Justice Tom C. Clark. Clark wrote that religious freedom is
embedded in our public and private life, and while freedom of worship
is indispensable in America, the government must be neutral and,
while protecting all, must prefer none and disparage none.
However
good the intent of the justices in this case, their ruling favored two
people, while at the same time, ruled against the vast majority of
Americans who were Christians at the time. This becomes the
tyranny of rule by the few. An old Russian
saying, "Good intentions pave the way to Hell."
While the Founding Fathers, who wrote the Constitution
and the Bill
of Rights, sent their own children to schools that had
prayer and Bible reading, must not have understood the
government they had just created, according to the 1963 Supreme Court.
From 1620 until 1963, (a span of 343 years) school prayer and
Bible reading had been an everyday part of American life, which was
suddenly declared unconstitutional.
The above excerpt is from the book Let Us Pray,
chapter 1 Putting
Prayer on Trial.
1 William J.
Murray, Let Us Pray, A Plea
for Prayer in Our Schools, page 26, William Morrow and
Company, Inc., New York
Stalin, one of the most brutal dictators of all time, said if we (the
Communist) can destroy America's religion and
morality, that is a key to undermining their culture and society.
Then America will crumble from within. See the list of Communist Objectives to over through America.
About
the Author of Let Us Pray.
William
J. Murray III was the son of
atheist Madalyn Murray. While he grew up in an atheist home,
he later was led to Christ and has become a Christian Minister.
He has
seen the devastating effects that have happen in our schools since
prayer was removed, and is now an advocate of restoring the freedom to
pray anywhere, including public schools.
Madalyn Murray
O'Hair went on to publish the American
Atheist
magazine with her other son Jon Murray. In 1964 Life magazine
referred to her as the most hated woman in America. She left
Maryland in 1963 after she allegedly attacked 5
police
officers who where trying to retrieve a run away teen. She
filed
a law suite against NASA for the Apollo 8 reading of Genius.
During the 60's and 70's she remained the face and voice of
atheism in America. In the 80's she became a speech writer
for
Larry Flynt's Presidential run. In 1995 Madalyn, her
son Jon
and granddaughter mysteriously disappeared. Their mutilated
bodies
were found 6 years later. The murderer was a former
type-setter for the American
Atheist.
Leonard Kerpelman, the ACLU lawyer in the case, practiced
law
through the 60's, 70's and 80's, but was disbarred from practicing law
in 1991. In the 70's and 80's he took on the cause of men's
rights in child-custody cases. He then went into
making videos and had a talk show in Baltimore.
ACLU
The
American Civil Liberty Union commonly know as the ACLU, was created by
an agnostic socialist, Roger Baldwin in 1920. During the
1930's the ACLU grew close ties with the Communist in the Soviet Union.
The ACLU over the years has become the legal arm of the
Communist Party. In one of their first legal cases they attempted to
force the teaching of Darwin's theory of Evolution into the American
classroom, because it eliminates the need for a creator God.
While they were unsuccessful in their first attempt, they
persisted with more law suites. Today it is illegal to teach
anything but Evolution in American Classrooms. They have had
countless law suits to get
prayer and Bible reading removed from public schools. (Communist goal
17 & 28.) They have sued school boards and cities
across the country in an effort to remove all traces of God from
American society. They routinely demand removal of the Ten
Commandments in court houses and in public parks. Crosses at
War Memorials they claim is in violation of the "Separation of Church
and State" principle, which only exist in the old Soviet Union
Constitution but not the United States Constitution. In
recent years they attack Christmas displays by hauling local officials
to court to sue them. Many cities fearing bankruptcy simply
cave in to save court fees and possible fines. The late DR.
D. James Kennedy called the ACLU, the Anti Christian Legal Union. (To
learn more See book, The ACLU vs
America, by Alan Sears.)
Last update
April 2012
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