Y’all will probably not be surprised to learn that right-minded Americans expected J. Edgar Hoover to do something about the acute Wickedness of Madalyn Murray O’Hair.
Mr. Edgar Hoover
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Washington, D.C.Dear Sir:
As a citizen of the United States and interested in justice and freedom of religion I am making known my views. This is in regard to Mrs. Madalyn Murray who brags that she is going to bring suits against Sisters teaching in public schools and against churches having tax exemptions. She also plans to establish an atheist center in Stockton, Kansas. She is a communist under cover of atheism. What right does she have to say who teaches in public schools and pays taxes? She is the greatest menace to democracy I ever heard.
Do you intend to let this pass without investigation?
Very truly yours,
[ *** redacted *** ]
What I find so striking about this letter is “communist under cover of atheism,” the curious suspicion that somebody would claim to be an atheist in order to disguise sympathy for communism. After all, there is no necessary relationship whatever between ones belief or unbelief in the existence of supernatural beings and ones ideas about how the economy ought to be organized.
It’s a nice pointer to how muddled is much of what passes for ‘thought’ in the Good Ol’ U.S. of A.