Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 31, 1993 TAG: 9301280156
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ANN LANDERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
BELIEVERS FORM A HEALTHY MAJORITY
DEAR ANN: Do you have any idea how many people you insult on a daily basis with your Judeo/Christian-based "problem solving"?There are thousands of specialists in this country who help people with problems - psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, as well as government and private agencies. So why do you insist on telling your readers to consult ministers, priests and rabbis?
When you dole out such advice, you are insulting 10 percent of the population. A survey 13 months in the making revealed that more than 23 million Americans are, by their own admission, atheists. (There are only 1,186,000 agnostics and 29,000 humanists.)
In some states, the percentage of atheists is even higher: Oregon, 17.2 percent; Washington, 14 percent; Wyoming, 13.5 percent; California, 13 percent; Arizona, 12 percent; Vermont and Colorado, 11.4 percent; and Montana, 10.2 percent. Your systematic ignoring of atheists is an insult. The counsel you give should reflect reality, not your own personal bias. If you, Ann Landers, wish to take advice from a rabbi, feel free to do so, but don't assume that ALL your readers want advice from a representative of organized religion.
Every time you write, "consult your clergyman," atheists all over the country write to haul you up short (we get copies), but you ignore them. I find it incredible that you have gotten away with your bias and prejudice for so many years. It's high time YOU woke up and smelled the coffee. MADALYN MURRAY O'HAIR, FOUNDER, AMERICAN ATHEISTS INC.
DEAR MADALYN: I knew before I read the signature that the letter had to be from you. Hello again. You and I have had correspondence before.
My column is read by 90 million people every day. By your logic, 10 percent of my readers are atheists. This means 90 percent, or 81 million, are believers, which gives them a fairly healthy majority.
The advice I give is strictly on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. I do not expect everything I write to get the approval of every reader.
It is only natural that what appears in this space reflects my own biases, my own heritage and my own philosophy. When I suggest to a reader that he or she check with a physician, I do not get pounced upon by Christian Scientists, so why am I hearing from you again with the same old complaint? Why can you not accept the fact that we are coming from totally different places?
If you do not believe in God, Madalyn, it's perfectly all right with me. I am not trying to force religion on anybody. But I'll be darned if I will stop advising my readers to seek help from their spiritual leaders just because some atheists don't like it.