Religion: Bishop Madalyn

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A new religion to snipe at organized religion is the latest idea of Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the militant atheist who won the Supreme Court ban on compulsory public school prayers. Last week she founded "Poor Richard's Universal Life Church," boldly named after her husband, a 56-year-old Texas artist. Mrs. O'Hair automatically received tax-exempt status—her way of pressuring the courts to void that privilege for regular churches. "Anything can be a religion," she claims, "even gurus or belly-button contemplators."

Mrs. O'Hair incorporated Poor Richard's Church under a California charter without a hitch. The church is located in a cluttered wooden house in Austin, Texas. While Mrs. O'Hair holds down the "bishop's" job, her "divinely inspired" husband will double as the "prophet" in residence. Poor Richard's Church will even canonize its own saints: Mark Twain, Mme. Curie, Albert Einstein and other luminaries.

As for converts, the founder counts on 30,000 U.S. families who have contributed to the atheist cause over the past ten years. Among the donors, she claims, are "a Governor, six mayors, a famous Texas heart surgeon and several U.S. Senators and numerous Congressmen." Whether the atheist church will impress the courts is another matter.