O'Hair and Prayer

Madalyn Murray O’Hair was an avowed atheist. In 1963, she founded the US non-profit organization called American Atheists. Today, their website proudly declares the cosmos to be devoid of immanent conscious purpose. The organization’s stated mission is to promote atheism and secular humanism, while opposing religion in public life. 

During her life, O’Hair filed several lawsuits concerning the separation of church and state. This included suing to have “under God” removed from the Pledge of Allegiance and “In God We Trust” removed from our currency. O’Hair also worked to outlaw tax exemptions for churches and to restrict prayers in schools. 

Although her efforts drew a lot of negative attention and generated hate mail, O’Hair seemed to like being infamous. She became known for making anti-Christian statements. She was once quoted as saying, “Your life, in the final analysis, is in your hands. There is no meaning in life, other than the meaning you give it… There is no efficacy in prayer. There is no one to hear you.” It comes as no surprise that someone who did not believe in God would deny the power of prayer, but what about her specific claim? Is there someone to hear us when we pray? And what does God’s Word reveal about the effectiveness of prayer? 

Prayer is the natural response from those who love God. Any deep and meaningful relationship is evidenced by fitting and frequent communication. God desires this type of bond with every individual (1 Thess 5:16-18; 1 Pet 5:6-7). Jesus taught that we ought to pray always and not lose heart (Luke 18:1). David addressed the Almighty saying, “O You who hear prayer” (Psa 65:2). 

The Bible teaches us to offer prayers for all people. We pray for our enemies (Matt 5:44), for our leaders in government (1 Tim 2:1-2), for those who are sick (Jam 5:14), for the church (Col 1:9-12; 2 Thess 3:1-2), and even for ourselves (Php 4:6). The Bible also shows us the blessings and benefits we gain by praying. We are to pray for our daily needs (Matt 6:11), for spiritual wisdom (Jam 1:5), for strength to resist temptation (Matt 26:13), and for the work of evangelism (Luke 10:2). The promise of scripture is, “the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (Jam 5:16). 

We should also consider how prayer is effective even when God does not grant our requests. Think of Paul’s thorn in the flesh (2 Cor 12:7-10) or about Christ’s prayer in Gethsemane (Luke 22:41-43). God provides His grace and strength to see us through. Let us also learn to rely on God, His people, and greater spiritual truth!