Blowing Smoke - Michael Wolraich [22]
“Is Humanism Molesting Your Child?”
Discovering secret secular humanist individuals and organizations in positions of power soon became a cottage industry of the right wing. In 1979, Senator Helms opposed the creation of the Department of Education and the nomination of its first secretary, Shirley Hufstedler. Hufstedler had previously served on the board of the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, so Helms concluded that she was one of the secular humanists “who are taking over our schools, our society, our businesses, our institutions at every level.”52 But the Aspen Institute is a nonpartisan leadership-training organization. Its name derives from its founder’s support for the study of the humanities.
In addition to the IRS and the Department of Education, conservatives hunted down secular humanists in the courts and in nonprofit organizations like the National Education Association, the American Library Association, NOW (National Organization for Women), the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and People for an American Way, to name a few. They also accused secular humanists of controlling the United Nations, Hollywood, and the media. Dallas Cowboy coach Tom Landry, whose political opinions were important because of his coaching record, warned the audience of a massive prayer rally that secular humanism was “sweeping America.” As an example of its influence, he cited the film On Golden Pond, explaining, “The language was as bad as I’ve ever seen in a movie.”x53
Citizens’ protection organizations with names like “Young Parents Alert” and “We The People Concerned With Education” materialized in suburbs and small towns across the country to marshal parents against the secular humanist scourge. They distributed leaflets with frantic titles such as “Weep for Your Children,” “The Hate Factory,” and “Is Humanism Molesting Your Child?” They purchased advertisements in local newspapers with chilling warnings like
SECULAR HUMANISM cannot survive in daylight.
Become informed and pass the word.
PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN! Call 799-0217 or 763-566154
and
SECULAR HUMANISM! WHAT IS IT?—
MARION COUNTY CITIZENS FOR MORALITY WILL SHOW THE FILM
“LET THEIR EYES BE OPENED.” SEE THE FULL SCOPE OF THIS
UNGODLY, UNAMERICAN PHILOSOPHY BEING TAUGHT IN PUBLIC
SCHOOLS ACROSS AMERICA. PARENTS AND CONCERNED CITIZENS
ARE URGED TO ATTEND—at QUINCY’S STEAK HOUSE, 2617 E. Silver
Springs Blvd.55
Angry parents’ groups agitated to remove depraved books like Catcher in the Rye and Brave New World from school libraries and classroom curricula. In Branson, Missouri, a Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition was returned to the publisher in a brown paper bag. According to the American Library Association, there were attempts to remove, restrict, or deny access to 148 different books in thirty-four states during the first half of 1981. Lest one conclude that such actions amounted to censorship, Terry Todd, national chairman of the Stop Textbook Censorship committee, explained that secular humanists were the true censors, since they had substituted “humanist” literature for “decent” books like The House of Seven Gables, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Huckleberry Finn.y56
In various brochures, films, and pamphlets, parents learned that secular humanism “‘brainwashed”’ students to accept suicide, abortion, and euthanasia. It encouraged children to lie, fostered “‘socialistic”’ thinking, and conditioned them to think that there was no such thing as right or wrong.57 It was responsible for crime, drug abuse,