Godless Q&A: More About Me Than You Ever Needed To Know

I’ve been saving up some questions that I get asked a lot so I can answer them for you here. Let’s just jump right in, shall we.

1. Why the fuck does Obama follow you on Twitter?

Well, I’d love to think it’s because he’s a closeted atheist, but I am pretty sure he followed the account before it became @Godless_mom. It used to be for a blog I ran called Genpop.org (I don’t own it anymore – not my content) which was geared toward educating the world about the conditions and human rights violations taking place in American prisons, as well as to fight the death penalty. My guess is that he followed that account.

2. If you don’t believe in God, why is religion all you talk about? 

First, it’s not all I talk about. Don’t you find that a bit of an arrogant question, to assume you know me based solely on my presence on my blog and on my social media spaces? In fact, I rarely talk about religion except in the context of the Godless Mom online persona. More often than not, I am talking about food or farts, as is the case with most moms of six-year-olds. When I am online as Godless Mom, I talk about religion almost exclusively because fighting the bullshit religion causes in our world is kinda the whole purpose of the Godless Mom thing. I started it because kids die from refusing medical treatment, cartoonists are executed for drawing a so-called prophet, some people cannot get married or even openly be themselves. Human rights are trampled on by religion hourly, and quite frankly, if you’re not talking about it, there’s something wrong with you.

3. What are your hopes for Godlessmom.com?

I started Godlessmom.com as a sort of outlet, I guess. I live in a small town. I can’t always fully be myself here without fearing that my son will suffer consequences. So, I made this outlet. Now that I have been doing it for over a year, my goals have broadened. I want to normalize atheism so that I don’t have to hide who I am, ever again. I want to bring reason to the world, and teach people to value truth. I sincerely believe that the more people value the truth, the less violence, war, murder, rape, oppression and violations of human rights will occur. If we learn to value what the evidence tells us, we will be acting according to reality.

For me, personally, I hope to publish a book and be able to contribute to my family’s bills using only Godlessmom.com, so I can focus on this work exclusively, which I feel is very important.

4. Why do you make fun of believers?

I fully admit I’ve made fun of my share of believers here on this blog. It is only after they have met certain criteria, however. That criteria are:

1. Have they argued in favour of taking rights away from a certain group of people?

2. Have they referred to anyone’s lifestyle as “unnatural” or an “abomination”?

3. Have they completely and sometimes cruelly misrepresented what an atheist is, on purpose, to try to gain ground in their argument?

4. Have they argued in favour of teaching lies to children, or indoctrinating them and pounding the fear of hell into them?

5. Have they undermined all efforts to curb overpopulation, poverty and STDs by spreading reason and the use of contraception, thus contributing to the suffering of 16 million starving children across the globe?

6. Do they build strawmen around the totalitarian governments of Mao, Stalin and Pol Pot?

7. Do they argue against evolution while making it utterly obvious they know not a thing about it?

8. Do they push shame on children and teens for doing totally normal things like masturbating?

This is my basic criteria, although it does seem to keep growing. Should the answer to any of these questions be yes, then hun, you’re fair game. If not, I don’t make fun of you, and wouldn’t want to. I have religious readers and religious friends that I love.

5. Why don’t you fight against the death penalty anymore?

Well… to be honest, it sucked. A lot. Through my activism, I got to know a couple of death row inmates. Both men had committed crimes in their teens. Both men were black. White men in the same prison had lighter sentences for the same and even worse crimes. They were both in their 50s and completely different from the child who’d gone into prison. They were kind, self-educated and well-spoken. They engaged in activism for at-risk youth from inside the prison walls. They wrote beautifully, had wonderful senses of humour and the more I got to know them, the more I began to fear finding out their execution date.

Ultimately, I just couldn’t handle it. I can’t handle the idea of people being killed on purpose unless it’s out of sheer mercy. I spent so long and contributed so much to the fight against the death penalty and in the time I was an activist, we put an end to executions in several states. I have left my mark on the fight, but my heart simply couldn’t take it anymore. It was gutting on a daily basis.

I do still speak out against it, and I always will.

6. Why do you say you have “kids” sometimes and others you say you have “a kid”?

Because I only have one biological child who is with me full-time. My other kid is my stepdaughter, who we do not see often enough. Also, I don’t really have a whole lot of say in how she is raised, so in the context of talking about parenting, I usually focus on my son.

7. How do you deal with so much hate from religious zealots?

I dunno, really. I’ve always had a pretty thick skin. I don’t offend easily at all. I just read the hateful messages and laugh most of the time. The only time I really get my back up is when violence is threatened, my children brought up, or if you assume to know me from one tweet or one Facebook post. Other than that, it’s just fuel for Godless Mom.

8. How did you meet Godless Dad?

We worked at McDonald’s together when I was 15, but I didn’t remember him. Then about a decade later, we were with some mutual friends together at a pub. We started talking right away, and one of the first things he said to me was, “Wanna see my daughter?” and showed me a pic of the most beautiful little girl in the world. So, I guess you could say I fell for being her stepmom and he just came as a package deal.

9. Why did you move to Mexico?

I moved in the aftermath of a crime that happened to me. I needed to escape. Every ex-pat in Playa Del Carmen was running from something, and I was no different. I had a wonderful time, had my son there and learned to speak better Spanish. I made some amazing friends and had some incredible adventures, but once baby was here, we needed to settle down more seriously. Playa was a tequila town – you get a tequila shot with everything. Everyone was always drinking and partying and it just wasn’t the way I wanted to raise my son. He lived his first year there, but that was enough.

10. Do you like Canada or Mexico better?

Can I choose none of the above? I dunno. I’ve been a lot of places, and run away from things and had adventures and from all of that, I’ve learned that the more you like living with yourself, the more you like where you live, no matter where you live. Things about Canada infuriate me. Things about Mexico were intolerable. Even Australia had its downside when I lived there. I’ve just picked a spot in the world that suits my lifestyle and take the good with the bad. You know… when you live in a town where wild horses roam, things are alright.

11. Do you make any money from your blog?

Just over a hundred bucks a month. I work at it for at least 4 hours a day. I even write posts in my head while I’m swimming laps in the morning. I’ve not been this passionate about a project in all my life.

12. What do your parents think of Godlessmom.com?

My mom reads my posts often and shares them with family, even though she probably shouldn’t. She says she just loves them so much. My dad doesn’t read much of anything anymore, so I usually relay what I’ve written about recently, and he gets a kick out of it and then inevitably cracks some joke about Catholic priests or the Popemobile.

13. Have you ever been confronted in real life for being Godless Mom?

No. Thank God. #NoHoly. Once, however, I did like my stepdaughter’s photo on Instagram. She got a text from a friend asking why Godless Mom was liking her photos. She asked me what to say. I told her to tell them I’m her evil stepmom and we barely ever hang out and then crack a joke at my expense, fearing they would judge her for it. She didn’t follow my advice. She proudly told them I was her stepmom and nothing more. Her friend proceeded to freak out, saying that she loves Godless Mom and has been subscribed to me on Youtube for millions of years. Now, when my stepdaughter is here, she sends random videos of me to her friends… It’s strange, to say the least. I am just relieved that they didn’t judge her for it and it turned out to be positive for her.

Thanks for being engaged enough to ask me all these questions! If you have any more, feel free to send them to mommy@godlessmom.com

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