Courtney Heard, aka "Godless Mom", is driven by the stories from our community she has collected over the years.

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Dear Friend,

If you don’t already know her, I’d like to introduce you to my friend Courtney Heard. She is a brave and passionate advocate for our community, with the rare ability to draw in audiences—big and small—with her infectious sense of humor.

Since 2014, Courtney has been blogging as Godless Mom ([link removed][UNIQID]) , a blog with over 100,000 readers that covers secular living and parenting. Her Twitter ([link removed][UNIQID]) account has over 41,000 followers. She is also the co-founder of the International Association of Atheists.

As a fan of her witty, audacious tweets, one in particular caught my eye recently. She was asking her followers to send in their stories of life as nonbelievers—something that is, of course, of special concern to the Secular Coalition for America.

As you’ll see below, the stories they shared are gripping and at times harrowing. They demonstrate the struggles nonbelievers face with families and communities that don’t understand or downright oppose them.

These incredible people and their stories drive Courtney’s passion for the movement, just as they drive the SCA's work on Capitol Hill.

Courtney is a perfect example of why we continue fighting this fight.

Debbie Allen
Executive Director
Secular Coalition for America

*WARNING: The following essay contains descriptions of physical and sexual abuse and may be upsetting to some readers.*

Here’s Why I Fight For Secularism
By Courtney Heard

Just over three years ago, I got an email from someone in Pakistan. We'll call her Sarah. It was only one line: Please help me.

In the conversation that followed, I learned that an uncle had repeatedly raped Sarah. She was just 14, and shortly before her birthday, her family had found out about the abuse. Sarah's father became enraged, but not at her uncle. Instead, he was furious with Sarah, who he now saw as damaged goods. He beat her until she was bloodied. A sympathetic relative acted quickly and whisked Sarah from the situation, and was hiding her when Sarah first reached out.

"If he finds me, he will kill me," she explained. Since Sarah had experienced all of this, she had been questioning her faith. She told me that she trusted the wrong people when she spoke about her dwindling faith. Her father had made it known that he intended to kill her.

Sarah asked me for help, and I was utterly helpless. What can I do?

About a week after our first contact, I got the last email from her, which was about an American television show she loved but couldn't get where she was. This Is Us was the name. I didn't know the show, and I told her so when I replied.

She never emailed again. Despite trying to get in touch numerous times, I never heard back from Sarah.

If I had to count how many times a human being has asked me to help them escape the certain death they faced for daring to question the existence of a god, it would be an impossible task. There have been so many.

Each one of those hundreds of pleas for help was met with a gentle explanation that there was nothing I could do, personally. Then I would pass their information on to organizations I knew were working on a solution to this problem and try not to throw up.

I began writing the Godless Mom blog in 2014. March of 2020 will mark six years I've done this, and for six years, I have tried to live with myself as I continually explain to these people who will die for being atheist, that there is no easy solution.

My personal experience could not be more different. I grew up in a secular household. My parents were atheists, and my dad's parents before him were atheists. I am not entirely sure, but I've been told that my great-grandparents were atheists as well.

It was not until I started my blog that I understood that people faced danger for choosing to live like I had growing up.

While the pleas for help are haunting and hard to live with, so are the stories I've heard from people living in less theocratic countries. The vast majority of correspondence I get is from Americans. Atheists in America face horrible things because they lack faith, too.

I recall one story from a woman about my age who was working with her therapist to overcome the trauma she experienced growing up in an evangelical household. She told me that when she was 13, she brought a Stephen King novel home from the library. Her parents, convinced Stephen King's work was that of the devil, beat her with the book.

The one story that pops into my head the most often is the story of the pastor. He wrote to me from an anonymous email. He told me he met his wife working for the church, and she was now the Sunday School teacher and devout as ever. He had children with her as they built their lives around the church he ended up running. His brothers and mother and father were all devoted members of his church and proud as can be for their preacher son. His home was on the church grounds. His paycheck came from the church. His entire social circle of family and friends link in some way or another to this church. He even shelled out a large sum of money to attend school to become a pastor.

He told me he was an atheist. He told me no one in his life knew. He said that if they found out, he would lose everything.

He told me he felt the only way out was suicide.

I've not heard from him since.

I began my blog for fun. I started it as an excuse to write and to connect with like-minded people.

I have continued it because these stories haunt me. I have extended what I do as an atheist blogger into activism because I want to hear fewer and fewer of these stories. I want to fight as hard as I can to ensure a secular future for all nations of the world, so people no longer have to suffer for lack of belief.

Courtney Heard
Co-founder
International Association of Atheists

One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion.
~ Simone de Beauvoir
Secular Rescue is a program of the Center for Inquiry, a member organization of the Secular Coalition for America. Secular Rescue ([link removed][UNIQID]) provides emergency assistance to writers, bloggers, publishers, and activists who face threats due to their beliefs or expressions regarding religion.

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