Hello and welcome to She Seeks Nonfiction! I’m Rebekah. Allow me to introduce myself…
My (Christian) Background (1995-2018)
I spent my first twenty years living a Christian life. I was raised in the conservative Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, and even though I never really believed in God, I was so accustomed to being surrounded by Christians that I attended Grove City College, a small private liberal arts college an hour north of my home in Pittsburgh, PA. I earned my Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Studies with a minor in Design and concentrations in Writing, but to be honest, I felt like I spent most of my time there being preached at. There were mandatory chapel credits and several required religion classes… and even the “normal” classes (for example, editing class) were saturated with Christian ideas.
The Closet Atheist (2016-2018)
To deal with the stress of living a Christian life with an atheist mind, I started this blog in November of 2016, when I was a junior in college. I named it The Closet Atheist, and I “named” myself that, too. No one was to know about my secret atheist blog, so for years I wrote without ever sharing my name, face, college, or location. I was known only as The Closet Atheist, and behind that mask I was able to write however I felt about my stifled life.
Coming Out (2018)
Ironically, but not surprisingly, while I went under the name The Closet Atheist, I was coming out as atheist to the people I knew, one person at a time. Once everyone in my life knew I was an atheist, or even an atheist blogger (I found out the hard way that nothing is private when it’s publicly on the Internet), I felt that The Closet Atheist wasn’t accurate for me or my blog. This was especially the case once I graduated from Grove City in May of 2018 and married my amazing atheist husband Johnathan in November later that same year.
The Curious Atheist (2019-2020)
In May 2019, I officially changed my blog’s name from The Closet Atheist to The Curious Atheist, and I decided to share my real name (and new last initial!)—Rebekah K—on here! I was so happy to finally be thriving as an atheist and living life on my own terms. I had begun to read as much as I could by this point, having read several books arguing for or against the existence of God. As time went on, however, I started feeling more comfortable creating content on more topics than just atheism. I had begun writing in the first place to find solace away from the religion I was drowning in, but now that I was entirely out of the water, I no longer needed that solace.
She Seeks Nonfiction (2020-present)
During my time writing for The Curious Atheist, my appetite for science started running wild. I started learning everything I could about the study of human origins (paleoanthropology), and I discovered the works of Carl Sagan. Soon I was so excited about the natural world and the history of science that I noticed I was barely talking about atheism at all. I still appreciate the importance of calling out religious bigotry and pseudoscience, but I realized that the problem isn’t all religion, it’s religion when it is used as a weapon. I knew that the word “atheist” can scare religious people away, even if those people are progressive.
So here we are. My current blog title, She Seeks Nonfiction, emphasizes the positivity, not the negativity, of my writing. My blog has become my place to write whatever is on my mind, discuss whatever book is in my hands, and encourage everyone to question more than just religion.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State (2022-2025)
After five years of blogging, noted atheist journalist Hemant Mehta, whose YouTube videos prompted me to start my blog in the first place, emailed me in May 2021 asking me to write for him on the Friendly Atheist Blog. I believe it was my work with Hemant on his Patheos blog, and later on OnlySky Media, that made the folks at Americans United for Separation of Church and State take a chance on me.
I became the graphic designer for Americans United for Separation of Church and State in late September of 2022. AU’s mission perfectly combined my passion for human rights and religious freedom. I slowed down my blogging at that time, because my work at AU was a more effective way to spread the word about bigotry and authoritarianism — or so I thought.
Americans United became a hotbed for the very bigotry and authoritarianism I thought I had escaped when I left the church. What started as a dream come true — you can see how I previously described AU on this very page — spiraled into a nightmare when I was removed from the Summit for Religious Freedom that I myself had gushed about by my own former atheist hero, Andrew L. Seidel. This was my punishment for wearing a keffiyeh in support of Palestine to a “religious freedom” conference. My experience at AU culminated in an $11,000 offer for me never to speak ill of them. I declined, and not long after, I left the organization.
If my blog was quiet in 2023 because of Americans United being my avenue for action, it stayed quiet throughout 2024 and into 2025 because I was afraid to speak out and lose my job. Getting through each day was tough enough that I didn’t have the mental energy to read the kinds of books that I read or to conjure up a book review.
What’s next (updated 8/22/25)
Leaving Americans United and sharing my story in full took a huge weight off my shoulders. I still search and apply for graphic design jobs, but I have the time and energy now to dedicate an hour a day to reading. I eagerly await the fall, which is the unrivaled time to read on the porch and write a book review by the light of a candle.
I love JaclynGlenn! Not sure if I’ve watched the friendly atheist, but I’ll have to check it out now.
I’ve only just gotten out of christianity a fews years ago and now I’ve written personal stories about how it affected my life in a negative way -but I’ve come to realize that might not be enough.
I never really started to think rationally until college. When finally, finally! I was taught the importance of fallacies and studies. This new way of thinking has changed my life and I hope that I can use it to help me move forward.
Your blog means a lot to me, I’m lucky to have a Dad thats been an atheist my whole life, but both my mom and brother are christian, so sometimes it can be hard.
I’m glad it means so much to you!! Seeing clearly for the first time can be amazing!
Reading this for the second time, I am disturbed by your description of your older sister, struggling to meet “quality Christian friends” at her secular university. This seems to go back to the prejudice you mentioned in point 2, where anyone who isn’t US, and doesn’t think and speak like us, is evil and anti-Christian. It’s not just religion. Many Polish-Americans will only marry other Polish-Americans, Chinese will only date Chinese, and the Jews…. Oy. Why can’t they just meet nice, open-minded people??! 🙄
Nice to get to know you and all the changes in your blogging world.
It is interesting that your an atheist. I am very much a believer. But I find it interest to understand others view points.
Same. I remember in college a lot of professors challenging students to think more like them…I found it a bit exhausting. I couldn’t just engage objectively. And then I had friends who were also super Christian watch this movie and turn on their faith. I suppose im a bit of an old soul whereas I hated my high school and knew so many of my peers were peaking and I would t always be the “loser” but then in college I witnessed professors and media influence my peers like nothing before and it was when Facebook was just ramping up. It made my millennial generation so spellbound. Here we were at school to seek and seek and seek answers to questions but we took info at face value of a professor and the media. It was like our brains have gotten lazier. It just seems so banal to not believe in anything, but I appreciate you tagging the sham that this movie is. I hope you in-joy life as well. There’s lots of good out there. No matter who you are, if you’re blessed enough to be born, it’s a privilege.
What a great intro … I hear you re your journey from Christian background to closet atheist to curious atheist, though somewhere in there I’d have had Uncertain Agnostic!
Delighted to unexpectedly encounter such a balanced and reasoned human being. Whilst I remain a practising Catholic, I cannot but express my admiration for your calling-out the absurdities of religious activity (and its theoretical challenges), whilst acknowledging that religion is a complex subject that cannot be casually dismissed without casually dismissing some of the human experience. Good on you- keep it up!
Hello Rebekah!
I love your “My Story” page – detailing your journey, and the changes in your purpose, and how you changed the name of your blog to communicate and represent your purpose, find your audience, and connect to people. What a lovely heart!
I am also a creative introvert, I enjoy thinking quietly, and slowly. I’m also curious about social justice, and capitalism and socialism — but big ideas quickly become too much to grasp. I like seeing individuals, talking one on one, and hearing stories. Thanks for sharing some of yours!
Rebekah is a beautiful name! I also gave it to my oldest, Julia, as her middle name. Did your Lutheran parents give it to you? If so, they may have named you from the bible. I know I did. I don’t read a lot, myself, so I only ~19 years later really understood what the name Rebekah was about.
In Genesis 24, the character Rebekah was introduced as the answer to prayer at a spring – Abraham sent a servant to find a wife for Isaac. The servant prayed that a kind woman would draw water for him, and that she’d go above and beyond – drawing water for his camels as well. Rebekah was the kind and good-hearted person who did just that! She later became the mother of Jacob.
You might think, that’s weird Old Testament mythology. Maybe. But a mirror story happens in John 4 – in the time of Jesus. Different times, different people, seemingly backwards, but oddly so similar! And prophetic – John 4:4 says “Jesus had to go through Samaria.” That’s a fascinating statement without qualification. He just had to. Period. Because it was part of His story.
So in v6, Jesus (a servant himself) arrives at a well named “Jacob’s well” and asks the woman there for water. Kindly she gets him a drink… and reminds the man that, culturally, he shouldn’t even be speaking to her. “Be careful, someone might hear you and think less of you, sir.” A bonus kindness. This woman has a big heart… even though she isn’t typically memorialized this way (pretty unfair.)
There is a curious conversation that happens in the verses that follow – too much to unpack but all intertwined with broken families (Jacob and Esau, Jews and Samaritans, maybe even Cain and Able) – but by verse 42 – “many Samaritans believed.” Amazing!
The woman at this well gets a bad rap… But in a personal setting, Jesus sees straight to peoples hearts and loves them. That changed her. I wonder what her name was.
Interestingly, Jesus changes a lot of peoples’ names. He changed Levi the tax collector to Matthew. Simon to Peter. Saul to Paul. The bible even uses different names for Satan. Satan was a deceiver, a tempter, but also a roaring lion and a morning star. Fascinating names. Sorry, I digress…
I see a little glimpse of you from your words, Rebekah Who Seeks Nonfiction. I love who I see. I love your heart to be kind. I bet you are drawn to be even more kind than what is asked of you.
Find what you seek, friend. Find the non fiction.
Warmly,
Jeff Who Sometimes Connects Names and Stories