#112 Am I A Blasphemer?

I don't feel like a blasphemer...

Jun 09, 2025

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

                                                   Blasphemy, in a religious sense, 
                                                refers to great disrespect shown to God 
                                                             or to something holy, 
                                                    or to something said or done that 
                                                        shows this kind of disrespect.

I get that my work is tricky.

It definitely walks a line.

And I’m not going to pretend that I don’t, perhaps, sometimes, cross that line into poor taste.

As in, maybe, attributing to a higher power the sort of sense of humor that would get a kick out of watching me step into a dog mess.

I don’t personally consider a poem like that to be blasphemy.

Others have disagreed.

Which is one reason the title of my first book was changed from “Anne & God: Conversations With The Infinite” to “Some Days Call For Chocolate and other pick-me-up poems”.

I got tired of having “God” front and center on the cover and giving people a possible wrong impression that this would be a book of religious devotions.

The blasphemy thing is also one of the reasons I pulled the book from Amazon.

(I also pulled it because of the terrible way Amazon screws over small authors like me – charging them monthly “store” fees that tend to erase any profits from book sales. And defacing my books by slapping big gooey stickers on the front convers that not only obliterated the joke that used to be there but leaving a nasty residue behind that made the book difficult to give as a gift. But I digress.)

A few years ago I made the mistake of “boosting” my first book’s Amazon listing on Facebook.

Apparently the FB algorithm “boosted” it right into the feeds of some very religious, and dour, folks who not only started trolling my FB page and Amazon reviews – calling me a blasphemer - but started complaining to Facebook that I was posting objectionable content.

Like this:

I think the complaint with that one was something along the lines of “How dare you insinuate that the almighty has nothing better to do than inconvenience you?”

I did not reply to this.

Because if I’ve learned nothing else in my life, I have at least learned not to feed the trolls.

What I wish I could have said – correction, had the nerve to have said – would have been something like this:

“How dare you insinuate that I don’t have a personal relationship with a higher power that involves a little friendly give and take? Or that this higher power isn’t interested in my daily existence?”

If I had had the chutzpah to say anything of the sort I imagine the bit she would have hated most of all would probably be my use of the words “higher power” rather than “God” because she just about lost her mind when one of my other posts insinuated that “God” might be a woman.

(And don’t get me started on the fact that such a “devout” person was even ON Facebook – a cesspool of objectionable content on any given day, hour, or minute. She must have been fainting on a regular basis. Or spending her whole day making complaints about objectionable content.)

Anyway.

She was not alone.

Calling me a blasphemer became quite the party game for a while there.

It didn’t change my writing.

It only changed what I did, or did not, decide to post to social media. Not because I was afraid of these people but because, frankly, arguing with the FB powers that be to try to get them to lighten up and restore my posts was more trouble than it was worth.

Which is one reason my FB followers never saw this one:

I get why some very religious folks would have had an issue with it.

First, I am speaking for “God”.

I can’t remember when I first turned things around and started letting my work be less of an Anne-kvetching-to-the-universe and more of a conversation. I only know that, when I did tap into the other side of things, I had readers contacting me and asking for more posts “from God”. Once I leaned into it, I found a lot of comfort in the dynamic of our back and forth.

Second, I am not only speaking for “God” but pointing out that there are lots of different versions of “God”.

Some of those versions are very “smite-y”. And some are not.

I addressed this in the forward to my first book:

“I have had a varying faith journey. There are stretches where my faith is strong, periods where it wavers, and times when I struggle to believe in anything at all.

There is a deep tugging inside me to embrace an order to the Universe and a Supreme Being.

But I cannot tether myself to a distant, formal God .

I prefer a casual God.

An engaging God.

A God you can have tea with.

That’s the God you will find here.

I hope our conversations brighten your day and bring you joy.

Anne”

I didn’t start writing these with the intent to disrespect anyone’s idea of “God”.

And I say anyone’s idea of “God” because I honor all the world’s many faith traditions. I have used the word “God” in my work because it is succinct and stands in for whoever a reader might have in their mind, be that Jehovah or Allah or Buddha etc.. I have never put it out there that this is an exclusively Christian journey because I don’t even know what I believe myself – despite having gone to parochial school.

I started writing them because, as I said in issue #103, I was in a place where it felt like the universe was messing with me and my friends. And finding humor in that possibility helped keep me from focusing on all the negative things that happen in all our lives.

And it’s not always about being funny.

Sometimes I attempt some depth.

I leave you with this one:

Thank You Irreverent Readers - Thank You Substack!!

To all of you who read my Substack, thank you for understanding where my work comes from and supporting that vision.

Thank you for not calling me a blasphemer.

And thank you Substack, for the freedom to publish my heart without fear of being shut down by those who see the world in less tolerant terms than I.

Tip Jar

If what I am doing is helpful to you please consider dropping a little something in the tip jar.

A big THANK YOU to everyone who has donated! It really helps me keep going.

Tip Jar

From The Garden

I love poppies.

They don’t always love me.

I’ve attempted to grow them several times without success. This batch was planted two years ago - they bloomed the first year, gave me nothing last year, and are rewarding me with blooms again this year.

I have no idea why.

But I’ll take them when I can get them :-)