I really enjoyed listening to her and her advice to non-believers still deeply enmeshed in their own faith communities (usually families being the biggest hurdle but not always).

I have always considered myself fortunate for not being raised in a rigidly religious family, though my siblings and I went to a Catholic grammar school. I've lived in Southern California my entire life, hardly the buckle of the Bible Belt, but have often encountered people a product of such endoctrination, or worse, indoctrinationing their children in this manner.

My sister still lives next to a multi-racial Jehovah's Witness family. Their kids are as sweet as can be (though I get the sense that their only boy child is being raised to feel a superiority by his gender) and the parents are quite nice as well, but I've no doubt if they knew of my godlessness, that would be reason enough for them to completely alter the relationship.

But presentations such as this are a reminder of how we can be a default community right out of the starting gate for those growing into freethought, and I'm always fascinated with the experiences they share, though some are at times quite traumatic.