Mumsnet hit the headlines last week when it wrote to God complaining that its members had been "outraged and distressed" by an Old Testament storyline in which a mother accidentally smothers her baby in bed, steals a friend's baby, and then shouts to King Solomon that "It shall be neither mine nor hers — divide it with your sword!"
"Quite apart from raising unnecessary fears about the dangers of co-sleeping, this story brings out the old chestnut that a bereaved mother will steal children and then get them judicially severed," said Justine Roberts, Mumsnet's chief executive. "Literally twelve users of our site have discussed the storyline ad nauseum, and it is Mumsnet's responsibility to give women a voice by raiding their online musings and converting them into press releases that bring hordes of new hits to the site."
Now Mumsnet has taken matters a step further by inviting God on to the site for a grilling. "Many, many women contacted God directly through the usual channels to complain and were understandably frustrated not to receive any kind of reply," Roberts explained. In a statement God agreed that due to the large number of complaints, many prayers had gone unanswered and said that webchats are a "great new resource for reaching out to stakeholders." But, more wrathfully, he went on to say that much of the Old Testament "plainly stretches credibility" and that "if people are dumb enough to take it literally then I obviously did a shit job of creation."
To get the webchat off to a good start, God is expected to announce that his favourite biscuit is communion wafer.