I know just who are you are talking about. I've met them alright.

Guess what? I'm talking about my momma, too! And I'm from Texas, too.

Although far more conservative than what your momma appears to be, my mother was also intelligent and kind and helpful. She was generous, she was giving, she was loving. She and my father (far less religious) inculcated me with the importance of kindness, integrity, honesty, hard-work, appreciation for nature, love for country, and the intelligence and curiosity to quest for the truth. It was this latter inheritance - directly from her - that sent me, first just out of her/our religion, but later discovering how toxic religion as a whole is... EVEN ITS MILDER FORMS... which all to often become the very gateway to the extremists we still see today around the world THOUSANDS OF YEARS after these Bronze Age, nutty ideas were first conceptualized by priest-princes eager to control the rabble.

There is no dependable "moral compass" in religion. Any religion. Religions are piles of myths and rites and rituals and beliefs that are all over the map in their ethical/moral bearings, but what makes each religion, even each sect, what it is fundamentally, is some exclusive, sacred "truth" that only that sect has possession of. All others are wrong... and in Christian theology... are probably evil and GOING TO HELL.

Now, you claim your momma is a "real" Christian, and that I am painting with too broad a brush. But that's what almost every Christian thinks of themselves and their family. Many "fundamentalists" (the term says it all) would likely call your momma Christian Lite. Or even fake Christian.

Let me ask you this. How many garments does she own? If more than one, she is not following the commands of Jesus. Has she abandoned her family? If not, nope, not on the path Jesus commanded.

Does she have money in the bank? A permanent home? Any kind of "luxury," such as, say, a toilet? Any of these possessions would have her immediately kicked out of the original "Christian" cult.

Was she ever a nun, or came close to joining, or at least thought about joining that sisterhood? No? Hmmm, "faith" not strong!

Is she out caring for the poor, tending to the sick, befriending the thief and whore, sleeping on straw on a daily basis? No? Not following Jesus.

Is she at the bank cussing out the loan officers for their predatory practices? No? Then, not really a follower of the historical Jesus.

Is she knocking on doors, day and night, spreading the "Good News" and reminding those who don't immediately sign up that Jesus is the ONLY way to heaven, and that they, unaligned, are going straight to hell? No? Why in the world not? Doesn't she care about "saving" as many people as she can?

You say she loves "God." Which "God?" The jealous, psychopathic tyrant of the Old Testament, or the faceless "God" of the New, who effectively rapes a young virgin, then has that child (which is Him) brutally killed in front of his mother then resurrected, then hides while these deeds are turned into a religion, finally returning in the final book (Revelation) in all "His" ugly, demonic, violent glory?

When asked what he thought of "Christians," Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) remarked, "I don't know. I've never met one."

At long last I realized he was talking about my momma. And yours.

Yes, they are good people. I think most people are good at heart. But they have been captured by a toxic cultural myth that is very pervasive and controlling, even in its milder forms. But it is these very milder forms that make the belief seem normal within culture, and ever accessible. And it is these milder forms are often the gateway to the more extreme, but actually more "fundamental," more "authentically" Christian from a historic AND theological standpoint.

If she is just following the general "moral" recommendations of Jesus, well, there's nothing actually "religious" in any of those. As a matter of fact, atheists ARE better at these than rank-and-file "Christians."

I can guarantee you this, both my momma and yours, the very same persons, if born and raised in Iran would be Muslims! They both went along with their culture in the case of religion. Almost everyone does. This fact, in and of itself, positively refutes the notion that any of these religions is better than any other. People just follow the herd into whatever their culture points to.

But these religions. These gods. These "heavens" and "hells" are not just untrue - they are the greatest forces of ignorance, division, strife, persecution, violence and hate that humanity ever concocted!

They PREVENT humanity from coming together in shared values, shared wisdom, shared stories, share care and concern for each other, shared "moral compass," shared love!

This is what is wrong with even the mildest form of "religion."

Still, most people fall for it (though fewer and fewer every decade in this modern age). And it is those who fall for it the most intensely who are the biggest problems in the world, yesterday and today.

My momma fell for it. Most of my family fell for it. And I witnessed many of them ending up unsettled, even despairing, over some of the deeper meanings of life.

Why, I wondered, would they do that, secure in their religious indoctrinations?

I finally figured out why. They don't really believe it! they just like believing they believe. Yet, something in their soul tells them, "Something's off here. It's all hooey! And yet here I am, having spent my entire life with it, stuck with it."

I write about that in my essay on "Faith.

https://medium.com/@rustyreid/faith-is-believing-what-you-want-to-believe-58610135b471

You are absolutely right. Just dumping religion and/or God, and becoming atheist doesn't necessarily make you a better person or help the world. My other essays describe what else I think is needed. Namely true "spirituality."

Good luck, Courtney, to you and your momma. You sound like good liberals, caring for far more than your selves and close inner circle. Good on ya. Yet ALL religion is conservative to a degree... conserving some type of advantage, privilege and power over those who do not share that blind "faith." The human world can never come together under the spell of these ancient myths. It's time for humans to grow up. We survived the killing off of mommy-goddess. It's time to say goodbye to daddy-god, as well. And all their "divine" but dividing emissaries.