How do you handle 'split' families?
Never posted here before.
I'm 73.
Miz t. is 70.
I'm an atheist.
She is now a devout Episcopalian, but was raised in the Catholic church.
She left that church before we married, for a number of reasons.
For most of our 45 year marriage we did not attend church except for occasional Episcopal Christmas Eve choral services.
Since her mom died several years ago, she has become much more 'spiritual'.
She is now an active and popular participant in her church.
That's fine.
I believe in live and let live.
I don't begrudge her her faith, I just don't share it.
But...once in a while I see something that just sets me off and I guess I denigrate religion in general.
Tonight it was a local 'news' clip about a store in a high crime area that had never been robbed. The proprietors credited their god for that.
"We hold hands and pray every day. Sometimes our customers join us. We thank god for keeping us safe."
I kinda went ballistic.
Miz t. understands and doesn't respond when I have one of these rants.
She's a treasure.
I just wonder how others deal with this situation?
Thanks.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Had a rant myself tonight. Husband's brother, director of a very well known religious non-profit, is trying to take advantage of my husband's computer skills, wanting him to donate his time for free to be their IT guy (husband's a programmer).
There's approx. 30 employees all with computers. It's a two-fer...brother gets free work done and gets to proselytize my husband, too. I pointed out the fact that they can afford to pay for computer help, and that it would start taking up all his spare time.
I conveniently skipped over the proselytizing part for matrimonial harmony, but he knows my views on the subject by now. 
They're nice people, intelligent for the most part.
I go to their purely social gatherings with her, just not worship services.
All-in-all, they are a fun bunch.
We are both just very open-minded people and we respect each other. She doesn't try to convert me and I don't try to lure her over to the dark side of the force.
It helps that she doesn't think I'm doomed to an eternal damnation. She has told me that she doesn't believe in hell.
My parents were married until my Dad died, a very happy marriage.
She dragged us to an Episcopal church when we were children.
I came out as an atheist directly after my "confirmation" at age 12.
I am one of 5 children.
2 of us (both girls) identify as atheists.
All three of my brothers say they are "agnostic".
Two of them married VERY religious wives.
My father was the greatest guy.....
He never really talked about the possibility of a deity...
he would just look at my mother and say,
"I prefer to worship in private" or "I keep my worshiping
to myself" when we asked him why he didn't have to
go to church on Sundays.
He's been gone for over 16 years and I still miss him.
I myself married a "recovering Catholic" who has since
become an atheist. We've been married for 25 years.
I can't imagine having to bite my tongue!
Both of my children are atheists, but my oldest daughter
HAS chastised me in the past for not "belonging" to anything!
She thinks she would have had more friends as a child if
other kids were forced to be with her. She is shy and
doesn't make friends easily. She also doesn't like to have to
make decisions....this she readily admits!
We didn't attend church regularly when she was growing up.
Miz t. wasn't overtly 'religious' with me until her mom died a few years ago.
She lived with us for the last year of her life.
She was also a lapsed Catholic (Cajun French).
She quit the church when she told her priest that after six kids she did not want any more babies.
He told her that birth control was a sin.
Miz t. decided her mom should have last rites when she was dying.
I was in the hospital room when the priest gave them.
It was spooky and very uncomfortable for me.
