To the Atheists w/ a Religious Past : That Nostalgic Feeling

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I can't speak for myself but a good friend (who is also an ex-girlfriend) came from a deeply religious Russian Orthodox home, one that believed things like you could be cured of cancer if you touched a priest's robes at the right time. Her family was close, and she never told them she was gay, and that she later became an atheist...though I don't think it was out of self-defense as it was for you, but then maybe it was and I don't know it, and maybe she doesn't know it either. She's still open to the paranormal (though with what I'd call scifi theories for a lot of it rather than occult, spiritualist, or new age beliefs), and she treats higher mathematics the way some treat a holy book, perhaps as if she was trying to regain something she lost.

I know what hurts her the most is how her family is. She was very close with some, and couldn't stand the rejection she was certain she'd get, and one has died. This depresses her. And what angers her is that they've allowed some dangerous criminals to stay with them (they openly disapprove of their criminal lifestyles and urge them to go straight, but they're still family) and yet a lesbian like her could not be tolerated as God obviously cursed people like that, and those with God/Christ within them must also despise them now. She could be a cocaine-addled hitwoman and they'd still have a place for her (with many sermons and lectures, but still), but not a lesbian who loves another woman, and atheists aren't accepted either, which implies that a lesbian atheist is about the worst thing you can be in the eyes of those she loved as a child.

I feel really bad for her, and her depressed state (and alcohol problem she has that runs in the family) worries me.