My Mother Can’t Accept That I Don’t Believe in God

I was brought up centrist Orthodox. However, in the late first grade, it hit me that God probably could care less what we say in the morning and how we say it. Ever since then, Judaism hasn’t mattered much to me. While this could be seen as precocious behavior, my parents, particularly my mother, and my teachers did not see it as so, and berated me for my lack of interest and desire for independence from much of Judaism. Today I identify as an atheist.

Over the years I have been subject to constant berating which has made me feeling terrible and highly controlled. I’m convinced my mother loves Judaism more than me, and will put the Jewish community’s, particularly the Orthodox community’s, needs first before mine. Seesaw, how do I tell her that the fact that I am in my mid-twenties and she is still yelling at me and telling me that believing in God will solve my problems is actually the cause of my problems? My relatives encourage me to have a good relationship with my mother, but how can I when she doesn’t accept the person in front of her and never has? —Longing for Acceptance

Am I the only one who is noticing that the replies are dismissing her freedom of conscience as much as the mother? "God loves you", "See a Rabbi", "You don't really understand God". What a bunch of patronizing, victimize the victim, pedants! The woman is not only exercising her civil right to free speech, but her human right to the (much less often used) freedom of thought! How about a response that affirms her courage?