There was a particularly devout fundamentalist xtian I encountered on another forum who, as time went on, expressed doubts about his faith that slowly but surely developed into full atheism. He too was nervous about coming out to his parents. I remember when he reported finally biting the bullet and breaking the news, terrified at the possible reaction; at which point his mum, with the infinite understanding typical of the mother species, said that she knew there was something brewing and that she thought he was going to tell her he was gay like his brother. Not saying that this will work for you, it's just to illustrate that quite often things aren't as bad as we fear them to be.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
