Dealing with Religious Family Members

[Geekyalbatross]

Hi! New here. I've been an atheist for a long time now. My family is cool with it, most of then are agnostic or ex-Catholic, some are Buddhist now - they're all open minded people, so we all talk openly about theology, etc. It's pretty awesome. Anyway, my sister lives here in FL with me, away from most of our other family, so we are each other's family here . I hang out with her often and we're close. She is marrying into an EXTREMELY religious Christian family, and I know some of them do not like the fact that I'm an atheist. I have no problem with that, I'm pretty non confrontational and don't really care what they think. The mother in law is like, attached at the hip to her family, her sons and now my sister, since she is marrying one of this lady's sons. She's a very sweet lady, has never been anything but nice to me, and doesn't talk about my lack of faith in front of me. We get along and I have to see her a lot because she seems to always be around. No problem there. In her house, if we have dinner that she cooks she does the prayer before eating thing, and I hold hands with them, don't pray, just showing respect as I'm in her house. Anyway, we were at a mall food court and she wanted to do the same. In public, that makes me feel uncomfortable and I don't think I have an obligation to hold hands and play along when I'm not in her house. How to I tell her this without offending her? How do I make her understand that I find it inappropriate to do religious things I public, especially when she knows I'm against those things personally? Don't want to make it awkward for us or for my sister, but want to make sure I assert that my disbelief is as important to my identity as her belief. Thanks for any advice and thoughts! - Lisa