My mom is a devout Christian, and she holds tightly to her beliefs since that is what kept her hopes up when she suffered a kidney disease. Since I was a child she has always tried to get me more involved in the faith by taking me to religious events and getting me involved into a youth group. However, I have had bad experiences with both. The former case always involved going to prayer events early in the morning or all day/all weekend while I wanted to hang out with my own friends or sleep in and watch anime/do programming. In the latter case I always felt left out of the group since the kids all grew up together while I only joined in high school and they constantly talked about memories they had before I joined (them claiming that the group was "closer" in the old days didn't help either). The former case happened when I was 11-16, while the latter happened around 16-18.
Fast forward to college years, and I've moved out on my own (and am still living away from her even after college). Despite her telling me I should call her more often I don't want to talk to her because she references God/Jesus/Christianity in everything she says to me, saying things like
- "I'll pray for you"
- "Having sex is against the Lord"
- "Just keep praying and God will give you what is best for you"
- "God has a reason for [insert bad event here] happening"
- "Did you go to church?"
I would like to be closer to my mother, but at the same time I don't want to hear about religion every time we speak. We have had meaningful conversations before in the past, but whenever she says something religious it makes it less meaningful due to the experiences I've had.
How can my mother and I have meaningful conversations without too much mention of religion?