Really. I just look at them and say “so you are an atheist” and that usually shuts them up. One Yankee that moved to middle TN near me brought up the church thing to me but added “I don’t think they should be allowed to operate private schools”.
I politely explained the 2nd Amendment to her and said she was free to move back the the hell hole her ilk created up North that she was a refugee from. She didn’t like that. As if I cared.
We lived in Middle Tennessee for a year. My husband went to the University of Tn Space Institute at Tullahoma. In Tullahoma and Manchester, there really was a church on every corner, practically!
Our daughter went to Vacation Bible School at a Baptist church, even though we’re Catholic, and everyone was very polite. “Oh, you’re some of those evangelical Catholics,” the pastor said when we started discussing the Bible.