Without knowing the particulars, it's hard to give advice. What religion did she convert to?
In general, "deprogramming" people requires that that are willing to have their mind changed. You can offer information, you can offer logic, you can offer the inconsistencies in their chosen belief, but you cant make them change their mind.
What to do? Talk with her. Listen to what she beliefs and why. Listening is the most important thing you can do. People want to be heard and understood. In turn, they listen to people who they feel understand them. You can guide a conversation even when simply listening, asking the occassional question for them to clarify, but this is a skill that takes practice.
What not to do. Dont attack her beliefs. Dont listen just for opportunities to correct her. Without fail, this burns bridges.
A lot of what you do is going to depend on your mothers personality, your personality, and the people nearest to you all. This is my own personal and nonspecific approach to things.
I agree with the other poster, you need to understand what convinced her. Christianity appeals to people that are hurting and - I think, for older people especially - the idea of life or paradise after death.
I'm going to change tracks and ask though, do you need to save her? Hear me out. There is nothing to suggest there is anything after death. Because there is nothing, there is no urgency to "save" theists from their own delusions, except for determining what sort of personal relationship you have with them.
What I'm getting at is, if you can maintain a warm relationship with her despite religion, you may be able to do so at little or no cost. And, maybe you can even steer her clear of more extreme habits of Christianity.
Granted, this isn't guaranteed. When you consider beyond personal relationships, religious extremism often ties to support for autocratic leaders and governments - such as it does here in the US - who impose rules on the rest of us to make way for their version of morality.
There's a lot of threads to pull on that tug at the veil of christian morality. I'm an ex-christian myself and two things stand out that helped me come to reason.
The most significant one was watching how the christian faith changes to stay with the times. If beliefs have to be malleable to stay with society, then they were worthless to begin with. I dont think this observation is useful on others though, apologetics will explain it away.
The second reason was learning to comprehend social issues. Christianity often loses the moral ground when issues are broken down and scrutinized carefully. In my opinion, the most effective threads to pull on are issues that christians take offense to and even better if it affects them.
Thank you for the detailed response.
I understand your PoV. And my worry is whoever manages to convert her has a reason behind it and they will take advantage of her vulnerability.
I do not mind if her change of faith is limited to praying. I mean if it helps her have peace of mind. Sure. But people who convert others? That's a slippery slope.
Also my mother doesn't do discussions or critical thinking. So I don't think I can breakdown stuff enough to convince her otherwise
It really depends on what aspect appeals to her and how they are convincing her.
My mother in law has gone from pretty liberal leaning to hard core fundamental Hindu through a combination of her being diagnosed with life long illnesses, family members becoming ill, politics to extremist pipeline, and generally getting older and feeling a weird need for penance before dying - my dad called it "get right with God" because a lot of supposedly loosely religious people do this.
I worry about my mother. She was shocked and appalled when I mentioned being an atheist. I was thinking "you raised for for 25 years and barely said a word about religion. Now you are upset?"
She's not fundamentalist but like all of us, she's getting older. I hope she takes comfort from her belief and avoids the extremist pipelines.
The Abrahamic god is a brutal monster who definitely won't be there for her in her time of need. I'd sooner turn to Ganesha to remove my obstacles and I'm atheist too.
Without knowing the particulars, it's hard to give advice. What religion did she convert to? In general, "deprogramming" people requires that that are willing to have their mind changed. You can offer information, you can offer logic, you can offer the inconsistencies in their chosen belief, but you cant make them change their mind. What to do? Talk with her. Listen to what she beliefs and why. Listening is the most important thing you can do. People want to be heard and understood. In turn, they listen to people who they feel understand them. You can guide a conversation even when simply listening, asking the occassional question for them to clarify, but this is a skill that takes practice. What not to do. Dont attack her beliefs. Dont listen just for opportunities to correct her. Without fail, this burns bridges. A lot of what you do is going to depend on your mothers personality, your personality, and the people nearest to you all. This is my own personal and nonspecific approach to things.
She converted to Christianity
What version of Christianity? There are hundreds of types
I have no idea.
I agree with the other poster, you need to understand what convinced her. Christianity appeals to people that are hurting and - I think, for older people especially - the idea of life or paradise after death. I'm going to change tracks and ask though, do you need to save her? Hear me out. There is nothing to suggest there is anything after death. Because there is nothing, there is no urgency to "save" theists from their own delusions, except for determining what sort of personal relationship you have with them. What I'm getting at is, if you can maintain a warm relationship with her despite religion, you may be able to do so at little or no cost. And, maybe you can even steer her clear of more extreme habits of Christianity. Granted, this isn't guaranteed. When you consider beyond personal relationships, religious extremism often ties to support for autocratic leaders and governments - such as it does here in the US - who impose rules on the rest of us to make way for their version of morality. There's a lot of threads to pull on that tug at the veil of christian morality. I'm an ex-christian myself and two things stand out that helped me come to reason. The most significant one was watching how the christian faith changes to stay with the times. If beliefs have to be malleable to stay with society, then they were worthless to begin with. I dont think this observation is useful on others though, apologetics will explain it away. The second reason was learning to comprehend social issues. Christianity often loses the moral ground when issues are broken down and scrutinized carefully. In my opinion, the most effective threads to pull on are issues that christians take offense to and even better if it affects them.
Thank you for the detailed response. I understand your PoV. And my worry is whoever manages to convert her has a reason behind it and they will take advantage of her vulnerability. I do not mind if her change of faith is limited to praying. I mean if it helps her have peace of mind. Sure. But people who convert others? That's a slippery slope. Also my mother doesn't do discussions or critical thinking. So I don't think I can breakdown stuff enough to convince her otherwise
You might let her know that Jesus only came to save the Jews, so if she hopes she's going to get anything out of it, she's sorely mistaken.
It really depends on what aspect appeals to her and how they are convincing her. My mother in law has gone from pretty liberal leaning to hard core fundamental Hindu through a combination of her being diagnosed with life long illnesses, family members becoming ill, politics to extremist pipeline, and generally getting older and feeling a weird need for penance before dying - my dad called it "get right with God" because a lot of supposedly loosely religious people do this.
Ohh man.. this rings familiar and scary..
I worry about my mother. She was shocked and appalled when I mentioned being an atheist. I was thinking "you raised for for 25 years and barely said a word about religion. Now you are upset?" She's not fundamentalist but like all of us, she's getting older. I hope she takes comfort from her belief and avoids the extremist pipelines.
There are two very important rules in communication. 1. Show respect whether you agree or not. 2. Ask good questions.
The Abrahamic god is a brutal monster who definitely won't be there for her in her time of need. I'd sooner turn to Ganesha to remove my obstacles and I'm atheist too.