I should say that this woman, "Donna," and I had been in a lopsided relationship for several years. I met her in high school, and she had a crush on me, but I only was interested in her as a friend at most. I think she resented my rejecting her as a lover, and so she had reason to be angry with me aside from my leaving Christianity. When I left my religious belief behind I became very vocal about how phony it was, and her anger started boiling over her hating what I was saying. What's interesting about her attitude is that prior to my leaving Christianity I never knew her to be religious. In fact, I thought she was an atheist. I should point out that I made very clear to her that I had been scammed when I was a Christian, but as far as she was concerned my being scammed wasn't sufficient reason for me to conclude that Christianity is a scam. She told me that "they're not all like that."That's your standard fear response. Your position is also perceived by devout believers as an attack on their identity. Cult behavior 101.I think that when the religious claim to be "spiritual" they are being condescending implying that they have a perception of a truth or truths that we skeptics lack. In other words, they allegedly see what we are blind to. For example, soon after I lost my religious belief a woman I know became angry with me and told me I have "no spirit."
So the moral of the story is that people can have latent religious belief that rises to the surface if people feel that that belief is threatened by skepticism. People can also use religious belief to club people they resent even if the resentment is based in reasons that aren't entirely based in religion. Finally, knowing that a person has been hurt by religious faith is not sufficient reason to tolerate that person criticizing religious faith. Religious faith is the top priority, and while it may be unfortunate if people get hurt by it, faith must be preserved.