People who insist that religion must never be mentioned, however briefly, are just as weird to me as people who insist that every activity must involve a prayer.

Maybe I'm not being clear enough. This is a long piece about the process of grieving a lost loved one that mentions religion very briefly, at the beginning, and then never again. You apparently read the first sentence and were so overwhelmed with rage that you were compelled to assume the entire piece was just gonna be the first sentence over and over again. Try reading next time.