This, I think, is another of those things where it's just bad training and lack of judgement on the part of the staff. One of the differentials in most diagnostics is Cultural Appropriateness. That means that, for instance, when staff looked at me weird and started checking my orientation more closely, just because I confessed I didn't own a TV, they were missing the fact that for me, it was culturally appropriate to live in an apartment without a TV. Make sense so far?

Religiosity, though, is a symptom of various mental illnesses, so it makes sense that they'd have it on their radar. The problem, again, is that there's a judgement call involved. Which, of course, wouldn't be a problem if they, you know, used their judgement. But sometimes people who display religiosity don't show the problem at first glance. They may have experienced people who looked to have strong faith, only to turn out to be suffering religiosity. And, if you have a different faith than they do, their inexperience may interfere with their ability to use their judgement. For instance, a lifelong Anglican might find Evangelicals seem alien. Or a lot of Protestants will see Catholics who refuse to use birth control as being religious maniacs, rather than faithful to their religion.

Hope that helps.