Anyone else find themselves trying to tread the middle ground around believers, agreeing with them just to avoid causing a stir?

I live in the bible belt and the notion of someone not believing in God is pretty extreme, even more shocking than being gay. I'm a pretty staunch atheist but find that most of the time I just go along with any conversation about religion just to not startle (sp?) people. When people ask where I go to church I just say my work schedule interferes. If people ask if I go to church I usually just say I'm not much into going to church or that I worship in my own time (yea, worship the tv lol). I try to break it to them easy that I'm "not all that religious" instead of throwing the word atheist out there which is guaranteed to cause a stir or cause people to judge me falsely. Hell, sometimes I even go along with whatever they're preaching just for fun, sometimes even making points about faith they agree about just to gain their trust (That's pretty cruel, isn't it?). I find it's sometimes better to fight fire with fire and use their own book of beliefs to change their mind about things or to be more open minded, like not judging people or how we're "all sinners" and shouldn't throw stones.

Anyway, anyone else just find themselves being a closet atheist on a daily basis and being ok with it?