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Notes -
Look into the old-style Protestant denominations. Not the mainlines, those are all got captured by the liberals, and most of the conservatives fled. And the evangelical megachurches won't have the sturdiness you're looking for. But look at an OPC, URCNA, PCA (though a bit less trad) and several others in the Reformed world, and LCMS or WELS for things in the Lutheran world. There's also ACNAs for anglicans, but my sense is that they're more hit-or-miss. (If you direct message me your area, I could look up some maps and find you some local churches.)
Why? I could get into details of theology, but I don't get the sense that that's currently the sort of thing that you care about. But the institutional Protestant denominations are certainly more American of a thing than e.g. Eastern Orthodoxy, if that matters to you at all. I imagine it's worth looking at, at least.
The publication that James Lindsay hoaxed, American Reformer, is actually pretty great. (See, for example, this recent gem.) You'll probably have trouble finding Protestant churches that are quite as based as American Reformer, but you should certainly be able to find some that are solid, if you know where to look.
Ideally, nation-scale repentance and belief, that expresses itself in reformation of life. Love of God and neighbor. Zealousness for good works. Piety. Striving to put to death the sin within us.
If you mean to ask whether your turn towards Christianity is legit, well, it sounds like you're not just doing it for the cultural benefits (you think God might exist). There's more to Christianity than the bare fact that God exists, but that's certainly a start.
I do affirm though, that our thoughts would suffice to send us to hell—Jesus is pretty clear, for example, that lusting breaks the law against adultery—but for those in Christ, his death atones for our sins.
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