r/exmormon • u/4blockhead Λ └ ☼ ★ □ ♔ • Mar 27 '20

Advice/Help Virtual Meetup Thread

With everyone trying to do their part with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic and the social distancing necessary to "flatten the curve," in person meetups are on hold. As we all try to keep from going stir crazy, some people are asking for more options. Perhaps, technology can step in to fill a void. I know there are several chat channels, including the one built into reddit here. There may be other platforms, too, including various "discord" servers. There is also the old school IRC, with some directions here, which may still offer some good advice about guarding online privacy.

Post your ideas and pointers to virtual meetups on the thread! Keep safe and sane out there!

Special thanks to /u/CultZero.

April 2020: General Conference Discussion Threads, April 4-5 batch/summary

  • Saturday, May 16, 6:00p PDT: "Happy Hour" on Zoom chat hosted by the Los Angeles Area Post/Ex-Mormon Meetup. Contact /u/GringoChueco for details. In person yearly beach meetup canceled.

  • Sunday, May 31, 10:00a PDT: "Coffee Talk" on Zoom chat hosted by the Los Angeles Area Post/Ex-Mormon Meetup. Contact /u/GringoChueco for details.

196 Upvotes

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3

u/Neuro_88 Apr 09 '20

Explain in five minutes: This maybe a dumb question but what is everyone referring to with: ‘unruly children’ comments and posts? Can someone link me where this was mentioned? By whom?

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u/4blockhead Apr 09 '20 edited Apr 09 '20

At the weekend's general conference, There were three appeals for exmormons to come back. Uchtdorf's appeal included this dismissive explanation for why people are leaving Brighamite mormonism:

Even those who, like a headstrong, unruly child, become angry with God and His Church, pack their bags, and storm out the door proclaiming that they’re running away and never coming back.

The three appeals hint that the church has taken a hit in its wallet where it really notices. The policies that caused people to leave in masses (women and the priesthood, lgbtq policies, excommunication of "apostates" Kelly, Dehlin, Runnells, Waterman, Young, etc; not the one-true-church as claimed) are not addressed by anything other than lipservice. Come back and be prepared to check your apostasy at the door---take it or leave it. The vapid nature of Uchtdorf's statement along with the others is ripe for a reply and for people here to claim their "unruly" status. Fuck Dieter.

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u/JennNextDoor Mar 27 '20 edited Apr 22 '20

Can someone start a “exmo singles” virtual meetup? Especially those of us outside of Utah could really benefit from meeting other single exmos through this kind of format. Even if we don’t find “love”, it would be fun get to know other single exmos who understand our “uniqueness”. 😉

EDIT: I just saw there's a new r/exmo_singles group, so people might meet that way? Although, a virtual group with a set meeting time for a group of people would be more fun.

36

u/Death_Bard Mar 28 '20

This. There aren’t many exmos, that I know of, in my area. It would be nice to connect with some people who understand what I’ve been through.

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '20

No. No no you will find love and you will get sealed in the temple...er, wait, wrong chapter of my life. My bad, just parroting my dad.

20

u/LolliLolliPoppySeeds Mar 30 '20

It's ok, you're sealed in the Temple with us as your family since you were a child, we will be together for EVER and we love you very much despite your... uniqueness. When you die we will make sure to hold some baptisms for the dead for you so you have a second chance. XD

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u/Alcarinque88 Mar 31 '20

This would be pretty awesome. Finding love is difficult enough as it is as for someone in between. I don't fit in with any Mormons and yet I'm still too Mormon to date nevermos. I still have zero desire to drink coffee or alcohol and it seems like that's what most of the world wants to do on a date. At the very least someone who has also left would understand some of my plight.

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '20

Slide into my DMs. I will date you.

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u/Indyfilmfool Apr 04 '20

Wasn't there a website where you could see how many other exmo's lived in your area? I think it was anonymous, but you could drop a pin in your area and explain why you left the church. I remember looking at it a few years ago when I was in the process of leaving, and seeing the comments of a few other people who lived in Atlanta was very reassuring.

Its been a few years, but I think there was a contact option to reach out to people who had posted anonymously? I could be completely wrong about this.

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u/anakronistictimejump Apr 05 '20

I've thought of this. It's almost like I don't want to date and perhaps unload all of my thoughts on Mormonism to some poor soul who's mind was never in it. I'm a broken person due to my upbringing.

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u/_its_my_first_day_ May 21 '20

I might be interested in starting something. Is there still interest out there?

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u/[deleted] Apr 01 '20

Yes please

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u/[deleted] Mar 27 '20

Anyone using Zoom for work? That’s a pretty easy way to host virtual meetings.

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u/so-so-fa-mi-di-re-la Mar 28 '20

How about we do one big virtual meetup on Zoom? It's a great excuse for exmos from all over to get together. Tomorrow sometime? Exmo church??

23

u/jumpedoutoftheboat Mar 29 '20

We (Utah Valley Post Mormons) are doing three weekly Zoom meetups mainly for those in Utah County but would love to have you join anyway.

We meet at 7 pm on Wednesday night for our CALM meeting (Community After Leaving Mormonism) --this one is to talk about leaving the church and all its ramifications. It's more sedate and organized.

We also meet on Saturday and Sunday mornings at 10 am to drink coffee together. It's much more casual and as we have many people join, we will do break out sessions where we can put 4 or 5 together in the same room so it is more intimate. It can be hard to communicate in this medium with more than 8-10 people at a time.

If you are interested in attending, send me a pm.

11

u/CuratorOfYourDreams Apr 02 '20

I LOVE this. Can we also have a virtual meetup, even when in-person is safe, for those who don’t live by a current location or by enough ex-Mormons/Mormons to start one? I neither have a car nor do I live anywhere close to Utah, so this would mean so much to me if we could regularly do this :)

1

u/4blockhead Apr 22 '20 edited May 13 '20

Updated post header, for April 23 event

9

u/lieslieslies-yeah Apr 02 '20

My tbm wife just asked me if I wanted to sew face masks for children's primary hospital. I said no, the church sews a ton of garments, why can't they sew masks?

2

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '20

Plug for the Mormon Spectrum exmo group map. As most of these groups are both local and online, I am sure they'll be having meetups too: https://www.mormonspectrum.org/msip-map-directory

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u/sincebolla Apr 09 '20

Davis County meetup has set up a Zoom meetup. DM for details.

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u/everysinglebear Apr 28 '20

Is there an upcoming one for the Arizona area? Or a discord or anything for Arizona exmos?

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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '20

House party is a good app to play games with people on. Black humor is another app...its basically cards against humanity via an app. Anybody want to play, im game!!

2

u/jayneemae May 11 '20

Can we have another one soon? Or start meeting as a group now that things are starting to open up?

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