Showing posts with label exmormons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label exmormons. Show all posts

Friday, February 1, 2013

options in Utah for meeting with secular advocates

Here's info on local atheist groups in & near Salt Lake:

Salt Lake Valley Atheists. Meets the 1st Sunday at Sizzler on 4th South at 11:30AM. Kirk Robinson is the speaker this month. Eat if you wish, but it's not required. Come to the back room. For more info: http://nowscape.com/a

Many attendees are exmos. The group is purposefully politically liberal for what it's worth.

Another group, Atheists of Utah, has coffee chats every Thursday. More info on that:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/atheistsofutah/
or
http://www.meetup.com/aofuslc/#calendar

Atheists of Utah is a 501C3 type group and so is "officially" politically neutral, but attendees can have whatever views they wish & debate & discuss freely. The coffee chats tend to be a churning type of experience, and they can be fun if you decide to simply talk to your neighbor. Location Mestizo's Coffeehouse, 7-9:30PM. More info on the website.

The above groups, and this group, are members of UCOR, the Utah Coalition of Reason. http://reasonutah.org/

The yearly Exmormon Foundation conferences in Salt Lake have never had a "Christian" agenda per se - mostly a secular one of learning to live life after being in the circle of the cult. http://www.exmormonfoundation.org/

There are two Unitarian Universalist congratulations in the Salt Lake valley and some former mos attend. My own personal satisfaction level with each congregation has varied & wavered over time. From a cultural perspective the meetings & layout are more similar to Catholic & Anglican services rather than Mormon. The kids are, for example, sent away to rooms instead of being allowed to stay with their parents. Also they tend to have a paid preacher - who does admittedly tend to be very socially liberal, but still it's usually the same person speaking every week. The UU's in general have some taboos about being truly honest about he problems with religion though, and so sadly they have their heads in the sand as much as other religions to some extent. But nevertheless they are a socializing option you could consider if you wish. My further concerns about UUism: http://tinyurl.com/beqls4b

There is one or two decidedly "Christian" exmo groups locally.
Example:
http://www.meetup.com/Salt-Lake-City-Ex-Mormon-Meetup

My view on such things is that people are unfortunately jumping from one cult to another. That's my view, and I won't belong to any group that would seek to censor my trying to speak my mind. I try not to be a cultural relativist, so I could say "if that what floats your boat, so be it" but I won't because doing so makes me feel bad.

Here again is a more full list of groups that ARE stronger advocates for secularism and the fruits of the Enlightenment: http://reasonutah.org/groups/

Try them all - as on that site. And don't forget that in some there is a weekly or monthly churning. So if irritating people show up one week, maybe next time you'll find more interesting people - or you could be the interesting person yourself.