No Place

I have hung out for almost four years on the New Order Mormons discussion board. It’s had its ups and downs, but things have been cruising along quite nicely for the past few months. Lots of new people, lots of good discussion.

There have always been a wide range of beliefs among NOMs. We haven’t ever had a measuring stick; if you call yourself a NOM, then you are one.

Then, the believer came.

A believing spouse referred her husband to NOM. She participates on Faces East, another board for believing spouses of unbelieving LDS or neverMo’s. She decided to stick around and supervise.

Her participation entirely blows out of the water what we’re at NOM to accomplish. How open can you be in a conversation with someone who asks, “I don’t want to go to the temple and my wife is upset about it” when said wife is participating in the discussion? If you give him good advice, and he follows it, she’ll question his motives. If you give him lousy advice and he follows it, she’ll blast you.

I don’t have a good opinion of believer/non-believer interactions. My experience has been that NOTHING GOOD comes of interacting with unrelated believers from a skeptical/NOM/faithless POV. Apparently, however, my almost-four-years of experience with this is apparently not as valid as a bunch of newbies squishily deciding that we should all just be able to get along. Kum-bah-yah. Right.

So, I’ve lost my safe space.

I don’t remember when I’ve felt so alone.