you know who hasn't lost their third places? your homophobic evangelical uncle. he knows his neighbors names and has guided discussions with them every sunday.
when i was growing up in the church i would participate in worship with my neighbors every sunday and recreation at minimum every wednesday. the most common hardship i see expressed on the exmormon subreddit is the shock of suddenly losing anything resembling a community. there just isn't a secular analogue for what the church provides.
shit, this is true. now I want to start an Everything But The Church meetup that's in a nice big old building (tax-free plz) and imposes some gentle obligation to show up at least once a week for pre-planned activities with free social time after
am I just inventing UU again
there's one in my town and I kind of love that they've hung pride flags on a church from 16something, I should check them out
(in my limited experience their services are kinda culturally Christian, albeit in a very non-hellfire way. it doesn't fill the role of a truly secular church, it's just the closest approximation that has a big national structure. I realize UU doesn't actually fix the "where do people who don't want to sit through prayers go" problem.)
actually what I'm inventing is an Elks Club, except I know Elks Clubs exclusively as the place where you can rent a smoke-drenched dance hall from 300-year-old white men. but, you know, that general concept of a structured social club. we should bring that back.
a few years ago my audubon society chapter started doing monthly joint meetings with a local permaculture guild. it was something that started as an attempt to get young people interested in habitat preservation and restoration, they called it "birding for millennials" at first, but that title was dropped as one month in attendance had already grown to encompass a span of generations.
these meetings would start with a land acknowledgement, then a potluck, then all members of the guild were invited to discuss needs and offerings. someone had leftover water bottles from a pride event. someone had some perennial grasses in their car. someone requested cinder blocks, and somebody else offered some of theirs. then the audubon reps would present about birds, their ecological needs, and opportunities to help. then board games and recreation.
these meetings were free to attend and held in a university building, but they could have just as easily been held at a public library. we got to do three of these before covid became an international emergency.
i guess all this is just to say it's possible, and people are eager for it.
