I know of one guy in my stake who took his family out of the Church. It was a sudden thing last year. Just stopped coming and dropped all his callings. I have no idea why except the rumor that he listened to "anti-mormon stuff", whatever the hell that means.

Soon after his departure, I ran into him at the supermarket and he was extremely pleasant. We chatted for a minute and moved on.

Today I had the bright idea that maybe I should reach out to this guy via email and see if he wants to link up for lunch to talk about our "faith issues". I'll go out on a limb because I will have to admit my unbelief to him but I'm pretty sure he hasn't been back to church since he left.

What do you guys think? Should I do it? I'm just looking for a flesh and blood support group, but at the same time, I'm not ready to be accused of starting an apostate group and getting excommunicated ... ask me that in a year or two, then maybe.

I know that for me, hanging out and talking with people that I know and already respect, who had already left the church, boosted my confidence in my decision to cut ties with the church. It was emotionally satisfying to discover that non-belief is a valid position. I say do it. And invite me. LOL

I am meeting up with an exmo tomorrow that I met on this forum. I can't tell you how excited I am to finally be able to talk to a real live exmormon.Most people,even best friends that are never-mo's,have no idea what you have gone through.