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A Community for Anyone Interested in Mormonism.

Main Street Plaza

A Community for Anyone Interested in Mormonism.

Author: chanson

C. L. Hanson is the friendly Swiss-French-American ExMormon atheist mom living in Switzerland! See "letters from a broad" for further adventures!!

Sunday in Outer Blogness: Conference Fallout Edition!

chanson, October 8, 2017

Did you get a chance to watch or listen to the latest General Conference? If not, you can get some of the highlights from Alex. Or listen to the Infants’ usual parody. (Or maybe listen to their ghost stories instead.) Brooke W didn’t care for the message that everything is…

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Sunday in Outer Blogness: BYU Coke edition!

chanson, September 24, 2017

In my day, “caffeinated pop” was one of those sinful beverages that good Mormons avoided. Then it became a point of controversy, and then President Newsroom announced that there’s not actually any rule against it. And now Brigham Young University has finally started allowing the sale of Coke with caffeine…

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What does the CoJCoL-dS offer me? — the wrap-up!

chanson, September 18, 2017

I hope you’ve enjoyed my series of articles analyzing the strategies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! Here they are, in case you missed any: What Does the CoJCoL-dS Offer? A little bit of nothing for everyone! Testimonies! Leadership monopoly, leadership vacuum High demands and polarization The…

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Sunday in Outer Blogness: Disaster edition!

chanson, September 11, 2017

I hope all of you in Florida and Texas and other disaster-stricken regions are safe today! It is time to take climate change seriously. Runtu’s daughter and son-in-law’s home was flooded by Hurricane Harvey and they didn’t have flood insurance — he has set up a fund for them here….

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Sunday in Outer Blogness: Intolerance edition!

chanson, August 28, 2017

You may have noticed that there have been some racial tensions in the United States lately. Also the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has traditionally had some problems with racism (see this helpful infographic). And, yes, there’s racism in the Book of Mormon: This scripture is important because…

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What the CoJCoL-dS Offers: Retro Morals

chanson, August 20, 2017

In the second episode of this series, I claimed that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints offers a lot of nothing — but then in the most recent installment I mentioned a substantial selling point: And the church will be right there to constantly pat you on the…

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Sunday in Outer Blogness: **edited: forgot to add a title edition, lol

chanson, August 14, 2017August 16, 2017

I guess it’s not Mormon news, but various Mormons had a lot to say about the recent racist violence in Charlottesville — and about racism within Mormonism. Good for the CoJCoL-dS for specifically calling out racism — something Trump couldn’t bring himself to do. I wish the atheist movement were…

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My most bizarre interfaith interaction

chanson, August 5, 2017August 5, 2017

This is something that happened to me when I was about 11 years old, and it has stuck with me all these years because it was just so dang weird. As you can tell from the title, I do not mean to imply that this is at all typical of…

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Strategies of the CoJCoL-dS: The whys and hows of polarization

chanson, July 31, 2017July 31, 2017

Any path that bills itself as the one true path for everyone is bound to lead to judgement. Naturally the path will be better suited to some people than to others, and — if it’s what everyone is supposed to be doing — that leads to the conclusion that those…

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Sunday in Outer Blogness: Extreme Parenting Edition!

chanson, July 24, 2017

By now you’ve probably heard the story about the Mormon family who dumped their son in Bryce Canyon when he didn’t want to serve a mission — and about the BYUI professor who got fired for posting pro-LGBT remarks on Facebook. By Common Consent’s new publishing house looks like it’s…

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  1. chanson on Thanks Gloria!September 20, 2026

    @Donna -- I wouldn't say you were one of the "dumb girls". You were a young starry-eyed convert who thought…

  2. chanson on New church schedule! Good? Bad? Inspired?September 19, 2026

    @Holly -- yes, I have absolutely felt that parallel in my life. I was fortunate enough to be able to…

  3. Holly on New church schedule! Good? Bad? Inspired?September 16, 2026

    You're no doubt right. Living in Trump's America right now feels to me the way I felt about the church…

  4. Donna Banta on Thanks Gloria!September 15, 2026

    There were years of cognitive dissonance, at least in my case. I told myself that the church was a compassionate,…

  5. chanson on New church schedule! Good? Bad? Inspired?September 14, 2026

    I can't help but feel like in today's church you wouldn't even have had the opportunity to mention Santa's not…

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