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Main Street Plaza

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: Vacation edition!

chanson, August 15, 2016

Yes, it’s vacation season here in Europe! All the fascinating news and stories keep pouring in from Mormon-land, but sadly I have not had time to gather them up for you. I put off putting up this post because I kept thinking “I will have some point have a block…

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Sunday in Outer Blogness: Losing my religion edition!

chanson, August 7, 2016

This has been a great week for journeys!! Richard of Zelph wrote us a beautifully, painfully raw and honest essay on how — as exmos — we don’t need to force a happy face, and we’re not required to just move on: Living in Utah, maintaining LDS relationships, and even…

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Sunday in Outer Blogness: Switzerland Day edition!!

chanson, August 1, 2016

Yes, today is the Swiss National Holiday! It’s one of the most important holidays we celebrate here in Zürich, along with Knabenschiessen (“boys shooting”) and Sechseläuten (the day we set a giant fake snowman on fire) (yes those are real holidays). Today is the day we honor the defensive pact…

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Serious Fun: “Singing and Dancing to the Book of Mormon” edited by Holly Welker and Marc Edward Shaw

chanson, July 27, 2016August 23, 2016

Since its opening, the Book of Mormon musical has been surrounded by controversy over its degree of vulgarity, its treatment of Mormons, and various other issues. It has also been tremendously popular in the US and abroad, notably sweeping the Tony Awards. It’s natural to ask whether it’s just fluff…

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Sunday in Outer Blogness: Pioneer Day edition!

chanson, July 24, 2016

Yes, it’s time for Mormonism’s main holiday: Pioneer Day! Time to remember the Mormons’ arrival in the Salt Lake Valley for better (here’s a travelogue of the company one of my ancestors travelled with) or for worse: The frustration for LDS Native Americans must be the overwhelming privilege afforded to…

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Sunday in Outer Blogness: More disaster edition!

chanson, July 17, 2016

With this latest attack in Nice, I’m afraid I’m just going to have to keep naming all of these some sort of disaster edition, since it appears that the mass murder and discriminatory policing are not going to be letting up any time soon. Suicide has now risen to #1…

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Sunday in Outer Blogness: Disaster edition!

chanson, July 10, 2016

Wow have things taken a turn for the worse lately. So I guess the latest of it in the US is more cops killing unarmed black people and in Europe predictions of an economic collapse thanks to Brexit. And that’s just the stuff I see in the news — I…

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Sunday in Outer Blogness: Short break edition!

chanson, July 3, 2016

Hey folks! The sun finally came out here in Zürich (for the first time in about 7-8 weeks) so I spent the day gardening and biking with my kids (not to mention a bit of watching France beat Iceland in the Euro-Cup semi-finals). Yet, those things alone (plus my friend…

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Sunday in Outer Blogness: iStone Edition!

chanson, June 26, 2016

Is the CoJCoL-dS getting better at avoiding embarrassing itself? The closest thing to controversial this past week was when Pres. Uchtdorf compared JS’s seer stone to a smartphone (while wearing a very expensive watch). Then there was the tragic news that a woman died from heat exposure from an LDS…

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Sunday in Outer Blogness: Memorial Edition.

chanson, June 19, 2016

Many of us have spent the past week remembering and grieving for the victims of the massacre in Orlando. Will this massacre be the one that finally gets sensible gun laws put onto the table in the US? Will it help people (and churches) rethink their anti-gay beliefs and rhetoric?…

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donna * monya * johnny * holly * chanson


Brodie Awards!!!


X-Mormon of the Year!!

  • 2025: Rebecca Bibliotheca!!
  • 2024: Nemo the Mormon!!
  • 2023: Adam Steed!!
  • 2022: David Archuleta!!
  • 2021: Jeff T. Green!!
  • 2020: Jacinda Ardern!!
  • 2019: David Nielsen!!
  • 2018: Sam Young!!
  • 2017: Savannah!!
  • 2016: Jeremy Runnells!!
  • 2015: John Dehlin!!
  • 2014: Kate Kelly!!
  • 2013: J. S. Anderson & M. Ferguson!!
  • 2012: David Twede!!
  • 2011: Joanna Brooks!!
  • 2010: Monica Bielanko!!
  • 2009: Walter Kirn!!

  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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