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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: Other People’s Opinions Edition!

chanson, April 9, 2011October 1, 2011

This week’s journey through Mormonism covered the ground of caring or not about others’ opinions and possible reactions. Sometimes it’s fun to make a big stink and a smackdown. And Simply Sarah and Andrew S are simply examining and expressing their own place in the X-Mormon journey. Some nevermos get…

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Struggling in the depths of Mormon faith: Stephen Carter’s “What of the Night?”

chanson, April 5, 2011March 30, 2011

I also learned that the great stories of the world have second acts. This may seem like a silly thing to say, but so many stories set up the problem (the job of the first act) and then resolve it (the job of the third act) with little to no…

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Sunday in Outer Blogness: The Mormon Moment Edition!

chanson, April 3, 2011November 9, 2011

It’s not just a musical anymore, it’s in sci-fi films, books, and other interesting plays, even politics — everything is coming up Mormon!!! Meanwhile — rather than capitalizing on it with another shocker-conference — the CoJCoL-dS decided to go with their previous conference strategy of boring the pants off everyone…

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My place in Mormon history

chanson, March 29, 2011October 1, 2011

A lot of people — upon leaving the CoJCoL-dS — are amazed to discover how fascinating LDS church history really is. It’s not just that the whitewashed history in Sunday School is incomplete and inaccurate. It’s that you’re force-fed this watery-porridge version of church history that inoculates many people from…

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Sunday in Outer Blogness: What do Mormons believe? edition!

chanson, March 27, 2011November 9, 2011

First and foremost — Outer Blogness has gotten a major technical upgrade!!! This is such a huge and vibrant community that it deserves its own page where you can get a clear view of what’s up. It also means faster loading of our main page and more space in our…

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Johnny Townsend’s Mormons in life and imagination!

chanson, March 24, 2011October 1, 2011

Have you ever wondered what spirit prison would be like? Mormons believe that when people die, their spirits go to either “spirit paradise” or “spirit prison” to await Judgment Day. They also believe that missionaries from spirit prison can teach the gospel to spirits in spirit prison (who can be…

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Wednesday in Outer Blogness: Pi Day Edition!

chanson, March 15, 2011November 9, 2011

OK, so I missed Sunday (and I actually missed Pi Day, too), but — since I was busy last Sunday and I’ll be busy next Sunday — I figured I’d try to shoot for a round-up somewhere in the middle. Sorry for any inconvenience. Anyway, as you know, the big…

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Sunday in Outer Blogness: Honor Edition!

chanson, March 6, 2011September 3, 2011

Naturally, the buzz this past week was about the big news that a BYU basketball player had sex with his girlfriend — if you can believe it! This led to lots of very amusing discussion about control and the BYU honor code, musings on parenting, and the obvious observation that…

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Sunday in Outer Blogness: Interfaith Dialog Edition!

chanson, February 27, 2011October 1, 2011

To recap recent discussions, ProfXM says: To me it seems like it might be a good idea, but it also requires that religions not be exclusive, which, of course, many are. So, rather than being a good idea, it seems more like a futile idea. And I say that as…

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Mission Complete: Jacob Young’s “Harvest”

chanson, February 23, 2011February 20, 2011

An LDS mission strange and fascinating experience. Up until recently, though, it’s been tricky for people to get an idea of what a Mormon mission is really like without serving one. Part of the problem is that Mormon journals are supposed to be faith-promoting, in order to potentially serve as…

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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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