Author: chanson

This week Elder Holland has launched another attack on secularism (which drew some criticism). On the other hand, a speaker at the FairMormon Conference advised Mormons to “make secularism an ally rather than a bogeyman.” With the rise of Trump some faithful Mormons are finally getting the picture that their…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…