Reasonably Religious: believing in a secular world
During the G20 Interfaith Forum in Salt Lake City, religious leaders, academics, and policymakers from various countries and faith traditions came together to reflect on peace, connection, and the role of religion in our society. These initiatives receive remarkably little attention in the Flemish press, while religious conflicts and derailments are usually extensively covered. I find this regrettable, because the story of religion is so much richer than what we usually hear in the media...
Why do we pay tithing and where does that money go? As a bishop, I explain how our church handles money, temples, and help for people in need.
What happens when scientists investigate how members of a faith community live? Several American universities and research institutions have delved into this question in recent decades. Their findings about members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are remarkable. And they tell us something more important than how religious we are: what faith can do with a life.
An evening with Alex Agnew unexpectedly made me think about our Heavenly Father. What happens when God falls from his pedestal for someone and that person loses their faith? Perhaps taking a step back doesn't necessarily mean we grow further away from God. Perhaps these experiences can teach us something valuable. For God's love never disappears, not even when we lose sight of Him. And perhaps as believers we should try less to convince and...
Churches are emptying, but the questions for which people once went to church have remained: what is a good life, how do I deal with guilt, loss and death, and what may I hope for? Science explains how the world works, not what I should do with it. These enduring questions can be read as a human invention or as a reference to a source outside ourselves. I choose the latter, and explain why the answer of religion fits the question, without pretending that I can prove it.
Christian nationalism is dangerous, but the answer is not less faith in public debate. The line lies between persuasion and domination, and that line applies to everyone, including my own church.
At the book presentation of 'Reasonably Religious' in Sint-Niklaas, secular humanist Jurgen Slembrouck found that my book contains too few arguments to convince anyone. He is right, and that was never the intention. I didn't want to convince anyone of my faith, but of something else: that believing is not the same as stopping thinking. About a debate with Rik Torfs and Slembrouck, a fence on a cliff, and why people start to look differently without having to become religious.
A new UGent study shows that religious and outspokenly irreligious applicants are less likely to get a job interview — not because they are judged worse, but because recruiters fear that colleagues and customers prefer not to work with them. As an entrepreneur and bishop, I recognize that pattern from my own experience, and I advocate for finally taking religion as seriously as other grounds for discrimination.
My book 'Reasonably Faithful' is here. The core question: can one still reasonably believe in God today? I think so — not despite thinking, but thanks to thinking, doubt, and an accumulation of indications which in themselves prove nothing, but together do provide direction.
'I do believe in something' sounds innocent, but is primarily comfortable — a vague universe makes no demands, a personal God does. Moreover, in Flanders, we often confuse 'do I still want to have something to do with the church' with 'does God exist', while those are two different questions. 'Something' is an excellent starting point, as long as it doesn't become an endpoint behind which you hide to never ask further questions.
Criticism of our church does not surprise me, and it is also allowed: freedom of choice only works if you also tolerate the choices you yourself would rather not see. The line is not at sharpness, but at revenge and willful harm, as the Mormon Stories story shows. As a bishop, my task is not to win or convince, but to listen, because only in this way do people come closer to Christ.
The Belgian warning on alcohol advertising loses the word 'abuse', with which the government acknowledges that there is no safe lower limit for alcohol. Almost two hundred years ago, the Word of Wisdom from 1833 already went further than the then temperance movements by asking for complete abstinence. That does not make that revelation a medical handbook, but it does show how a rule of life can prove remarkably current afterwards. It teaches us to trust in advice of which we the complete...
Why 'I'll see you again' is not the real comfort for me when losing someone I love — and what is.
Freedom of choice needs real alternatives and opposition. But it does not follow that Satan was necessary for God's plan. Satan himself already needed freedom of choice to be able to become Satan. Our freedom of choice therefore does not come from him. It comes from God.
Is Gen Z massively returning to church? The numbers show otherwise, but something else is going on. There is no mass revival, but a reinterpretation: the group of young believers is smaller, but experiences faith much more consciously, individually, and more visibly in society. This gradually makes faith a normal topic in public discourse.
Science seeks facts, faith seeks meaning — but they look at the same reality. A sincere search for truth never needs to shy away from honest questions or a second experiment. Because whether it's about a laboratory or a prayer: you only find the real answers when you investigate yourself.
We usually pray that our circumstances change — like a traffic jam that needs to clear up. But what if we don't pray for change around us, but for change within us?
Everyone is welcome to Jesus, exactly as they are. Whoever follows Him is simultaneously invited to grow further. The question is therefore not whether you are already 'ready,' but whether you are willing to embark on a journey with Christ. And those who are already on their way should walk along as a training partner, not as a spectator.
People rarely leave for one reason. Four patterns, plus a fifth closer to home: an awkward word that was never set right. Listening, understanding without agreeing, and openly naming what we keep silent about, help more than policy. Leaving usually remains one's own choice — ours is: never be the reason, but be the love that remains.
You don't need faith to be a good or happy person. But for me, faith adds an extra dimension: it provides a clear framework for making choices, helps to give meaning to setbacks, and offers the perspective that this life is a chapter in a larger, ongoing story.
Reasonably Religious: believing in a secular world 
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