David Geens — faith, entrepreneurship, thinking | No way - Page 12

Moderately Religious: believing in a secular world

Latest posts

Clarity in the Mormon Church's position on gay marriage

In Mormons

07/11/2015

7' reading time

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I admit that I was surprised this week when I read about the change in the church handbook regarding gay marriages: from now on, marrying a partner of the same sex (which I will conveniently refer to as gay marriage, regardless of gender) is seen as apostasy. This means that anyone who participates in such a marriage is obliged to appear before a disciplinary council. That does not immediately mean exclusion; the council decides on this. However, I can...

I choose to believe

In Believe

27/10/2015

2' reading time

I

Faith is a strength, it can provide comfort and support... I often hear comments from friends who do not believe and with their statement they actually ask me a question that they may not dare to ask: is faith always that strong? I simply have to answer no to that question. My faith is not always strong. There are also doubts sometimes, but especially the concern that I am far away from all the commandments that are there. I am far from a perfect saint, I can immediately...

How do you interact with Mormon missionaries?

In Mormons

10/10/2015

12' reading time

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I read a blog by Mette Ivie Harrison in which she beautifully described how people respond to missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. With her permission, I am based on her blog to provide a slightly adapted version - to our region. Mormon missionaries are now so well known that they already have the honor of having a musical made about them. The Book of Mormon is not well known here, but it is one of the most...

When are those last days?

In Mormons

28/09/2015

3' reading time

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Reports appeared here and there about Mormons who thought today would be the last day and that the blood moon heralded the end of the world. We now know that this is not the case. But why was it necessary for the leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Days to issue a notice to avoid panic? Don't people who call themselves Latter-day Saints expect it to be over every moment? Where does that name actually come from...

This family is forever

In Family

14/08/2015

1' reading time

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I firmly believe that this family will stay together forever, both here on this earth and in the life to come.

We took advantage of the beautiful weather and beautiful nature in Sweden to do a beautiful photo shoot. Thank you Mollie Herrey for capturing us so beautifully.

Is money important to Mormons

In Believe

19/07/2015

3' reading time

I

More and more people are noticing that Mormons make up only 2% of the American population, but are relatively more common in the business world, often with success. The Economist previously published an interesting article about this. There is a book that I can definitely recommend: “The Mormon way of doing business”. That's why I sometimes get asked if money is important to Mormons? It's a good question, and one I'll even use tomorrow for our...

A hug from God

In Believe

18/07/2015

3' reading time

E

I recently had an idea for a fun family evening. Everyone was to take a piece of paper and write down the answer to the following question: What would you ask Heavenly Father if He were suddenly standing here in front of you? The answers you get and the conversations that follow are very educational. For example, Lucas asked “Do you really love me?” I was surprised by this question, but it really concerns him. He really wants to do his best to do good and...

Chat with a Mormon

In Believe

12/07/2015

2' reading time

C

I am currently actively involved in an interesting project. From other projects I have found that there are many young people who are still looking for meaning. Many young people are curious about the message of Christ, but do not dare to say it openly. Admit it, if you say today that you are religious, then you are a weirdo. We notice from statistics and experiences of our missionaries that young people mainly want to search online for...

Believe in marriage

In Opinion and ideas

04/07/2015

4' reading time

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It has become clear in recent days that religion is in the dark. The reason is the ruling of the Supreme Court in the US regarding same-sex marriage. In response to this, I have regularly posted articles that aim to hold up a mirror to all those who are now cheering that “discrimination has finally been eradicated from the world”. A mirror that shows that those who were once discriminated against have now become the discriminators. I often use the...

Farewell to Elder L. Tom Perry

In Believe

06/06/2015

2' reading time

A

This week we said goodbye to our Apostle Elder L. Tom Perry. He died after a short illness, a violent, rapidly spreading cancer. He was 92 years old. At his funeral, beautiful words were spoken by other Apostles who reminded us of what Elder Perry had taught us through his life: As an Apostle he was a special witness of Christ. I still assume that apostles are regularly given opportunities to speak directly to Christ, to...

Our garage

In Believe

14/05/2015

2' reading time

O

During the last general conference there was a wonderful statement from President Uchtdorf: I think this is so well said. Many people, including me when I first joined the Church, think that because we call ourselves saints we are a Church full of perfect people. Nothing could be further from the truth. Each of us has our problems. In the beginning I often thought “oh, I'll never be able to live like those people”. Now I know there are people who probably think this about us and then I think...

Don't stop

In Believe

09/05/2015

3' reading time

D

A person goes through a lot in his life. Beautiful things and things you would rather not experience. Days that you would rather forget, days when you are confronted with yourself and with events that seem unlikely. Yesterday was one of those days for me, one that makes many people say “wow, that's hard”. What happened doesn't matter. Suffice it to say, whoever hurts my family hurts me. I can tolerate a lot, but when it comes to my children...

Valleys and mountains: learning from setbacks

In Believe

04/05/2015

3' reading time

D

Yesterday, as is often the case on Sundays, we had the missionaries visit us to eat together and spend a good time. The missionaries always bring us a spiritual message. Yesterday Sister Fleming had a message that will stay with me and that I would like to share with you. The text is from the Book of Mormon, from the book of Ether, chapter 6, verses 5 to 11: 5 And it came to pass that the Lord God sent a mighty wind upon the face of the waters...

Fuck off Philip

In Family

16/04/2015

3' reading time

O

Mormons have always been fanatical about genealogy. We do this because we believe it is important to know our ancestors and to be able to baptize vicariously for them. I spend a few hours every month searching online for branches in our family tree. More and more sources are becoming available online, which means that you can sometimes make interesting discoveries in other family trees. Finding one branch is sometimes enough to add hundreds of names. This week I discovered in the...

Open data: 2-way traffic?

In Opinion and ideas, Technology

06/04/2015

4' reading time

O

Representative Peter Dedecker aroused my interest in open data a few years ago with his various pleas. Since then, I have been following all of this from a distance and I agree with him that the government must always ensure that data - provided that it is not personal - must be openly available to third parties who can then use it commercially or otherwise. What I'm wondering now is: should this...

General Conference and Easter: Double Feast for Mormons

In Believe

04/04/2015

2' reading time

A

The first weekend in April is always marked on every Mormon calendar. Then we will have our general conference. Two days with a total of 5 2-hour sessions where we can watch and listen to talks from our prophet, apostles and General Authorities. It is one of the pillars of our church that we are not a stand still church, but that our prophet and apostles address us every six months with messages that are adapted to the times in which we live. That's how it is...

A new project: a book about online missionary work

In Opinion and ideas

15/02/2015

4' reading time

E

2014 remains a special year for me. Together with several other members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from our mission – the Belgium/Netherlands mission – and our mission President Robinson, I have learned a lot from our initiative to do active missionary work through Facebook. We managed to create more than 1100 referrals in one year. Most missionaries here now say that missionary work has since...

Johan Braeckman preaches in his own church

In Believe

08/02/2015

8' reading time

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In a blog on deredactie.be, Johan Braeckman, a known humanist, analyzes the claims of David Dessin and Khalid El Jafoufi regarding the statements of Stephen Fry. Johan wants to do this in a quasi fact-based manner, but ignores certain things that I would like to point out. For example, he states that David and Khalid have difficulty making statements about Fry's statement because they do not know how much Fry knows about religion. Shouldn't he apply this rule to himself...

Divorce is not a sin

In Believe

07/02/2015

5' reading time

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Liesbet Sommen, Director of Social Affairs at Minister Kris Peeters, has written an interesting column on knack.be. I think it's fantastic that she stands up for the fact that meaning is important, that religion can provide a connection that is actually somewhat lacking in our society. However, she then proceeds to target the Church (by which she of course means the Roman Catholic Church - many people forget that there are still "The Church") for the sake of...

4 days Utah

In Believe

06/02/2015

4' reading time

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Utah is and remains the cradle for everything and everyone who is Mormon. I went to Salt Lake City for the first time. To members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City is what Rome is to Catholics.