Answer to Joël De Ceulaer: religion deserves its place

In response to a column by Joël De Ceulaer op knack.be, I wrote him the following answer:

Dear Joël De Ceulaer,

Following your performance in Hautekiet and the resumption of your column on knack.be, I am writing you this answer.

I notice that you are a concerned parent, very concerned about the education of your six-year-old daughter. That is commendable, because that is the most important job you have on this earth: to be a good father and husband. At least according to what I believe.

For I am also writing to you as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Most Holy Days, or more briefly and better known, as a Mormon. And also as a concerned father.

You note that you do not want your child to be incorporated into some religious club that she has not chosen. You want to give her the choice. It sounds noble, but you are actually already making the choice for her. Not choosing is also a choice.

Not a problem in itself: after all, that is the job of every parent. We raise our children and make many choices, ranging from what clothes they will wear (in my experience, making that choice on their behalf is more or less possible until they are nine years old) to which school they will go to and what values ​​you instill in them. In my opinion, not making a choice shows neglect.

You don't want to give them strange ideas, but who makes the determination as to which idea is strange or not? You probably as a parent. So she still has the choice of what she gets. Or is it an idea to not expose her to any ideas at all? Perhaps avoid as much education as possible until she is at an age to make a well-considered choice. Although, how do you make an informed choice if there is no foundation?

In short, my argument is that you have to make choices for your daughter, that is your duty. It seems to me that your call is mainly directed against religions and not so much against all “weird ideas”. Perhaps you think that you fully correspond to the ideals of the Enlightenment.

But isn't it characteristic of the Enlightenment to deal with life in a scientific manner? Isn't it inherent in science to investigate everything? Gather knowledge to further synthesize, analyze, formulate assumptions and question them again?

Wouldn't it be better to actually introduce your daughter to religion? Even with multiple religions? So that she can later make a choice about what suits her best: this or that religion.

I admit that religions can be dangerous, especially when they are misused as a stopgap for other purposes. But religion can also be beautiful. As a Mormon, I see and believe that our religion strives to awaken the good in people and make this world a better world. Without detracting from the standards of the Enlightenment.

Few religions encourage study as much as ours. It is not without reason that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints subsidizes several universities, which have often produced great scholars in various scientific branches.

Our faith teaches us to study and work hard, to take care of ourselves, others and our environment. At the same time, our articles of faith say that we must have the utmost respect for democracy and even encourage them to actively participate in it. Furthermore, we state that we have the right to worship God in our own way, but we also give the respect we ask for because the same article of faith says that we grant this right to worship God - or not - in his way to everyone.

We need to stop hiding religion. You argue for a ban on schools. There is already a ban on religion in public life. If religion becomes something that is only allowed to survive in the dark shadows of our society, it is not surprising that the Enlightenment does not reach some of those religions. And that some religions even proliferate into something that does not meet our norms and values.

I advocate an Enlightened approach to religion, with an open mind, without prejudices, but with the healthy question “what can this teach me?”. We must give philosophy of life the place it deserves in education. We should certainly not be left with the fires of our children's souls, on the contrary, we should take care of them.

Let us place the separation between church and state where it belongs: in the middle. Christ banished the merchants from the temple, but let us not banish religion from our lives.

Kind regards,
David Geens