The Belgian what? What is “The Belgian Friar”? Well, the BelgianFriar isn’t a what it’s a who, and in no way do I mean any disrespect to actual Belgians nor actual Friars (neither of which am I). I am Belgian in that I have a not-so-well known and hard to pronounce last name (Baudhuin), which is Belgian. So in that sense I am Belgian, but let’s be honest: All I really am is an American with a conglomerate of Western European genes. And in no way shape or form am I a friar. I am, however, a Licensed Local Pastor in the Minnesota Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. As I was pursuing credentials in the UMC and going to our annual conference gatherings, I became slightly
amused by all the different orders and people’s interest and sometimes obsessions with
them. “What track are you on?” was on honest question, and I always wanted to respond, “uh, the friar track”. I do have deep respect for the actual friar order in the Roman Catholic church, but it just seemed to amusing to me to answer that way.

In 2009 I entered the Twittersphere, and it asked me what I wanted my handle to be. There was an endless array of opportunities, but it came quickly; “Well, I’m the Belgian Friar.” So “@belgianfriar” it was. From there it has simply become a little bit of an online identity for me. Prior to that I had a blog called “Black Coffee”, but I’ve completely fallen away from it, and I am in a very different place now then I was when I created “Black Coffee’ (another story for another day), so I decided to start all over in the blogosphere and create “BelgianFriar.com”. All of that is to say that is why call myself the “BelgianFriar”. In no way do I intend any offense to actual Belgians and actual Friars. My intent is more of an homage. I hope you enjoy my random, not always put together so well, musings.