Christian-Muslim Relations

  This again is such a big topic that I have been reluctant to address it.  But some events have been forcing it into consciousness.  The Constitution republic of Indonesia which became an independent nation in 1945 is founded on a preamble like that of the American guarantee of freedom of religion.  It is called "Pancasila," the "five principles," the first of which is belief in "God as the  One Supreme Being," which pointedly does not use the word, "Allah" to speak this God.  The Constitution goes on to recognize at first five major religions, Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and later added a sixth, Confucianism.  One result of this classification was that everyone, even Buddhists, had to subscribe to belief in some sort of god if they wanted to be Indonesians with an identity card marking them as adherents to one of the religions.  Mystical and other sects were given a lower status as "beliefs" or "faiths," not religions.  Despite this enshrining of tolerance and pluralism, the events on the ground may be quite different. 
    A recent article in the Jakarta Post, online, tells that "Church violence is spreading outside Jakarta, and West Java, into Central Java."  While in Jakarta during our week of documentation (the first of several), we heard of a church burning in a suburb of the city.  At first, it seemed these were the more aggressive proselytizers among Christians, but in fact these Christians had been denied a permit to build a church and were meeting outside, while some young hooligans harassed them, and other Muslim youth locked arms and came to their defense.  Now we hear that some of these churches are Catholic churches as well.  The population of Christians (and here I include both Protestants and Catholics) has been variously described as 5% up to 10%, and I think given that some areas such as Papua are majority Christian, it is closer to the latter figure. 
  Last Sunday we worshipped in a Catholic church in central Yogyakarta, in a church really full of people of all ages.  This church had been rebuilt after the 2006 earthquake in Yogya (yes, another Indonesian disaster), and its walls were lined with murals depicting Indonesians in traditional dress--women bare-shouldered in long dresses with no scarves--greeting Christ like those women in the gospels.  The service was a moving one with music that was deeply spiritual.  It was good to get a bit of a Christianity "fix" in this so pervasively Muslim country.
  On the other hand, and it is a big one, we experience nothing but warm hospitality and kindness exceeding any expectations everywhere we go.  Not a note of hostility in anyone's face or attitude.  If there is "harassment," it is only that perfect strangers like to greet us and try to speak English with us.  They love American pop culture, a phenomenon we keep marveling over, as we see yet another sign in English, another American song played in restaurants and cars, American stars and athletes idolized as much here as in our country.  And of course they love Barack Obama, who went to school in a posh neighborhood of Jakarta.