There have been thousands and perhaps millions of books, essays and articles written about politics and religion. People talk about them every day. Yet, both subjects are still worth repeating because as much they bring joy and satisfaction, they could also cause suffering to many people. Millions of people have died due to religious and political tensions through out decades.

Politics and religion are dealing with action and reaction. For human beings, their first reaction to any offensive action, naturally, is to defend and then subsequently followed by launching a counter offense. Often the counter offense is much more lethal than the offense itself. The reason is simple: we are all human beings.

Human beings are endowed or born with two characters. One is egoism and the other is socialism (there is nothing to do with Marxism). Egoism is a self-centered attitude. It is all about “I”, “me” and “my”. Socialism is fundamentally about “we”, “us” and “our”.

Can these two characters blend? Let’s give it a crude shoot. If we combine “we” and “I”, we could get wei, a mandarin word which means doing. Combining “me” and “us”, we could get semu, an Indonesian word which means blur, vague or hopeless. And combining “my” and “our”, we could end up having Moury, a person’s name. Now here is the funny part. By combining all of them we get, Moury (any individual) is doing vague things.

Politics is essentially about power. It is about influence and conquest. It represents the ego part of human’s character.

Religion, on the other hand, is essentially about virtue inspired by people’s relationship with their Creator. It is about teaching noble values and good deeds such as compassion and humility. It deals with the kinship part of human’s character.  As in the words of Thomas Paine, “The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.”

Given the fact that human beings are diverse, they need both of them. If all human beings are exactly identical, religion becomes irrelevant since there is no incentive to do bad or good to others. Politics also becomes irrelevant since there is no need to seize power in order to influence others.

Ours is a diverse nation. We both need politics and religion even more. For a nation to function, it needs a legitimate power to carry out the nation’s tasks. Politics deals with that. And the world of politics is gray, not black and white. For instance, whether a government must raise, cut tax or cut subsidy is ultimately a political decision that will satisfy some groups of people and dissatisfy some others. The gray world of politics opens possibilities to many scientific research and social studies. For instance how to make an effective political solution to a certain problem. Should tax be cut further? Should the government control media? And etc.

Its gray world also opens and stimulates public debates. This implies that the rightness of political decision is relative but in the end we must respect what we have decided although we don’t always need to agree with it.

For a nation to function well, it needs a moral guidance that will inspire its people and leaders. And religion deals with that. However, unlike political world, the world of religion is black and white. If religion permits relativism – for instance stealing is ok as long as it is petty or stealing $1 is less sinful than stealing $10 – it will loose its legitimacy as a moral guidance and teaching.

So, politics and religion does not substitute each other. Rather, they are complementary. Neither politics should dictate the content of religion nor steer its direction. Otherwise, religion becomes a tool of the authority, not a symbol of relationship of human beings with their Creator.  Equivalently important, neither religion should dictate the content of politics nor steer its direction. Otherwise, it would loose its legitimacy. And, eventually, it will loose its attractiveness.

The question now is how to blend them without letting one control the other? In other words, how to combine them so that they will not produce hopelessness? As we have seen, an improper blend of politics and religion could produce hopelessness.

Fortunately, we have a guideline. That is, we are Moury(s). We are all human beings. Regardless how people acquire it, whether through a political persuasion, a democratic election, a military coup-d'e'tat or a religious order, power tends to corrupt. Worse, human beings with absolute power or without control are merciless and disastrous. And much worse, an absolute power endorsed by moral principle could produce a complete hopelessness.

Realizing that we are all human beings, who, in the absent of control, could become monsters should prompt us to place religion more on the moral ground rather than on the power ground. It should fill the mind and the heart of the people with compassion and humility, not people’s greed with power.

It must not feed the politics, but it must feed people’s mind with virtues. That is because for a simple reason: we are all humans, imperfect beings which tend to corrupt whenever opportunities present.