In his acceptance speech of the 1993 Ramon Magsaysay award for community leadership, Abdurrahman Wahid, the then-Indonesian President, said,

 

 “Indonesia as a nation displays currently the remarkable ability to sustain its commitment to a strong and highly pluralistic society without sacrificing the idea of progress. At the present, it often seems as though development should be attained by the splintering of societies and the dismantling of national entities to reemerge as new, smaller ones in the form of narrow-based "ethnic nation-states," such as is now happening in some parts of Africa and central and eastern Europe….Indonesia’s ability to maintain its unity …is indeed an achievement in itself. The remarkable fact is that, today, this unity is being achieved without significant religious misunderstandings or racial outbreaks.”

Only six years later, the former President failed to foresee one of the bloodiest religion-driven conflicts.

Prerequisite to any successful building of a society – and a nation – is that all of its components, including religion, will be willing to introspect. The role of religion in a nation building is important not only because it provides a moral foundation, but also it provides guidance to the nation as it evolves into a modern one.  It is imperative to understand that religions alone neither can solve our nation’s economic, political and social problems nor provide much of solutions to the problems. While it is inconceivable that a prosperous nation can be established and sustained without a direct and substantive role of religions in its design and support, religions can provide what economic, political plans, and political programs or legal regulations alone can never attain: a peaceful and fully meaningful life.

As human beings are not merely machines or beings without soul, it is becoming apparent from the realities taken place in the world, especially in the developed quasi-secular countries, that a fully meaningful human life cannot be accomplished in a spiritual vacuum. Religions function to fill the vacuum. They are the source of meaning and hope for the vast majority of people around the world; they are able to provide people a horizon of meaning for their lives; they offer inner peace; and they can effect a change in the inner orientation, the whole mentality, and the heart of people, moving them from a false path to a new orientation of life.

One of the drawbacks of the modern society is its tendency to transform itself into a secularist society where moral relativism prevails over some absolute moral conducts. Modernisme, marked by the advancement of science and technology as well as the promotion of personal freedom, which often outweighs the understanding of personal responsibility, could produce some emptiness in the society and leave some moral issues confronted by the society left unanswered. Religion, for better or for worse, is and will continue to be vital to modern society. As Hervieu-Leger wrote,

“Science in effect is powerless to take over those functions of religion which lie outside of the realm of knowledge. It has no unfailing answer for ever-recurring questions about human nature and its place in the universe. It throws no light on the moral issues confronting individuals and the community. It cannot respond to the need for ritual inherent in society. Hence, if religion on modern society has ceased to be the unqualified language of human experience, it continues to be a vital element in modern society…”[i]

Unfortunately, as the history has shown from the past and current religious conflicts, religions can destroy humanity as much as they elevate it. Common factors that underlie these conflicts are when one group seeks to dominate and impose its will on others and when religious tolerance is not upheld and practiced. If religious animosities are allowed to destabilize the nation, it will be impossible to build a national unity and foster mutual cooperation among her people. If religions arouse hatred and frictions, it is entirely legitimate that absence of religions is preferable and non-religious people are better than the ones who profess it.  Religions are “credible only when they eliminate those conflicts which spring from the religions themselves, dismantling mutual arrogance, mistrust, prejudice, and even hostile images and thus demonstrating respect for the traditions and rituals of people who believed differently...”.[ii]

This suggests that a better understanding, if not a truly new perspective, about the essence and the objectives of religion is paramount importance so that religions’ positive side can blossom while their undesired effects can be minimized. Only through this way religion can become a vehicle in building not only a united Indonesia, but also a peaceful world.

In order to simultaneously enhancing its positive side and minimizing its undesired effect, religions must strive to teach and promote the following two endeavors to their followers.  The first endeavor is to connect the creation to the Creator and secondly, to connect the creation with other creation.

 

Connecting the Creator and the Creation

“Religion is concerned with ultimacy – that is, it relates people to the ultimate conditions of existence.”[iii] According to religious belief, the only being that knows the ultimate conditions of the existence, including the existence of human beings, is the creator of the existence himself, which is the Creator. Thus, for religion can bring the creation to understand its ultimacy, the concern of religions must be to connect the creation to the Creator. And since the creation is created by the Creator, who possesses loving, tender, faithful, just and righteous traits of character, religion is also concerned with virtues.

These virtues can be attained when the creation, especially human beings, connect with the Creator. Through this connection with the Creator human beings will get closer to the ultimate condition – closer to perfection. In so doing, human beings learn more about the Creator’s infinite abundant of virtues while at the same time, the Creator pours out His virtues to human beings. These two phenomena can occur through a personal relationship between the creation and the Creator.  Religion, therefore, both at a personal and communal level, has to strengthen conviction rather than stress idle conformity to some inflexible collective system. It has to fortify the personal relationship between a human being and his Creator. It must support the challenge to humanity to discover truth and beautify through reflection as well as the underlying unity in all creation and harmony with the divine.

Religions must inspire their followers to strive toward a perfection and peace in spirit, mind and body.  They must continuously and without the intervention of political, power and economic influence to inspire their followers to strive for a harmony with the divine and a unity of humanity.

The human beings’ connection with the Creator brings them inner peace, regardless the state of the world they are living in.

 

Connecting the Creation with the Creation

Knowing and respecting the natural laws operating in the creation, including above all human beings which according to religion belief is the most special of all creation, is tantamount to respecting the Creator.  This not only brings them closer to the Creator but also to nature and their fellow human beings.  To satisfy only one of them – get connected to the Creator but separated from the creation – is incomplete or, more precisely, false. If one’s concern is only one’s relation to the Creator but abandon or, worse, destroy one’s relation with the creation, one essentially denies the existence of the Creator. Destroying other creation – human beings - in the name of the Creator is contrary to faith in the Creator and is the greatest betrayal of the universality of religious faith.

Thus religion, besides providing a concept of divinity – Creator with His noble and supranatural traits of character and attributes --, must also provide a concept of humanity and its links with other creation - human relations, both interpersonal and social political relations and their relation to nature.  In other words, religious must provide a model of social and individual behavior that helps believers to live their daily lives that simultaneously honor the Creator and respect the creation.

Through their relationship with other creation, human beings will learn more about the traits character of the Creator, the ultimacy, morality and ethics. Morality, especially the sort that is embedded in a social role of a code of rules, can be understood as an embodiment of collective consciousness, and ethics is the operational phase of morality.

Today we live in a fast changing world; in a world where the boundaries between right and wrong are often blur.  We are constantly being confronted with situations and challenges that require some moral judgment.  And the questions we are facing are not just individual decision anymore, but frequently it deals with a broader group of creation such as community and nation. For instance, should our nation become a totally secular country or become a religious state? Should religion become a vehicle to build a united or disunited nation? How should religion play role in promoting a better nation – united, democratic, and prosperous?

The above questions can simply be stated as follow: In a nation such as Indonesia, how can religions protect the dignity of all people and foster the mutual understanding among people?

One of the most important things a religion does is to give us a way of thinking about such problems. It does this by providing an intellectual framework within which moral decisions can be made.  Essentially religion needs to stress ethical conduct. As Dimock wrote:

 

“Ethics is the operational phase of morality, which is the quest for truth and goodness firmly on a reliable knowledge of universal principles deriving from a nature and spirit of the universe which God created. Since it is than morality….[It] has at least two essential roles in human society: first, it is the best assurance man has that his own life and that of his community will survive; secondly, it sets the standard for a constantly enlarging area of ideals through which a better society is to be attained.”[iv]

 

As all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, the overall dignity of people, regardless whether they embrace any particular religion or not, has to be accepted. That means every human being -- without distinction of sex, age, race, skin color, language, religion, ideology -- possesses an inalienable and untouchable dignity. Everyone and every entity including the state is obliged to honor this dignity and guarantee its effective protection. The basic subject of society is the human person. Human must never merely means, and never be the objects of politics and power. It is, therefore, the role of religion to foster the conditions for all human flourishing.

Thus the basis to evaluate whether we should develop into a purely secular or religious-based state is to ask questions: Will and can the state guarantee the basic right and respect the dignity of all people? Will the nation become more divisive or united? Will people get closer to one another or become more separated? Will the rules contrast with the traits character of the Creator - loving, tender, faithful, just and righteous?

The teaching of religion must also emphasize progress - sociopolitical and economic improvement - so that people do no opt for backward culture or a pure secular way of life as a substitute. Religions must also emphasize balance so that people do not opt for self and abandon social values. Ultimately questions have to be asked: When socio and economics and science become part of religious system? Are all socio-economic and political problems emerged because people abandoning religious teachings? Or, are they because of mismanagement in the social and development programs? Religious beliefs and convictions, then, can have a tremendous influence on how we, as individuals and as nation, react to new situations, new ideas and new developments. These are our challenges.

As the Creator has endowed human beings with certain capabilities, we, as human beings, are challenged to identify the sources of the problems and discover the solutions to fix them. Religion thus must provide space for creativity of human beings to find solutions to human’s challenges. Survival is a matter of challenge – both internal and external – and response. The success of response depends on the number of creative people within the society who can analyze and organize. They are not necessarily a single group or certain groups of people. They are people from all backgrounds, which through a cohesive cooperation among the members of society, conduct scientific inquiry and knowledge exploration for a better living standard of humankinds.

On an individual basis, survival depends on individual adaptation to the external environment.  Within every individual, there has to be a balance between the cognitive, rational approach, emotional sentiments and ideals. A balance will ensure a healthy and integrated personality. Any individual who is taught only emotional sentiments and ideal, without access and exposure to science and knowledge, will be incapable of solving human problems in a constructive manner. Thus a creative religion must ensure freedom of conscience, a search for the truth and people’s creativity.

Creativity requires freedom for people to develop a sense of independence and achievement during their interaction with the whole environment, including with their fellow human beings. Thus religion must foster the freedom of speech, assembly, association and the right to disagree including the freedom to not embrace religion or embrace any particular religion. Freedom of conscience and religious freedom are inviolable rights of the human person.

So, religion and liberty must be hand in hand. And our officially religions should strive to creating not only religious individuals – those who honor their Creator, but also humane ones – those who honor their fellow human beings. This is the ideal Indonesians that we want to achieve, and religions play a critical role in realizing it.

Ours is a multicultural society, and while this diversity can be, or ought to be, a source of vibrancy it also has its problems. The only way we can maintain a civil society is to develop a high degree of tolerance for differences; difference of race, culture, ethnicity, and religious belief.

 

Religious tolerance is a must.