Revival of Local Religion: A Challenges for Church and National Life in Indonesia

The decision of the Constitutional Meaning of Indonesia that extends the Almighty God Believers to include their identity on the Identity Card is a challenge as well as new opportunities for living together with religions, including for political and religious life. This article reviews the problem in four points. First, regarding the impact of the revival of local religions on the church's understanding of itself and also the task of its witness. Second, how this new reality is responded to by theological schools. Third, the impact of the revival for the life of the nation The fourth point examines how the government should behave towards the phenomenon of religious radicalism and also the response of civil society to the phenomenon.


Introduction
While Muhammadiyah and the Indonesian Ulema Council adopted a lukewarm attitude. 3 The paper prepared for the consumption of today's discussion was prepared to answer two questions. First, what is the impact of the existence of this seventh religion on the churches in Indonesia and theological education institutions in carrying out their vocation duties, specifically for missionary work? Second, what are the changes in political constellation in Indonesia with when local religions take part in enlivening the stage of social and political life. In the first session we try to find answers to the first question. In the second session, we will spend time exploring the answer to question number two.

Impact of Local Religious Awakening for Church Services
The first immediate impact is the presence of local religious people beside our home.
They also demanded the right to have a place of worship next to the place of worship of six pre-existing religions. That right must also be accommodated and protected by the state, even by existing global religions because the religions that we call global religions were initially no more than local or regional religions. They appear in a social context and historical moment. 4  message, because they were still in the dark, then this perspective was no longer acceptable.
They are not passive partners in the task of finding and defining truth. They are precisely the dialogue partners in the church in the process. Indonesia, which has become a stage of life with these religions, is now an intellectual marketplace in which there is a plurality of values that compete with one another.
Negatively their presence confirms that the evangelistic period understood as an effort to bring people out of the dark into the light is over. Instead, they were present at the church service stage with the realization that there were values that were worth contributing to the development of a civilized society. These values even become alternatives. In one way or another these local religions actually show that in the religions that have received international recognition so far there are dark elements. Exploitation of nature and the environment born out of the anthropocentristic understanding of the mandate in Genesis 1:28 is the dark side of Christianity which is revealed by the presence of the Almighty God Almighty. Understanding the implementation of the task of spreading religion which is carried out by using weapons and violence is also another dark side that is shown by the Advancements of Godhead as still entrenched in biblical religions.
So the church and the five religions that already existed in Indonesia now have additional partners in the dialogue. The church must therefore be prepared to break out of the old paradigm in understanding the truth. Arie Brouwer's statement about the truth deserves the attention of previous churches and religions. "It is not people in one religion or one religion (Christianity or Islam) who have the truth, but instead the truth of God is seeking and possessing all of us." 8 If truth does not belong to one religion or religions but belongs to God who is in the process of manifesting concretely in each religion, then the conversation about truth is no longer in the same direction (monologue). Contemporary churches and religions need to renew themselves to face a new mode of proclaiming the truth, namely as a two-way conversation (dialogue).
The second impact that I can mention is the recognition of the Almighty God Almighty by the state as a religion, a vitamin that strengthens the cultural and ethnic awareness of the citizens of the churches in Indonesia. This impacts twins in working life.
The existence of churches in Indonesia which Abineno characterizes as being more regionally than confessional will be even stronger. It is not impossible, the movement to expand the ministry area of the church out of the boundaries of tribal or regional territory that has been made by Christian churches in the Batak land and began to be followed by the Evangelical Church in Minahasa, the escalation will increase. It could be followed by other regional synod churches that present their own challenges for the realization of the ecumenical movement in Indonesia through the PGI, which is to become the One Christian Church. 9 For the church to strengthen ethnicity awareness, it is useful to strengthen the fellowship and kinship of the church members, especially those who are of their ethnicity and ethnicity. Efforts towards contextualization in theology, especially liturgy are also increasingly lively. The problem is that contextualization will be understood as limited to wrestling with the culture of pre-1945 Indonesian society, namely tribal and regional The platform for Indonesian Christians to deal with the nation's problems is not available.
As a result, national issues such as constitutional violations experienced by one church in the territory of Indonesia will be responded to coldly by the church in other regions of Indonesia because they think that it is a problem of the locality of the church in question. Churches in Indonesia do not have to interpret this new situation as a death knell for missionary or missionary work. Gospel preaching is a mandate, a mission that the church receives from God to be done in any situation. The Fellowship of Churches in Indonesia also always confirms this. 10 The challenges presented by local religions do not have to be understood by the church as ending the task of evangelism. But to find a new formula for understanding the evangelism task. It is time for churches in Indonesia to abandon the understanding of the gospel message as a process of absolute proselytism to understand presence and dialogue as a new mode.
Proselitism assumes that among religions there must be one true religion while the other religions are wrong. Thus the true religion must be defended and promoted. While the false religions need to be dissolved. 11 In the postmodernism situation which is being faced by the churches in Indonesia, this understanding must inevitably be abandoned. The new mode of evangelism that the church needs to take, namely presence and dialogue, presupposes that the gospel message is no longer based on the power of propaganda but on dialogue and negotiation. This is not intended to ratify the truth that is believed in religion, but rather the belief in the truth needs to have an acceptable epistemological basis.
Choosing presence and dialogue as a new mode of evangelism also means that the identity of the church is no longer determined by the prominence of Christian symbols but on the presence of the values of life prevailing in the Gospel of God's Kingdom, such as love, holiness, justice, equality, forgiveness and self-emptying.

How is Theological School
The challenges presented to the church also passed to theological schools as part of the church's presence in nation and state development as well. Two things that I think need to be considered in theological schools. First, because in the postmodern period of doing theology is no longer a meaning receiving job but meaning making, the curriculum in theological schools also needs to be repackaged considering theology, as already mentioned is no longer falling from the sky, but is constructed in a complex socio-cultural context. I noted three points.
One, teaching methods in theological schools need to start moving from the normative-deductive method to the empirical-inductive method. Theology as a study of faith that moves from the text needs to be imbued with studies that move towards the text.
The Bible, the dogmas established at councils, as well as the doctrines produced by the community of believers in the past in one context cannot be claimed as the only source of theology, but only one source. Two, in an effort to make meaning, theology must not only dialogue with philosophy but also with sociology. This means that in addition to the philosophy courses in theological schools it is also necessary to include sociology courses in the teaching curriculum. This is the same as asserting that educational institutions, including theological schools, should become multicultural educational institutions, namely giving respect to others, including minority groups. Three, in theological schools students need to be guided not only to do theology about Indonesia by using the texts of the faith of the Israelites and the early church, but also to use texts of Indonesian faith about their country. This means that the theology of the state carried out in theological schools in Indonesia is not only a duplication of theories constructed in Europe. The theology of the state by the churches in Indonesia must be a theology constructed in Indonesia's complex socio-cultural context.
Second, the School of theology is useful not only as a place to study various theological thought streams, it is also not a place where theology is created. 12 Theology was created in life that is closely related to historical, economic, political, social issues, etc. The creator of theology is a believer, a church member, every human being. Theological schools are useful as workshops that block theological holes produced by believers so that the theology becomes more useful and effective for church growth. Gerrit Singgih was very accurate in formulating this when he said: "We did not create theology because the church is already doing theology. We refine theology in the context of our task as part of the church." 13 In the context of Indonesianism, theological holes that need to be repaired by theological education institutions in Indonesia are most related to theology about Indonesia.
There are two points that I want to mention for this point. One, theological education institutions in Indonesia should equip prime theologians, namely church members to see Indonesia not merely as a political reality. Indonesia is also a theological reality. This means that the birth and upholding of Indonesia until this moment is not solely due to the consensus with the Indonesian people. God also wants Indonesia to be proclaimed and also endure various trials. In other words, it is not only Israel and the church that God wants.
Indonesia is also God's will. This can be seen in the miraculous intervention of God in the seconds of the proclamation of Indonesia's independence and also God's act of salvation of various movements that want to change Indonesia's ideology after the proclamation. upholding of Indonesia as aspired by proclamators, because the ideals of Indonesia as enshrined in the Pancasila do not contradict the gospel. Or the Pancasila is actually the gospel that continues to look for its concrete manifestations in the Indonesian context. This does not deny the possibility of converting or opening a new congregation, but do not convert to a target in theological and church efforts.

Impact of Local Religious Awakening for National Life
The revival of local religions which gained the legitimacy of the state constitution, as Postmodernity which is a reality by itself gives birth to postmodernism, which is nothing but a reflection or attitude towards postmodern reality. Postmodernism positively presents the true face of Indonesia, that is diversity or diversity. It can be said that Indonesia rediscovered its religious experience which was almost lost or extinct due to the current of globalization, even also by the penetration of out-cider religions throughout the past centuries. With the recognition of the Almighty God Advocates, Indonesia's experiences of the sacred and sacred will surely be accepted as one of the sources for forming Indonesia's identity. Each element of different religious experiences is given the same place by the constitution to fill Indonesian life. Indonesia truly appears as a beautiful strand of flower because of the diversity of flowers that make up the strand. freedom in the framework of unity; civilized democracy appears as bright as possible. This ideal will be realized if the following two conditions are met. First, the government or non-partisan state in acting. Or a government or country that stands tall on laws and laws that are spelled out correctly from the law. Second, the maturity and spiritual maturity of the community. there is respect for the rights of each group. 18 Second, the state and society become fertile nurseries for the formation of identity and mature character because they are trained to accept or reject an opinion or order based on logical and rational argumentation. Forcing an ideology or decision to be accepted without argument would be inappropriate. In this climate of life violence and oppression will gradually disappear. The collegiality culture will be accepted as a substitute for dictatorial culture. Third, values, norms, ideology and beliefs that are held together are no longer dictated by one group but are decided together through a process of discussion and negotiation. The revival of local religions is also good news for the nation because with that local culture which is threatened by extinction by the penetration of global culture can be revitalized.
But soon too soon it must also be realized that postmodernity also has its negative side. I will show two things. First, the negative side is the issue of identity politics, which is an effort to prioritize the interests of a collection because it has a shared identity based on a sense of ethnicity, gender or religion. This identity politics is always a response to the implementation of basic human rights that are often applied unfairly. 19 Society can easily be led to enter into regional, ethnic and religious ties. This primordialism tend to ignore the values of equality and the principle of rationality which are hailed by postmodernism.
Identity politics labeled as religion will emerge if religion is understood as merely having religion. Religious as a complement to be listed on the KTP. Religion like this is very vulnerable to manipulation by politicians or used for political purposes. In a country where the government tends to take an attitude of omission in various cases of injustice, this identity politics will instead develop into religious radicalism, a movement aimed at seizing power or directing far-reaching political decision making by exploiting religious sentiments.
The decision making process does not take place in the parliament building but on the highway. From the entire history of mankind, it is noted that religious radicalism is mostly practiced by groups in one religion who are the majority citizens in society. There are two motives to be achieved namely pragmatic interests such as those or perpetuation of power. The second negative side, instead of strengthening the formation of citizens' identities; the presence of local religions has the potential to foster identity blur or create a dual identity among citizens. This applies especially to local religions whose cultural boundaries coincide clearly show that the twists also actually use our verses to be sacred to a particular religion, even they become members of the religion in question.

Countries Facing Religious Radicalism
What needs to be done by the state to overcome these two threats is first, sincerity and determination to oppose the utterance and intolerant actions of religious adherents.
That courage needs to be demonstrated in two forms. The government as a state apparatus needs to equalize the vision of equality and express it consistently in the constitution and its translation in the legal products under it. This is to minimize blemishes that can be exploited by intolerant groups in the majority religion to carry out religious hatreds.
Leaving that reproach open is the same as giving the majority the right to feel offended by the practice or speech of a minority group.
Second, the courage of the government to make the rules as a reference in making decisions and does not provide an opportunity for pressure or pressure from certain groups to shift from the provisions or rules that apply. This means that there needs to be a firm attitude from the government to fight the power of intolerance. intolerant felt the wind because during the previous 10 years of government there had never been any firmness on the part of the nation's leadership to fight the power of intolerance.

Conclusion: Civil Society Responses To Radicalism
The History shows that only politics is the decisive fortress in breaking religious radicalism and ideological violence. The politics referred to here is the space between people, or rather the willingness and ability of citizens to move together. 23 The most important pillar for the creation of a political climate like this is multiculturalism education. 24 It has become common knowledge in the international academic community about the existence of a document titled A Common World Between Us and You which contains invitations from 138 Muslim leaders worldwide to global Christian leaders to see the point of convergence between the many divergences between the two major religions. I personally think that the common word shared by these two abrahamic religions, namely love for God and for others, is not exclusive in both of these religions. All religions, including local religions also live from the common word. The terminology and concrete manifestation of the common words may vary in each religion.
Above several times I have touched on the issue of the right of each religion to obtain protection and freedom from the government to live in Indonesia as ordered by Pancasila carried out together with the commitment to carry out the basic obligations of every citizen; must treat people of different religions from us as equals before God and before the law.
Every Indonesian citizen who is also a citizen of one religion is also obliged to turn on the uniqueness of the common words embodied in his religion while continuing to build dialogue with his fellow believers from other religions who also live the common word which is at the core of his religious teachings.