February 1, 2009

Friends,

As long as I’ve lived in Indonesia, I’ve been able to predict the questions every Indonesian will ask me: my age, my marital status, and my home country. The pattern never varies, but in the past couple of months, without exception, there’s been an addendum. As soon as I say I’m from the United States, the questioner will grin, perhaps give a thumbs up sign, and say, if not sing out, “Obama!” Their enthusiasm is amazing. This inauguration has given them a new appreciation of America, especially since Obama spent four years in elementary school here, just around the corner from the seminary where I teach.

But as we know, in spite of the celebration of the peaceful exchange of power that took place on January 20 in Washington, graver events stole a good bit of the day’s thunder. The economic crisis continues to plague not just the United States but the world. The breaking of the peace treaty in Palestine, occurring just prior to the inauguration, reminded us that the challenges this new President faces are staggering. Indonesians likewise are not unaware of the gravity of the moment. The outpouring of concern for the people of Palestine and calls for a return to peace have come from every corner and have occasionally occurred in unexpected places.

A couple of months ago, I described my daily bus ride to work. Yesterday morning during that regular routine, a street musician named Cemong climbed aboard the bus and led us in a spontaneous worship service for peace in Palestine. He read from some poetry while a friend played the flute, then another man stood up and sang an Indonesian song about peace. Next Cemong asked that we each pray for peace silently according to our own religious persuasion. The entire bus sat in silence, heads bowed, as we trundled down the busy city street. He announced a day of music dedicated to peace in Palestine to be held at the Jakarta Arts Center and invited us to join.

One of the disaster groups I work with here in Indonesia—YAKKUM Emergency Unit, the disaster branch of the Christian Foundation for Public Health—has just arranged to send two nurses, Heri Widiarso and Bambang Kamiwarno, to Gaza. These two nurses also served YEU in the tsunami and in the Java earthquake of 2006. They will now participate as part of a medical response team that includes three doctors and two nurses from Muhammadiyah, a social Islamic organization, the second largest of its kind in Indonesia, with an estimated 29 million members. This interfaith medical team, with its goal of assisting the survivors of the recent violence in Gaza, provide a remarkable symbol of the possibility to overcome religious differences in the interest of the peace and welfare of a troubled people.

Fariz N. Mehdawi, Palestinian Ambassador to Indonesia, with Becca at Jakarta Theological Seminary, January 22, 2009.

Last Thursday, the students of my seminary on their own initiative organized an afternoon seminar to explore the roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The panel was composed of the Palestinian Ambassador to Indonesia (who is a Muslim, although I’m told there have been Christian ones in the past), along with three religious experts on peace, one Protestant, one Catholic, and one Muslim.

I was asked to give the welcoming speech for the 300 people who crowded into our assembly hall. I spoke of how this crucial issue touches on so many of the values we hold dear: the desire for peace, the right to one’s land, the ability to worship in the sacred places of one’s faith, and the protection of innocent women and children. It is as though in this one conflict are concentrated and magnified all the common struggles of humankind. Precisely because those very values have been heightened in this ongoing conflict, no easy solution has yet been found. We gathered that day to better understand this human tragedy.

The Palestinian Ambassador, Mr. Fariz N. Mehdawi, spoke first. Learning that the majority of students could not understand English, he jokingly asked if he could speak in Arabic. Quite a number of our students raised their hands in approval, more than would have been able to understand him in English. He also offered to speak in Hebrew, which got a roar out of this seminary crowd, who study biblical (i.e., extinct) Hebrew as part of their required course load.

The core of the Ambassador’s speech was a fact that was oft-repeated during the course of the afternoon: this conflict is not a religious but a political one. He noted that the worst situations in human history have arisen when a political leader or group used religion to justify their political position and actions. “Politics are at their worst when politicians use religion and religious people get used by politicians.” Although he pointed no fingers, it’s difficult not to be reminded by his statements that when we look back in time, neither Jews, Muslims, nor Christians can claim innocence on that score.

In the course of his presentation, he made a number of enlightening and encouraging statements. He regretted that a Jewish person was not there to represent their side of the story (Indonesia has very few Jews: the World Jewish Congress estimates there are 20 in the entire country of 240 million). He pointed out that the only religion that originated in Palestine is Christianity. Both Judaism and Islam are imports, implying that neither can or should claim precedence.

The Ambassador insisted that people from either extreme—those who want a pure Jewish state or a pure Islamic one—are misguided and will never achieve their goals. There must be compromise, he declared. These last 60 years of violence in Palestine are an aberration; for centuries prior to that time, Jews, Muslims, and Christians had lived together peacefully in the land. He ended his talk by saying, “Palestine is traditionally a land of tolerance, peace and diversity. Until we return to that, God will not be happy because God is the God of love.”

Yours,

The 2009 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 113