No one has returned from heaven to tell the truth

Kornelius Purba, The Jakarta Post

A university student recently felt it was urgent to wake up his father late at night in Jakarta to discuss something very fundamental in his life.

In his father's eyes, the only fundamental thing that his son is concerned with is whether his monthly allowance is on time. So it was a surprise wake-up call.

This time he wanted to get an assurance from his father, who without the son's consent because he was only an infant, baptized him as a Catholic, that Jesus is his real Savior.

"Are you sure that Jesus Christ is really like the way He is described in the Gospels?" he asked in a very anxious tone.

While partly awake, his father replied, "I think so." More questions were raised to his father, including,"Did Jesus marry Mary Magdalene?"

Seeing the shock in dad's face, the son explained that he had just finished reading the Indonesian translation of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code given to him by a non-Christian friend. The description of Jesus in the book was totally different from the one he knows and learned about in his childhood.

Citing the lyrics of a popular Indonesian rap song, his father then joked, "So what gitu lho?" The young man continued demanding an answer from the man who was responsible for making him a Catholic: "Do we embrace the right religion?"

"No one has returned from heaven to testify about the truth of our religion," the father then cited what his own father told him each time he asked him about the existence of heaven.

Like the common scenes in many Indonesian TV soap operas about the journey of devout young men, the son then said, "No matter what Dan Brown says about Jesus, it will not change my belief."

Brown's book sparked anger and condemnation from many Christians, including from the Vatican. But he is luckier than Salman Rushdie, whose very life was threatened, forcing him to go into hiding for many years, after he published his book Satanic Verses. Should we kill Brown just because of his book? There are many books similar to Brown's, so should those authors be slaughtered too?

The above conversation can perhaps be linked to last week's violence against 500 members the Jamaah Ahmadiyah Congregation (JAI) perpetrated by thousands of fundamentalist Muslims in Parung, Bogor, because the JAI members believe there is another prophet -- the founder of JAI -- who lived after Prophet Muhammad. I do not intend to discuss that dispute here, however, we need to ask: Can we tolerate the use of violence to deal with people who have different faiths or interpretations?

For non-Muslims in this country, the violence is perhaps more frightening. If Ahmadiyah followers -- who describe themselves as Muslims -- received such treatment, how about believers of other religions?

To be honest, since childhood most Indonesians are taught either at school or at home, that their religion is superior -- if not the only true religion -- to all others. Many Christians believe Islam is not a real religion, but because Christians are in the minority in this country they may not have the courage to express that publicly.

Perhaps people from other religions like Hinduism and Buddhism also have the same sense of superiority. Whether we realize it or not, hatred against other religions is often sowed from very early ages. We just pretend to respect others, but actually we think all of them will to go hell for not embracing our religion.

Tolerance and appreciation of those with different opinions is sometimes a luxury. There is a tendency to treat them as our enemy, although we often pride ourselves on the slogan that Indonesia is a tolerant nation.

Anyway, perhaps it is tempting to ask: Why don't we -- people from all religions -- just concentrate on hunting down corrupt people who have impoverished our country? Corruption is not tolerated by any religion. Let us make these corrupt thieves the public enemy rather than hunting for those whose opinions differ from ours?

We are often outraged if someone, just because of a slip of the tongue or poor knowledge, says something unacceptable to us -- something perceived as a humiliation of our religion -- but how about those who systematically abuse their power to enrich themselves and to continue satisfying their greed for power?

Many Acehnese people are disappointed because sharia law -- the caning -- is only implemented against relatively minor crimes like gambling, theft and adultery.

They ask: Why not cut the hands off of those who have stolen the international donations meant for the tsunami victims?

But as one official of the Aceh administration said, "If we cut off the hands of corrupt officials, how many officials will still have hands in this province?"