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From Salvation to Life: The Re-encounter of
Muslim and Christian in Indonesia as a Possibility
for a Nonviolent Missiological Practice
Septemmy Lakawa

'I wish the wind would accompany me with its lyrics.

Truly, my heart is trembled, my passion is broken, my womb is strug-
gled when I listened to the beat of war ... the drum of war is beaten ...
I wish the wind would embrace me with its rhythm
Rhythm ofpeace, rhythm ofjustice ...
!wish ... !wish ... ' 1

1. I REMEMBER: BETWEEN SELECTIVE AND SUBVERSIVE TO RE-

DEEMING MEMORIES 2

I remember the morning of May 17, 2003 as an unusual morning. On

that morning I began our morning prayer with my sisters (in my

I. The text is based on the phrase that I received in Jakarta through a short message
(sms) from my dear friend, an Acehnese, moslem woman on the evening of May
17, 2003. After another long message, I recomposed the words that we shared as a
way of strengthening her in her struggle along with the people in Aceh in the midst
of violence against the people of Aceh. The violence was especially noticeable
since the government of Indonesia set up military action in the Aceh area in May
after peace negotiations with the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (the Acehnese Independ-
ence Movement that demanded Aceh's independence from Indonesia) in Aceh
failed. The original message she sent me was as followed (in Indonesian): 'Aku
berharap angin kan menemaniku dengan syaimya. Sungguh malam ini hatiku ga-
lau,hasratku patah, gairahku kalah setelah mendengar tabuhan perang. Aku ber-
harap angin kan menemaniku dengan syaimya.' Aceh is a region in western Indo-
nesia where the population is predominantly Moslem. Regarding the composition
of religion Islamic claims, Aceh is the first place in terms of the number of Mos-
lems. In fact, it is still considerably true that the biggest Moslem population in the
world is in Indonesia. Indonesia has been well known as a multi-faith and multi-
cultural society. Unfortunately until now, the state only recognized six religions
formally or legally: Islam, Christian (meaning: Protestant), Roman Catholic, Hin-
duism, Buddhism and Confucianism. While other faiths, including local beliefs, are
considered as non-religions and, therefore, have no legal rights before the law. In-
donesia is also known as a land of thousands of islands with more than 200 lan-
guages and dialects.
2. A much shorter version of this presentation was presented before the Joint Interna-
tional Seminar on 'Women in Mission,' Bossey, Switzerland, June 2003.

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 FROM SALVATION TO LIFE 13

house) by reading the above message from a dear Moslem-Acehnese

friend (due to her difficult and dangerous situation I prefer not to
mention her name in this presentation.) She had sent the poem from
Aceh, the far western part of Indonesia. Upon reading the message, we
lit the candle and had a moment of silence and asked for God's love
and compassion to be with her and with the people in Aceh. The
prayer was also directed for the uprooted Acehnese people due to the
breaking news that was made by the government of Indonesia when
they set up Aceh (again) as the Military Operational Region. This was
due to what they called the operation to demolish the Gerakan Aceh
Merdeka, which has demanded the independence of Aceh from Indo-
nesia.
Aceh is one of the regions in Indonesia that is blessed with rich
natural resources including gas and oil. For years the story of
Acehnese people has been dominated by the story of suffering, terror
and uncertainty. The experience of Acehnese people is similar to the
experience of the Papuan people in the far eastern region of Indonesia.
The stories of the people in these areas represent a picture of the own-
ership approach used by the government of Indonesia in taking all the
resources from the areas without sharing them for the development of
the related regions.
The recent story of the Acehnese people reminds me of the story
of my nation. The year 1998, for many reasons, has been identified as
the turning point for the life of Indonesia as a nation. Looking back to
that year, there was a significant change not only to the life of the
nation as a whole, but also to the life of Indonesian women. It is the
year that marks the history of Indonesia into the so-called new era of
'reformation.' However, the era of reformation has to face the discov-
ery and emergence of hundreds of problems.
Prior to the fall of Soeharto3 on May 21, 1998, there were at least
two well-planned acts of violence against human rights in the Jakarta
area, not to mention many similar cases in other areas of the country. 4
The two were:

3. He is the second president of Indonesia who came to power in the late 1960s and
ruled the country for 30 years until his (so called) 'resignation' in 1998.
4. This identification is based on the data of the results of the 4 years of research of
social conflict and violence in Indonesia (after the violent acts in May 1998 in Ja-
karta) by the research team of Trisakti University coordinated by Dadan U.D. It
was presented at the One Day Consultation on 'Building a Community to Over-
come Violence' coordinated jointly by the Center of Research and Service to Soci-

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14 S.E. LAKAWA

1. The shooting deaths of 4 or 5 students of Trisakti University dur-

ing the action that demanded the resignation of Soeharto on May,
12.
2. The massive rape and sexual violence against women of Indone-
sian-Chinese descent that occurred on May 13-15 and was the
same days that hundreds of children and poor, urban people were
killed.
The reformation era then came with a sudden and unexpected change
in the lives of many Indonesian people. The years that followed were
filled with the unsolved question: Is this what reformation is all about?
Reformation, then, is easily connected with the pejorative meanings
such as: riots, conflict and violence. May 1998 can and, in fact, should
be reconsidered as the zero point in the life of Indonesia as a nation
while closing the 20 th century. It is a zero point because:
- It shows us how the intertwining of political and economic powers
can manipulate the bodies of women as the target to start the chaos
in the society. Here it shows us the stated definition of woman's
body as an object of power once again.
- It also shows us about the character of Indonesian people: the
ethnic and faith diversities that can be destructively used as the
tools to create a lawless situation and terror in the society.
- It blatantly points to the powerful use of military forces in main-
taining the status quo of the violent structure and leadership of In-
donesia
Yet, as a zero point, it is also a turning point in the life oflndonesian
people because, most and foremost, we are able to see with critical
eyes the underlying and the marginal stories that were suppressed into
the underworld of the history of Indonesia for too long. Among those
stories are the state violence against women in Aceh, Papua, and for-
mer East Timor; the killing and kidnapping of social and political
activists; the poor (in urban and rural settings); the stories of women,
migrant workers; the process of building suspicion among religious
communities; and the educational system that propagated the sense of
fear and anxiety and, therefore, eliminated the ability of the people to
be critical and to creatively imagine Indonesia outside the framework

ety of Jakarta Theological Seminary and 12 Local Churches in Jakarta on March, 4,

2002.

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 FROM SALVATION TO LIFE 15

of the regime. However, it is not totally wrong ifit is said that the year
1998 marks the kairos moment in the life of this nation. It is the kairos
moment because the people- the powerless - began to reclaim their
place as subjects in the history of the nation. There the single narrative
of Indonesia was broken into pieces and into the thousands of stories
and definitions of the 'new' Indonesia. The subject of the history has
changed (that is-the people oflndonesia), therefore, this new subject is
trying to change the subject of the narrative/story into the story of
democracy.
Many have realized that to change the subject of the story into
democracy is not just a 'blink of an eye' process. According to a deep
and comprehensive research of Indonesia5, there have been new fac-
tors in the social, economic and political lives of Indonesia since 1998
that have opened another layer oflndonesian's face. Those factors are:
1. The lost of the authentic and relevant leadership that caused dis-
trust of the institutions, especially the state and the central gov-
ernment;
2. The emergence of interdependency (as a character of globaliza-
tion) versus independency in the context of the autonomous region
that is a way of struggling to define one's own identity;
3. The unmanaged, pluralistic character oflndonesian society;
4. The low quality of human resources in many areas due to the lim-
ited educational access for many people as well as the policy of
school curricula that, in the past, had to be designed by the gov-
ernment without adapting to the characteristics of the cultural and
religious diversity in many parts of Indonesia. This fact highlights
the failure of the progressive paradigm and result-oriented educa-
tional system in the past. (Moreover, the recent political approach
to the educational system has not yet been able to work outside
such closed paradigm [in terms of faith, economic and social)).
These factors are clearly the intertwining factors with other un-
derlying causes of conflict and violence such as the power struggle
over the ownership of natural resources, the political struggle of
the elites (both the military and the non military groups) to hold on
to the power. It is also the struggle of other parts of the society
(students, women's activists, human rights activists, the laborers

5. See note 4.

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and the migrant workers) who have been trying to dismantle the
unjust policy and praxis of the state and the government.
By pulling together these factors, it is understandable if one then asks
'how did the society which had been known as tolerant suddenly
change to be a racist and brutal society?' 'How can we explain such
social discontinuity?' 6
My struggle, even now, is whether or not a social discontinuity is
happening in Indonesia. Still the main question is how Indonesian
people, after reclaiming the place of themselves as subjects of history
and changing the subject of the political discourse into democratic and
now being in the transition of it, can build a new self-understanding
without holding onto the policy and practices of violence against each
other. Here, to my understanding, religions can still play a construc-
tive and transformative role. Religion can play a significant role in
managing the pluralistic character of Indonesia as well as transform-
ing the tendency and practices of ritualism in religious institutions.
Moreover, the positive characters of this nation, such as family based
values as togetherness, friendliness and some more, need to be elabo-
rated. 7 In the midst of such radical change in the life of the Indonesian
nation, I have seen the need to shift the subject of mission that must be
started from looking at as well as reclaiming Indonesia as an authentic
context and text for the engagement in God's mission. This step must
be taken by Indonesian churches in order for us as a church and a
nation to not live under the repeated history which is violent in its
very nature. Therefore, remembering such history needs to be seen as
a first constructive theological as well as political step in bringing
healing and reconciliation in the life of the Indonesian people as, to
use Rita Nakashima Brock's illustration, a 'broken-hearted' nation.
To remember these stories then it must be through the encounter
with the victims of violence, whereas in this presentation it is pre-
sumably women. Through such encounters the stories of female vic-
tims should be seen as the authentic source for finding the legitimate
language of victimization. It is the language that will challenge our
history as a nation. It is the language that cannot be denied because
powerful in its very nature, and will tum the face of history to look
into the eyes and listen to the voice of the victims. And, when the

6. See note 4.
7. The analysis that is presented on pages 2-3 is taken directly from my paper that was
presented at 'The Executive Meeting of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches'
in Tondano, North Sulawesi Indonesia, July 2002.

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history turns to the victims, it is Kairos! The moment from God! To

remember, therefore, we must start from the victim which may bring
her to two directions: 8

1. She will lose her connection with her own community from which
she has drawn the meaning of being somebody. It is the beginning of
the dismembering process that is started when the victim is uprooted
from her root community. Such process can be identified when the
effort to forget or to develop false memory is taking place in the life of
a victim. Such reality does represent a picture of a community of for-
getting. Therefore, in such community, a victim of violence will still
remain as an alien who becomes homeless, has no root, and becomes
nobody.
This direction shows the character of our history in Indonesia
under the years of Soeharto's power. Narratives of Indonesia were
selected by the powerful for the people to remember. They passed on
the single narrative of Indonesia as a big, tolerant, just and peaceful
nation. They selected the supported stories for such a narrative. They
created one single enemy of the nation and that was a communist
party of Indonesia. Media was used as a legitimate and powerful tool
for such selection. Through the state owned Television station, we saw
the dichotomy of hero and enemy, of good and bad, of right and
wrong. Through such selected stories, we were taught about an ethic
of enemy that is hatred over against our fellow sister and brother who
were stigmatized as 'communists.'
The first time that I remember seeing such indoctrination through
media was when I was in junior high school. Because of this, I grew
up as a teen with a feeling of ambiguity between hatred and anxiety.
The process at school was almost all the same. There was no other
alternative where I, as my many other friends, could relate to this
specific part of our history without using hatred as an entry point.
Anxiety came as a counter part of hatred. When I refused to use hatred
as a lens to read such history, then anxiety emerged as a result. 'What
would happen to my family if I befriend a so-called communist
child?' 'What would happen to my parents who (at that time) worked
in the Department of Education and Culture if a member of my rela-
tives was accused as connected to a communist organization?'

8. S.E. Lakawa, Menuju Masyaralwt Transformatif: Sebuah Visi Misiologis Feminis

tentang Indonesia, Pidato Orasi Dies Nata/is STT Jalwrta, Jakarta, 2001 (unpub-
lished), 19-20.

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The process of such selection has politically used the lens of the
(previous) government as the ultimate lens to see, to read and, finally,
to define the women in the history of the nation according to the needs
of the powerful to hold on to their power that continued to marginalize
women as well. Such marginalization takes form in the state definition
of the ideal women that, of course, excluded many dissident women. 9
I grew up with such selected memory in my life that did not allow
any sense of solidarity toward my own stigmatized people. The sense
of solidarity occurred after this memory was broken into pieces
through different encounters with the real victims of the years of stig-
matization under Soeharto's regime.
An older woman, a victim of the stigmatization of communism,
shared her story one night in June of 1998. We spent hours and hours
together as I listened to the painful, yet powerful, story of struggle and
survival. From her I learned about how to develop a kind of subver-
sive memory under the powerful memory that had been selected for
her. She said 'no' to every accusation made by the powerful people.
Her way of developing such subversive memory was started in the
middle of the 1990s by collecting her stories of being violated against
by the powerful people in order to tell her children, grandchildren, and
younger generation about 'another stories' of our history as a nation.
This is her way of bringing out small narratives together with other
narratives of women victims in order for them to be able to live and to
reclaim their place in the life and the future of this nation.

2. She can enter the re-membering process that is the process when a
victim is reaccepted into the community where she can find again her
own root. Such a process is a long journey, but in that process the
questions of 'Who am I?' "Why it happened to me?' and so on and so
forth are seen and responded to differently by the victim as well as the
community. Therefore the community is enabled to become a com-
munity of remembrance because it has become a witnessing commu-
nity that is a witness to the violence against its member. It is therefore
the re-membering process '... involves developing a different narra-
tive of life; it entails a type of reconstruction of self in relation with
family and society.' 10

9. Such stories are constructively and provocatively written by S.E. Wieringa,

Penghancuran Gerakan Perempuan di Indonesia, (translation), Jakarta 1999.
10. F. Keshgegian, Redeeming Memories. A Theology of Healing and Transformation,
Nashville, 2000, 54-55.

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This direction may shift the paradigm of women as mere victims to

survivors that may even become the agents of change. This shifting
requires the acts of remembering and witnessing that moves beyond
denial about the misuse of power to recognizing the realities of vio-
lence among us as a nation and the need for a social transformation. 11
The two directions conclusively show that 'memory exists as both
problem and resource for identity, witness and transformation.' 12 It is
a danger as well as an opportunity for the change to take place in the
life of the Indonesian people. Yet, it is in such a dialectical relation
that the redeeming memories of the people of Indonesia will and
should take form. 'The process of redeeming memories is an ongoing
dialectical process and struggle between past and present, self and
society.' 13 Moreover, it is a process that points toward the struggle of
the Indonesian people to define the life and the future of our nation.
This struggle should create a kairotic space, a space of life and dignity
for all.
It is the hope that the above introduction directs the aim of this
presentation. I am not going to review a chronology of the history of
the encounter of Islam and Christianity in Indonesia. Rather, it will
give you a space to relate to my story of hope and anxiety about the
future of Indonesia based on the specific moment in the history of this
nation starting in 1998.

2. CHANGING THE SUBJECT: INDONESIA AS A CONTEXT OF AND TEXT

FOR THE ENGAGEMENT IN Goo's MISSION

2.1 The Deconstruction-Reconstruction of the Localities of Christian-

ity through the Re-encounter with Islam

We have never accurately known the numbers of Christians in Indone-

sia (or other religious groups.) Even though, I think it remains accu-
rate to say that Christians (both Protestant and Roman Catholic) claim
to be the second and the third after Moslems in terms of number of
people. This is my way to say that I am not going to use the aspect of
quantity as my central entry point in looking at the encounter of Islam
and Christianity in Indonesia. Rather, to read such encounters through

11. Cf. F. Keshgegian, Redeeming Memories, 55.

12. F. Keshgegian, Redeeming Memories, 55.
13. F. Keshgegian, Redeeming Memories, 55.

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local lenses is mainly the process in which both religions claim their
own places in Indonesia. This way of reading can also be seen as a
response to an identification of the flow of Christianity in more global
levels when it is said that, '[w]hile Christianity has remained the larg-
est religion in the world, with one-third of the world's population, its
continued decline among ethnic Europeans, and growth among others,
means that the face of faith in the twenty first century belongs to the
Southern Hemisphere.' 14 Localities, therefore, will and have painted
the face of Christianity in many places in the South including Indone-
sia. But how contextual Christianity responds to such colorful painting
is another story that I am going to share with you.
Since the 1970s, the terms 'contextualization,' and 'inculturation'
have been dominating our theological discourses in Asia, especially
for Protestants. I prefer to use the term 'contextualization' (as in Ro-
man Catholic theological discourse the term 'inculturation' is prefera-
bly used), and in this presentation the term is going to be read and
understood through a feminist perspective.
'Contextualizing theology in feminist terms means that
women's shared experience in their historical, socioeconomic,
geopolitical, cultural, ethnic, and religious contexts is the
starting point of the theologizing process. It also serves to cri-
tique a narrow and distorted framing of feminist theological
agenda. In sum, feminist theological method is contextual. Its
theological significance is based on how well it unmasks the
historical dynamics of oppression (global and local, internal
and external) and offers a vision of abundant life for all, espe-
cially for the most oppressed women in that context.' 15
As in many places in Asia, Christianity was brought to Indonesia
together with colonialism. It is true that Islam and Christianity have
been the major counter partners in the modem history of Indonesia.
From the perspective of the history of church in Indonesia, it is almost
impossible, even unrealistic, if we talk about it without considering
Islam as the main factor for the church in giving response to the con-
textual reality as well as to develop her contextual ecclesiological
identity. However, in the year 1998 and early 1999 (the beginning of

14. D.L. Robert, 'The Mission Education Movement and the Rise of World Christian-
ity, 1902-2002' in: Focus (Spring 2003), 21.
15. M.J. Legge, 'Contextualization' in: L.M. Russell and J.S. Clarkson (eds.), Diction-
ary of Feminist Theologies, Louisville 1996, 56.

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the communal conflict in Ambon and its surroundings) there has been
an immediate need for both religions to re-encounter each other.
The shift of the social context of Indonesia within the last four
years needs the re-interpretation from both religions in understanding
themselves and those who are identified as the others. In this re-
encounter there are at least three major issues that are not only based
on the religious teachings of Islam but also are closely related to the
role that Christianity and other religions can develop some construc-
tive roles:

2. 1. J Islamic Law (Shariah Islam)

In relation to the issue of Islamic Law (where in place like Aceh it is
not an issue anymore but it is already become a fact), Islam needs to
redefine itself both in the discursive and more practical realities. Ac-
cording to an Indonesian Muslim scholar, Budhi Munawar Rachman,
as a majority group this redefinition needs to occur because for a long
time Islam has suffered and was trapped into the minority complex. 16
It was so obvious that under Soeharto's regime this majority group
was successfully suppressed so that they could not exercise their role
as the majority to protect the rights of the minority. Rather, Islam was
put in the position against other minority groups. Therefore, in the re-
definition of itself, Islam cannot easily emerge from its minority com-
plex. Rather than seeing itself as a constructive source in the process
of the redefinition of Indonesia, Islam is sees itself as a rival for other
religions. Such a situation can be identified in the growing numbers of
publications, campaigns, and actions that express such a superior
attitude that is based on the inability to come out of the exclusive and
limited interpretation of Islam in the changing situation of Indonesia.
The challenge for Christianity and other religions in this specific
situation is to give an open space for Islam that is not based on the
phobia of Islam but is based on the willingness to be together, to en-
counter each other in more humanistic faces so that Islam can emerge
in the more pluralistic and humanistic face. This is, of course, not to
say that our need as a nation and our struggle to redefine our identity
as well as to build our new self-understanding depends only on Islam.
It is, however, dependent on the people of Indonesia who will create
the pluralistic face of Indonesia that will not only be based on the

16. In his presentation at the One Day Workshop on 'Building a Community to Over-
come Violence' held by the Center for Research and Service to Society of Jakarta
Theological Seminary, March 2002.

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interpretation of any majority group. This is my way of saying that

unless Islam realizes the challenge before it (and also for other relig-
ions to see their immediate roles in contributing their voices in the
process of the redefinition of this nation), Indonesia will remain a
place of ongoing social conflict and violence and the society will
remain an ignorant and broken-hearted society.
With this understanding in mind, I must say that Islam itself is
pluralistic. However, the pluralistic identity of Islam has to compete
with the rise of exclusivist identity in Islam (as this is not a new thing
in Christianity as well). One case where we can see this struggle
within Islam is through different interpretations of the meaning and
practice of Islamic Law. Both those who claim to be pluralistic Mos-
lems (mostly the academicians, NGOs activists, student activists) and
those who claim themselves as the guardian of Islam (in the funda-
mentalist sense of the word) have a dilemma.
According to Munawar Rachman (an Indonesian pluralist Moslem
scholar), it can be said that the Shariah Law is not contextual and out
of date - even discriminative - when considering it from the point of
view of the humanistic universal. The Shariah Law itself is discrimi-
natory against women, non-Moslems, and non-Islamic nations. The
choice then is that if Islam in Indonesia accepts the Shariah, it means
that Islam is a discriminative religion. But if Islam in Indonesia does
not accept and therefore does not practice the Shariah Law, there will
be a possibility for Islam to be a secular religion (which means not
Islamic) and for the Moslem will not bring Islamic values into the
public sphere. If we see the problem of Shariah Law in Indonesia this
way, we may recognize the dilemmatic situation within the pluralistic
Moslem communities. To be honest, Islam in Indonesia is in dilemma.
And, how this dilemma needs to be solved theologically, politically
and socially does not depend on Moslems themselves but on other
religions including Christianity as well. This is where the need to
develop a theology of the other has to come from Christian perspec-
tive also. However, the basic question for Christianity is how can a
minority group (that also needs to be heard and treated justly) offer a
help to the majority?'

2. 1.2 Civil Society

Unlike the issue of Shariah Law, the issue of civil society has not yet
been rooted in the daily life of the people in Indonesia. In fact, I can
say, as some other Moslem and Christian scholars have said that the

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civil society issue has not yet succeeded in developing a discursive

context and social movement. The lack of deep and reflective discus-
sion among the people themselves means that the civil society issue
has to face the backlash in the encounter with the issue of Shariah
Law - as if the two stand either for or against Islamic values. Here the
lack of Christian perspective in giving a constructive response to such
a concept means that this issue is still being alienated in the lives of
many churches in Indonesia. I, therefore, see the opportunity for the
churches to get together with other religions to bring this issue back to
the discussion table and into the social movement in order to build a
human rights culture, a culture of peace and justice which is the ulti-
mate call for every faith community in the modem Indonesia. 17

2.1.3 The Localities of Islam

Ahmad Baso, an Indonesian young Moslem activist, is one of the
younger Moslem scholars whose is concerned about the issue of the
indigenization of Islam. For him, the localities of Islam is an ultimate
task of Islam in mapping the cultural efforts in the context of the
struggle between meaning and power in the local, national, regional
and even global levels. The indigenization of Islam is a process in
which the dialogue and negotiation is taking place between modernity,
the state and the capital. 18
The localities of Islam is identified as the indigenization which
means a reversal of the productive and creative processes by involving
the subjects who actively do the dialogue, negotiation and resistance.
Indigenization is a contestant place where the struggle of meaning-
making as well as the critique of the dominant is taking place. Indi-
genization is often performed as storytelling, and as a space for the
people to create and to sense their cultures. 19
The term 'indigenization of Islam' (pribumisasi Islam) was first
introduced by Abdurrahman Wahid in the 1980s. He was concerned
with the tendency in some Moslem communities to propagate the
purity of Islam, to seek the authentic and original Islam and to want to
Islamize the state. On the reverse, Wahid sees the indigenization of
Islam as a way of not creating Islam as an alternative for the state and

17. Again, the identifications are mostly based on my presentation at WARC Executive
Committee meeting, July 2002.
18. A. Baso, Plesetan Lokalitas. Politik Pribumisasi Islam, Depok 2002.
19. A. Baso, Plesetan Lokalitas, 7.

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nation affairs. 20 The indigenization of Islam is a process in which

Islam is seen as a bridge in connecting local cultures. This perspective
is developed in order to reduce the tension between 'the religious
norms' and 'cultural manifestations.' Therefore, the indigenization is
not a process of seeking the Islamic aspects of the local cultures, 21
rather, it is a process that seeks to strengthen the cultural roots and still
try to create a religious society. The strength of Wahid's idea about
the indigenization of Islam agreed with the cultural basis of Nahdlatul
Ulama, the organization of the traditional Moslem leaders, which is
accommodative and flexible to the local cultures.
By considering Wahid's approach to the indigenization of Islam as
appropriate, Ahmad Baso sees the possibility of such indigenization to
become a series of intervention and subversion in different discipli-
nary fields. Such intervention and subversion sees the agenda of cul-
ture as a resistance. 22 The resistance is a sign that the localities can
speak. They speak through the different readings of the authoritative
texts such as the Koran; they voice different voices in articulating the
teaching oflslam, and so on and so forth. The resistance does not have
to be an oppositional effort. It is just an ambivalent effect of the offi-
cial rule and institution. 23 The resistance therefore is an intertwined
factor within the localities that shows that when the localities speak
they do not always talk about marginalization, which is often identi-
fied with powerless or victims. When the localities speak, they will
reveal another story of marginalization that is about differences, ne-
gotiation, and resistance.

2.2 When Localities Speak: The Encounter through Hagar

As a proposal, this presentation is trying to offer the model of women

to women encounters as an alternative for the contextual re-encounter
between Islam and Christianity in Indonesia. By encounter I refer to
an intensive and continuous process that is done by women in finding
and developing nonviolent ways in facing conflict and violence. One
of them is my personal encounter with a Moslem woman named Farha
Ciciek.

20. A. Baso, Plesetan Lokalitas, 8.

21. A. Baso, Plesetan Lokalitas, 9.
22. A. Baso, Plesetan Lokalitas, 14.
23. A. Baso, 'Can Localities Speak? - The Indigenization of Islam as an Effort to
Criticize the "Imperium" of the Officially Religious Interpretation' in: M.L. Sinaga,
Mendengar Suara-suara yang Lain, Jurnal Teo/ogi Proklamasi 211 (2002), 64.

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I first met her in September 1998 when The Association of Theo-

logically Trained Woman in Indonesia (an organization where I
worked as the General Secretary) invited her to be a resource person
in a theological and social event we held in solidarity with the women
victims of May 1998. Since then we have been working through dif-
ferent ways that has enabled us to cross our own religious walls.
Last year we wrote an article on the !du/ Adha (the day when the
Moslems remember the offering of Ishmael) in the top leading news-
paper in Indonesia. The article was about the story of Siti Hajar (Ha-
gar). We were discussing the meaning of sacrificial offering (kur-
banlpersembahan) in a parallel with the word 'korban' (victim). We
used the eyes of Siti Hajar/Hagar to see the meaning of the !du/ Adha
for women, especially women victims. We used the experience of
women victims as a door through which we could see the different
religious practices that do violence against women as well as liberate
women as a crucial part in creating a just and peaceful community.
These ways of reading the religious texts inter-textually do need
careful interpretation. Both of us had written about Siti Hajar/Hagar
before we decided to create our story about her together.
In 1997 I created an imaginative story of Hagar and Nasiroh, who
was an Indonesian migrant worker in Saudi Arabia. Nasiroh was ac-
cused of killing her master, a Saudi Arabian, and was in detention
before having to go through the punishment. There are 3 connected
aspects that link Nasiroh and Hagar in their own narratives:
- They both are women
- They were both aliens/foreigners in the strange land
- They were both slaves/workers.
The textual reality of Hagar and the contextual reality of Nasiroh
show the intertwining factors that occur in many cases of violence
against women namely: gender, class, nationality/ethnicity. These
factors are the possible entry point in developing the inter-religious
text reading that will open a real encounter.
I remember during that year that Solidaritas Perempuan, a woman
NGO who is concerned with migrant workers issues, was so strong in
defending her rights to voice her story upon the crime that she never
committed. After reading her stories for a long time through the me-
dia, I finally met her in 2000 when she and some other women mi-
grant workers gave witness to the violence that was committed against

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them while they were working abroad. Nasiroh had had her liberation!
But what about Hagar?
'But Abram said to Sarai, "Your slave-girl is in your power; do
to her as you please." Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and
she ran away from her. The angel of the Lord found her by a
spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to
Shur. And he said, "Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you
come from and where are you going?" She said, "I am running
away fro my mistress Sarai." The angel of the Lord said to her,
"Return to your mistress, and submit to her." I will so greatly
multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multi-
tude So she named the Lord who spoke to her, "You are El-
roi"; for she said, "Have I really seen God and remained alive
after seeing hirn?' 24
Why did the Lord send Hagar back to the place of violence? What is
the meaning of violence in terms of the story of a slave-girl like Ha-
gar? Should she go through suffering in order for her to regain a vic-
tory? What is the meaning of God's presence in the midst of the suf-
fering of a woman? Does the obedience to God mean suffering? Hagar
named the Lord as a God who sees. What does the seeing of God
mean for her then?
The above questions ponder the double aspects of reading the text
in a multi-faith society such as Indonesia. First, it opens the possibility
for a real encounter with women from different faith backgrounds
because the story of Hagar is so familiar for many women. Although,
second, it cannot be discussed immediately by using inter-religious
lens because it points toward the crucial question of suffering which is
still ambiguous in Christian theology.
It is during the rethinking of suffering that women, along with
those who struggle for justice, peace and liberation, have played the
role in changing the subject of many theological conversations. The
woman to women encounter has played a significant and crucial role
in bringing out the voice of the locals. In this case, when the localities
speak the voice of women is calling us to listen to different stories,
different voices about the Bible, about the traditions, and even about
life itself.

24. Gen. 16:6-13 (quoted from the New Revised Standard Version).

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3. FROM SALVA TI ON-CENTERED MISSION Tow ARD LIFE-CENTERED

MISSION

3.1 The Cross: A Nonviolent Atonement as a Theological Possibility

The narrative of Christus Victor has been rooted historically in our

Christological discourse. Of course I am not going to enter into any
discussion regarding the characteristic of such a (classic) narrative,
which differentiates the three motifs of atonement: Classic/Christus
Victor, Satisfaction, and Moral influence motifs. 25 Rather, I am going
to discuss the possibility of reclaiming the story of the cross as a non-
violent story from a feminist deconstruction-reconstruction of the
meaning of suffering, not in the context of the salvific act of Christ but
in the context of seeing the cross as a moment of Christ choosing to
say 'no' to violence.
Such an option has been alienated from many of our theological
discourses about the cross that has put much emphasis on the meaning
of suffering that has in tum created another sphere of alienation
against some groups, especially women.
The suffering of women needs to be reconsidered vis-a-vis our
theological discourse of suffering in the two concepts: 'compassion'
and 'dolorousness' (dolorismus). The real difference between compas-
sion and dolorousness is when in the concept of dolorousness suffer-
ing is considered as an aim in itself as it shown in the mystical trend in
the Middle Ages. Dolorousness is seen as • bears the marks of
masochistic substitutionary satisfaction,' even considered as the
'pathological obsession with suffering. ' 26 While compassion 'arises in
the immediacy of innocent suffering and from solidarity with those
who have to bear it. ' 27 One aspect in our theological discourse that
creates a positive impression to dolorousness is that God Godself is
the suffering God.
'If God, too, is one who suffers, then suffering is not simply
something bad to which one can surrender or stand up in resis-
tance. It becomes instead a reality that has something to do

25. For a careful reading the book of G. Aulen, Christus Victor. A Historical Study of
the Three Main Types of the Idea of the Atonement, New York 1969 good to be
read in comparison with J.D. Weaver, The Nonviolent Atonement, Grand Rapids
2001.
26. D. Solle, The Silent Cry. Mysticism and Resistance, Minneapolis 2001, 139.
27. D. Solle, The Silent Cry, 139.

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with the fear-near God and that fits into God's incomprehensi-
ble love. The way of suffering that is not just tolerated but
freely accepted, the way of passion, becomes therefore part of
the disciple's way of life Suffering does not necessarily
separate us from God. It may actually put us in touch with the
mystery of reality. To follow Christ means to take part in his
life. In Christianity suffering is viewed positively for the
sake of Christ. At times it even transfigure, as the place of en-
counter with God where we make a gift (sacrifice) and God in-
vites us to her/himself by bearing the suffering with us. ' 28
It is, therefore, the concept of the suffering God that needs to be re-
considered in the dialectical connection between dolorousness and
compassion. Here the concept of kenosis becomes an important ele-
ment in trying to deconstruct the meaning of suffering which still uses
the experience of women as victims of violence as the starting point.
Elizabeth A. Johnson in her book, She Who Is, uses the metaphor
of womb as a theological symbol to give meaning to the kenosis of
God when she says:
'What is striking about all discussion of the kenotic, self-
limiting God is the continuous, almost exclusive use of male
imagery and pronouns for God Such exclusive use of male
metaphors is a blatant anomaly because to be so structured that
you have room inside yourself for another too dwell is quintes-
sentially a female experience. To have another actually living
and moving and having being in yourself is likewise the prov-
ince of women. So too is the experience of contraction as a
condition for bringing others to life in their own Integrity
This reality is the paradigm without equal for the panentheistic
notion of the co-inherence of God and the world. To see the
world dwelling in God is to play variations on the theme of
women's bodliness and experience of pregnancy, labor and
giving birth. Correlatively, this symbol lifts up precisely those
aspects of women's reality so abhorred in classical Christian
anthropology and affirms them as suitable metaphor for the
divine. ' 29

28. D. Solle, The Silent Cry, 138.

29. E.A. Johnson, She Who ls. The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse,
New York, 1993, 234-245.

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To use womb as a feminist metaphor in expressing God's compas-

sionate way of life is another way to relate the different realities of all
people creatively and inclusively. It is, however, another way to rec-
ognize the marginal metaphor for God in the life of the church. It is
also an effort to acknowledge the authenticity of using feminist meta-
phor in speaking out the powerful way of how God relates Godself
with humanity in order for every member of the household of life to
find her/his rights in encountering God through their own personhood
and identity.
As an encountering place of nature and culture, the womb shows
how women have been treated violently due to their body and sexual-
ity. If this case is seen in the context of the global market, the janus
face of globalization will be obviously seen. The sex industry is one of
the contexts where economics, politics, and social-cultural realities
meet and where women suffer again and again under the global mar-
ket world that is rooted in multiple patriarchal values. Such a context
theology comes with an ambiguous position. And it is ironically pre-
sented by people like Edwina Sandys, a sculptor who created the
sculpture of the crucifixion as a woman image called 'Christa' that
was hung at the Saint John Cathedral in New York City in 1984. It
was not an expression meant to ignore the fact that Jesus is a man, but
' to evoke the all-encompassing scope of God's identification with
crucified people, including and in particular abused women. ' 30 Amidst
all the controversies that were raised about the sculpture, feminist
theologians like Elizabeth A. Johnson identifies that the sculpture
exists 'at a male culture in which the tortured female body is regarded
as pornographic, rather than the expression of the sufferings of God. ' 31
To imagine God as a mother who is giving birth is to claim theo-
logically that God is at work to bring justice and righteousness to the
world. God is having the experience of contractions in order to bring
human beings to life in their own integrity. At the moment of contrac-
tion God cries and asks human beings to be God's partner in deliver-
ing the life of a living creature. It is the moment of togetherness and
cooperation between God and the creation that will result in the har-
mony and joy as the mother cries when she hears the cry of her baby
that symbolizes the life and dignity of a person.

30. As it is told by Elizabeth A. Johnson. In her book, She Who Is, 264.
31. As she quoted from Rosemary Radford Ruether, 'Feminism and Jewish-Christian
Dialogue' in J. Hick and P. Knitter (eds.) The Myth of Christian Uniqueness,
Maryknoll, 1988, 147.

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The moment of God's crying over the oppression of humanity is

another face of God's compassionate love towards human beings. The
cry of Jesus Christ on the cross, 'My God, My God why have you
forsaken me' is the moment when God compassionately feels the pain
and the suffering of humanity. Such feeling enables God in Jesus
Christ to be the fellow sufferer, who cries out loud for the denial of
the dignity and personhood of every member of God's household of
life. Jesus' cry is representing the presence of God in the midst of the
struggle of the poor and the oppressed under the economic laws that
ignore the rights of every person.
To say that God is the womb is to say that God is with us and
struggles with us for the life and dignity of every one. The womb
symbolizes the ever-present struggle of God who keeps calling and
challenging us to represent God's compassionate love in bringing
justice and righteousness in our own respective contexts and in the
world.
To consider the female metaphor for the divine as suitable also
reveals the long denied link between the sufferings of female victims
of violence with the experience of Christ on the cross. It is about the
meaning and experience of emptiness.
The experience of May 1998 has always taken me back to see a
painful face of emptiness. When a woman is raped it means that her
rights and identity has been violently taken away from her. Her right
to create a story in the empty part of her body has been forcefully
taken away from her. If, as in many cases, the female victim becomes
pregnant she faces the loss of the intimate relationship with the empti-
ness. And, the emptiness that has lost its intimacy will not be able to
create an intimate life of an intimate community. Therefore the com-
munity which has lost its intimacy has the possibility to commit vio-
lence and even to become a violated community. May 1998 has shown
the lost of the intimacy in the life of the community as a whole. How-
ever, it is from the experience of emptiness that the women in many
parts of Indonesia have been trying to bring back what has been lost in
the life of this nation: intimacy.
Theologically speaking, intimacy relates closely and personally to
the option that Christ takes on the cross. He refused to cooperate or
even to submit himself to violence. His option shows his intimate
relationship with the source of life. His option shows that the premise
that suffering is something necessary for salvation is no longer accu-
rate. The death of Christ should no longer be seen as a way to legiti-

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mize any theological presupposition that considers the act of submis-

sion as self-sacrificial or which sees suffering as a way toward salva-
tion. The death of Christ is not a remission of sin.
'What comes clear in the event is not Jesus' necessary pas-
sive victimization divinely decreed as a penalty for sin, but
rather a dialectic of disaster and powerful human love through
which the gracious God of Jesus enters into solidarity with all
those who suffer and are lost. The cross in all its dimensions,
violence, suffering, and love is the parable that enacts Sophia-
God's participation in the suffering of the world The suf-
fering accompanying such a life as Jesus led is neither passive
nor useless nor divinely ordained but is linked to the ways of
Sophia forging justice and peace in an antagonistic world. ' 32
The meaning of suffering in Christ's death then becomes dialectic.
Such dialectical can be seen when the christological views of Walter
Wink and Rosemary Radfor Ruether are read in a comparison. For
Wink, the death of Christ reveals the failure of violence and not the
failure of God. 'Jesus at his crucifixion neither fights the darkness nor
flees under cover of it, but with it, goes into it. He enters the darkness,
freely and voluntarily. The darkness is not dispelled or illuminated
It remains vast, untamed, and void. But he somehow encompasses it.
It becomes the darkness of God. It is now possible to enter any dark-
ness and trust God to wrest from its meaning, coherence, resurrec-
tion. ' 33
For Ruether, if such understanding is placed in the context of
women's experience without any critical consideration of it then it is
possible even to legitimize the 'voluntarily suffering' in order to
maintain the act of violence against women, as it can be seen in the
concept of 'redemptive suffering.' Therefore, Ruether argues that
'The Cross can be seen as an extreme example of the risk that
anyone struggling against oppression takes at the hands of
those who want to keep the systems of domination intact, but is
not itself redeeming. What is redeeming is not Jesus' sufferings

32. E.A. Johnson, 'Redeeming the Name of Jesus Christ' in: C.M. La Cugna (ed.),
Freeing Theology. The Essentials of Theology in Feminist Perspective, San Fran-
cisco, 1993, 124-125.
33. W. Wink, Engaging the Powers. Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domi-
nance, Minneapolis, 1992, 141.

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and death, but his life, his vision of justice and right relation re-
stored in communities of celebration and abundant life. ' 34
The views of these theologians are in parallel when they both, even
though through different ways, agree that the cross is a symbol of evil
and violence that is forced upon Christ and therefore should not be
understood as having atoning power. Moreover, an Asian feminist
theologian, Chung Hyun Kyung, says that the cross of Christ does not
have any atoning meaning. Instead the cross should become a power-
ful symbol that will always remind us of the time when Christ says
'no' to crime and violence against humanity. When Christ says 'no' to
violence we see the compassion of God. And when Christ is resur-
rected we see the life that God has chosen.
To start the conversation with a Moslem by using the metaphor of
life will enable us to experience the life-giving power of the compas-
sionate God who is at work and is having contractions to bring a just
and peaceful life in the world of violence and terror. To weave our
stories with our fellow Moslems sisters and brothers' stories of life
and struggle will enable us to come together to create a possible com-
munity whose task is to overcome violence. It is in such encounter
that the subjects of mission is not about salvation anymore but is about
life. Life comes first.

3.2 Easter: The Story of a life-chosen God

'While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among
them and said to them, "Peace be with you." They were startled
and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He
said to them, "Why are you frightened, why do doubts arise in
your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I my-
self. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and
bones as you see that I have." And when he had said this, he
showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they
were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have
you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled
fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. ' 35

34. R.R. Ruether, Introductions in Feminist Theology. Introducing Redemption in

Christian Feminism, England, 1998, 102.
35. Luke 24:36-43.

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The risen Christ came to meet his disciples and greeted them with the
Easter greetings: 'Peace be with you.' Easter is a very personal and
intimate experience that is shown through two intimate actions of the
nsen one.
First, Jesus encountered his disbelieving disciples and asked them
to touch him. The risen one opens himself to be touched. The disciples
are allowed to touch the marks of violence that have been restored.
After allowing himself to be touched, Jesus asked for something to
eat. The risen Christ is hungry. What a familiar experience. It is so
humane, so personal. The Lord is hungry and therefore the disciples
were asked to share their meals. And it is in the moment of eating in
the presence of his disciples that the communal aspect of Easter is
shown. Sharing a meal is a shalom event in the Old Testament and by
looking at the event in a room in Jerusalem, we may say that the
marks of violence have been brought into the life of the community
vis-a-vis the moment of peace.
The God who is touchable and hungry is the God who chose life
amidst death and violence. It is God who carries out God's mission of
life and dignity for all in each place. To touch the risen one means to
recognize and to identify the violence among us that is even commit-
ted by our very own communities. To touch the risen one also means
to see the possibility of carrying out the work for justice and peace for
all. To touch Christ means to experience the life and dignity in its
fullness. Therefore, to be in God's mission is to opt for life and dig-
nity for all. This is the option that many Christian and Muslim women
in Indonesia have taken in our efforts to create a nonviolent commu-
nity together. This struggle is the locus that has designated the possi-
bility of developing a life-centered mission where human life and
dignity stand as the common ground for the inter-religious communi-
ties to build the new and humane Indonesia. However, to return to the
beginning of this vision is to ask ourselves one important question: Do
we believe in nonviolence?

I hope the wind will embrace me with its rhythm ofjust-peace .. .

The rhythm of life .. .
(written for my fellow sisters and brothers in Aceh and Papua)

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