Taking A Risk for Christ

Jakarta, Indonesia, isn’t a great place to hang out. At least if you are a Christian.

The news out of Indonesia isn’t good. Hundreds of Christian theology students have been living in tents since a mob of angry Muslim neighbors stormed their campus last month wielding bamboo spears and hurling Molotov cocktails. (Where the heck has NBC, CNN, Fox, CBS, and ABC been? For that matter, where has Baptist Press been? Associated Baptist Press?)

In talks since the attack, the Arastamar Evangelical School of Theology has reluctantly agreed to shut its 20-year-old campus in east Jakarta, accepting an offer this week to move to a small office building on the other side of the Indonesian capital.

The government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, which relies on the support of Islamic parties in Parliament, is struggling to balance deep Islamic traditions and a secular constitution. With elections coming next April, the government seems unwilling to defend religious minorities, lest it be portrayed as anti-Islamic in what is the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country.

The July 25 attack injured 18 students and was the culmination of years of simmering tensions between the school and residents of the Kampung Pulo neighborhood.

Senny Manave, a spokesman for the Christian school, said complaints were received from neighbors about prayers and the singing of hymns, which they considered disturbing evangelical activity.

Since being driven from campus, nearly 600 female students have been sleeping under suspended tarps at a nearby scout camp, where they had to dig trenches to keep water out during downpours. Classes are held with megaphones in the sweltering summer heat, under trees or the tarps. A similar number of male students live in a guesthouse. The remainder has returned to their families.

So, we complain because the air conditioning in our worship area isn’t exactly the way we like it. Or, the music is too traditional, too contemporary, too loud, too soft, too modern, or too old. We complain because the preacher preaches too long or not long enough. We complain because the parking lot is too full and we have to walk a little too far.

Give me a break!

I wonder, if we lived under the same conditions as believers in Indonesia, what would we do? Would we remain faithful or would we “tuck tail” and run? God help us to put aside the silly things we complain about and relax that in too many parts of the world, worship comes with the threat of death.

Sure puts things in perspective, doesn’t it?