Losing My (Respect For) Religion

Sorry for the gap between posts. The last week in Indonesia was intense - I want to update everyone, but I’m still trying to debrief myself, so thanks for your patience. I am safely back in Australia and into the loving arms of my very large family. Here’s a piece I wrote while I was away and didn’t have the opportunity to post…

28 June 2010

I’m not really one who constantly sits around thinking about the intricacies of religion. In Bali however, it’s almost impossible to not spend at least some time thinking about how far we should go to respect the religions of others.

I’m yet to find a single place in all my travels where you can stand in Bali and not see a Hindu temple within 360 degrees. Whether it be a single column or an elaborately decorated outdoor temple used for large ceremonies – they are everywhere. Everywhere you look there are offerings to the Gods, and almost everyone from Taxi drivers to government office workers have grains of rice stuck to their foreheads.

The Balinese are poor. Very poor. Yes, there is some wealth here but for the most part, they are a nation of people who barely manage to feed themselves and their families. For this reason alone it somewhat concerns me that they would commit money to practicing their religion prior to feeding themselves, but I can respect that.

Some Balinese people work incredibly hard but the need to participate in their frequent religious ceremonies and offerings takes priority over working, so quite often their productivity is wound back to zero in order for them to exercise their religious beliefs. If zero productivity means zero money and zero food, I can’t really understand that, but I can still respect it.

So where do we cross the line of how much respect you’re expected to give? Obviously, when you’re in a predominantly Hindu country you need to do as the Romans…er Balinese do but how much is too much?

Yesterday I spent half the day with my new found friend, taxi driver and great English speaker, Alit. We discussed religion. He told me of a time when he first came to Denpasar from his village. He had no money, no food and no place to stay. He was sleeping in the doorways of closed shops to shelter from the rain. Eventually he met up with an old friend who told him about a place he could stay. So he went with his friend to this shelter or refuge I guess we would call it and one of the first things they did was give him a bible.

At the shelter they told him that everything was free – all the food you can eat, a safe place to sleep, clean clothes and a shower. Alit was grateful but wondered why anyone would do so much to help him. After staying for almost a week they told him on Sunday he was expected to go to church, so out of respect he did.

He sat in the church and listened to people singing, he listened to the Christian sermon and the whole time he felt heavy in his heart. He didn’t believe in this religion, he is, and always has been, a Hindu. But he sat there with respect and listened anyway.

A few days later he was told that on Sunday it was expected of him to go to Church again. He told the shelter that he didn’t want to go to church because he had his own religion and while he was grateful for their charity he didn’t wish to compromise his own beliefs. He was told that his religion was wrong and that Christianity was the only way. If he intended to stay with these people he would have to change religion. So he left.

I understand that the Bible teaches Christians to go out into the world and spread the word of God to as many people as they can and I respect anyone who has the faith in their convictions to do that. But when charity comes with a price-tag doesn’t it cease to be charity? When you prey on the vulnerable because they are easy pickings I question the validity of a religion that would do that. Perhaps it’s not the religion at fault but the purveyor at the time, but helping people conditionally based on religion, I cannot respect.

Alit told me also of school in Denpasar that offers a good free education to children in need. The school however is run by the Catholic Church and religious classes are compulsory. The children must be baptised and accept Catholicism as their religion. It’s not targeted at children who are already Catholic, its purpose is to convert those who are not, to their way. It preys on the vulnerability and the desperate need of these families to provide their children with a good education so that they can get a reasonable job and hopefully be less poor than their parents. The casualty is their own set of beliefs – that I cannot respect.

The line in Bali where religion ends and tradition begins is very fuzzy. There are many things that go on here that are customary that I can’t stomach but perhaps if they are based in religion I can accept. The belief that women are secondary to men is one. Although Indonesia doesn’t have a one-child policy like China, boys are still a more sought after offspring than girls and the Balinese people quite often cannot afford to have more than two children.

In 2010 in Indonesia new born babies are still being killed or left to die wrapped in a sarong or plastic bags. This is not done out of religion directly, but more the shame of having a child out of wedlock or as a single mother. These mothers have no support and find the weight of the situation unbearable.

Religious traditions such as taking shoes off before entering a building, not pointing with a single finger but gesturing with the whole hand or not sitting with your feet pointed at a temple may seem trivial to some, but if they mean difference between respect and lack of it, then it’s a small price to pay.

But how far should we be expected to go to respect another person’s religion or culture? If my own religion suggested that taking my shoes off around other people was wrong – then should I be expected to compromise my own religious beliefs to respect someone else’s? And what about religious traditions that totally go against our own moral belief system? Genital mutilation, polygamy, incest, and child sex all come to mind as having at least one religion that condone these acts. If the laws of the country don’t protect the victims or prohibit these acts, then does anyone have the right to impinge upon their traditions?

As a mother and a humanitarian, I can’t in any way condone any action which causes harm to, or places in danger a child on the basis of religion. I can’t condone the generational brainwashing of children to believe that these acts are holy and that they too must act in this manner to be spiritually fulfilled. Hell, I don’t even agree with the piercing of children’s ears until they’re of an age to give a verbal consent or request it themselves.

If that makes me disrespectful, then I guess that’s a shade of grey I’m willing to be coloured.

The orphanage blessing ceremony. Much bell ringing, chanting and incense.