It's Us or Them: When Religion Does Not Unite

In a survey on religiosity, it was concluded that Indonesia is a country with 96% of the population believes in God, which makes it the most religious country in the world. Such finding seen as not so surprising for some people, since in their real life, religious values are just a part of routines in daily life. Thus, this implies that being a religious person in Indonesia does not mean you won't be tempted to do corruption (for example).

During Suharto's era (1968-1998), friction among different religious communities never happened thanks to the strict regulations governing this sensitive area. Suharto's policy aimed to treat all religions the same, and even tended to suppress 'freedom of worship' (as said by numerous of individuals), in order to prevent the rising of domination by one group. The same policy was also implemented by Lee Kuan Yew, one of the most respected Southeast Asian leaders to date.

Due to the political turmoil around him, the points that Suharto highlighted were abandoned by his successors, except for the 4th President of Indonesia, Abdurrahman Wahid, who had a very short term in office. After several changes in leadership, there is one important question that is increasingly haunting the life of the most religious nation in the world. Which is more mandatory to obey, religious regulations, or state regulations?

War and religion

Answer to the question above will be straightforward when a country holds religious values as its ideology, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. For the Muslims faction, Crusade Wars that lasted for two centuries (15th-17th century) were the outcome of yearning to uphold religious law, which was also one of the atrocities' main causes. As for the Catholics and Christians side, the main motivation to fight in such religious battlefield was seeking God's forgiveness and repentance.

Talking about this event may bring back old wounds that we prefer to forget, nevertheless, this war still haunts us today. As the winner of the war, the Ottoman Empire seized Byzantium territory, which had previously been the center of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Turkish leaders and their successors provided protection to Christians and Jews in the region under separate rules.

Such rather peaceful coexistence altered by a devastating war known as the Great Turkish War. First, the Ottomans were defeated by the Holy League (Holy Roman Empire, Poland-Lithuania, Hungary, Russian Empire, Venice). Second, Ottoman involvement in the war began because it signed an agreement with an Orthodox Christian Kazaki (Cossack) leader, Petro Dorosenko, as his effort to defend his homeland from Polish attacks.

How did it feel to losing a battle? The Ottoman Empire changed its attitude towards the non-Muslims it used to protect on the words that were given for this question. It is widely believed that Ottoman defeat by the Holy League led to the growth of Turkish nationalism, which prompted the emergence of anti-non-Muslim and anti-foreigner sentiment.

Armenian Orthodox Christians were the among first victims of ultranationalist movement in post-war Turkey, although historians still debating the course of events details and the number of victims. During World War II, Serbian Orthodox Christians faced the worst tragedy pre-modern Balkan War, which is rarely discussed, probably because the tragic reasons behind it were secretly regretted by some circles. In the 21st century, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was disbanded by the Ukrainian government as it refused to merge with the OCU (Orthodox Church of Ukraine), following the closure of its renowned monastery.

What should we do?

Religiosity has a significance in shaping people's perceptions of their own lives and their surroundings, without neglecting other various factors that also play a big role in this matter. Each of major religions in the world today was formed and exists thanks to a centuries-long process that shaped each religion's own perspective on many other things outside themselves.

As religious leaders and propagators inject this perception into their teachings and transmit their messages to people in other places, it should be take into account as a normality if a religious vision does not synchronize with the cultural norms where we live in. However, attacking them frontally is also not an option since such action would imply we take what they are doing seriously.

The situation of many nations on Earth is unique to each other, but such uniqueness is currently being threatened under the discourse of “sustainable development of modernity”. To deal with such situation,  we need educative teachings that are able to encourage us to practice self-awareness and to focus on our inner well-being not to easily impressed by the realities of life. That's what we should do before deciding to "heal" the world.

5 Tips to Dealing With Economic Difficulties

Economic hardship is not an embarrassing matter as it can happen to anyone anywhere, from a single mom in a rural area to a businessman in a big city. There’s no single nor a set of guaranteed solutions to solve such problems, as economic difficulties are the result of various factors lingering, pulling and pushing, and impacting each other.

All the printed, online, electronic media have explained over and over the real causes behind the current global economic downturn, so I will not talk about them here. If you have this problem at the moment, no worries, you’re not alone.

Here are five things you can do.

1. “Your problem is not you.”

Indeed, your problem and you are two different entities. Perhaps you’re a young man, a father, a mother, or a senior with names and everything that can be used to identify your existence as a human.

On the other hand, despite it having a name, your problem is not a living creature. Instead, it is a situation or a set of situations that make your mental and mind heavy. So, why on Earth do we have to surrender to an inanimate object? 

 

2. Cleaning

Do you remember when we had to stay at home for days and months during the pandemic? We kept ourselves busy with various activities that could be done at home, such as cleaning our home and its surroundings.

No matter how hard the economic situation we need to deal with, never sacrifice your own and your family comfort. Bed, bathroom, kitchen, home office, children’s room need to look tidy and nice to avoid additional burden to your already stressed mind.

 

3. Take care yourself

We have heard so many times about people who starved themselves to spare more food at home. This is somewhat wrong, since starving yourself means self-harm. The body needs food to fetch energy required to perform activities and to think clearly from time to time. Breakfast is important, skip dinner is an option if you want to go frugal and reducing body weight all at once.

Keeping self-hygiene is also important. Taking a bath, brushing your teeth, washing your hair, shaving, and so on are crucial as we honor our body that has been working tirelessly and never stop thinking long and hard to figure out the solutions to our economic problems.

 

4. Exercise 

People tend to be lazy to do exercise as they think it is useless; no money for the bills or food comes from doing it. In fact, our weary mind and heart need to be funneled into physical activities, since negative energy which causes stress and depression can be thinned with regular exercise.

You won’t need to push yourself into weight training when your physical condition does not allow you to do so; some regular morning walks around your home would be enough. As the old saying goes: mens sana in corpore sano; there’s a healthy soul inside a healthy body.

 

5. Meditation

Meditation is applicable to everyone, regardless of their religion and belief, when they are able to perceive it as a universal practice across humanity in general. Meditation is a certain activity where we tell our brain to take a break from thinking, muting negative voices inside our mind which are apt to lead us to further distress amid any complexity.

A neuroscientist acknowledges the benefit of meditation when it comes to helping humans to rejuvenate their declining brain performance due to thinking all the time. Just like a gadget that requires a turn off once a while, the human’s brain will be fresh after taking a break for a while with meditation.

 

The economic hardship scale of severity, type, and range are varied for everyone, since each persons are unique. There is no single cure that will heal all of these hindrances instantly.

The explication above is breaking down a few simple ways for you to make same space between yourself as a person and your current problem or situation.

Your economic difficulties will not be solved as you finish your meditation or yoga session. Nevertheless, your body, mind, and soul will feel sound and bright so you can see a way out that you have been searching for all this time.