Pentecostal Church

Apr 17th, 2007, in News & Issues, by Patung

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Building a Pentecostal church in Bangka-Belitung.

About 300 Muslim residents of the Kace, Mendo Barat area of Bangka island, Bangka-Belitung province, near the capital Pangkal Pinang, protested on the 13th the building of a pentecostal church in the district because, they say, there are only a handful of Christian families living nearby.

A meeting was held in the neighbourhood hall attended by residents, representatives of the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (MUI), policemen, local government officials, and some Pentecostal pastors. Those opposed to the church said that the Pentecostals were trying to build the church in a secretive, dishonest way. Originally they had said that the building was going to be a family home, but now wanted to turn it into a church, it was claimed.

One person, Rudi, complained that there were already a lot of churches in the area, even though the number of Christians was small, and he questioned why yet another church had to be built.

As the meeting went on protestors demanded that the church be torn down but pastor Sinaga refused. People began getting angry and shouting and the meeting ended without any agreement, while many residents then threatened that they would tear down the church themselves, given that the law was on their side.

A representative from the Department of Religion urged those of minority faiths not to be too aggressive in building houses of worship if the number of worshippers nearby was small. [1]

Usman Fathan of the Ulema Council, MUI, in Bangka Belitung, said on the 24th of April 2007 that the rules for building houses of worship have to be obeyed. However he said he did not agree with people taking the law into their own hands.

The government of Bangka has already disallowed the conversion of the house in question to a church.

Bangka Belitung has a population of one million people of whom 79% are Muslim, 9% Buddhist, 9% Christian and the remainder Confucian or Hindu. [2]

7 Comments on “Pentecostal Church”

  1. Tomaculum Tomaculum Says:
    April 17th, 2007 at 12:59 am

    This is Indonesia.
    And this

    A representative from the Department of Religion urged those of minority faiths not to be too aggressive in building houses of worship if the number of worshippers nearby was small.

    The representative of the Indonesian Government. The solution for Indonesia is quite simple: forbid other religions except the Islam, then there will be peace in Indonesia (or not?? Hmmm, isn’t there the Ahmadiyah etc.?).

  2. Andrew Andrew Says:
    April 17th, 2007 at 1:36 am

    They are desperately feeling insecure.

    Of course not all Muslims are like that, but those who are stick out like a sore thumb.

  3. Dimp Dimp Says:
    April 17th, 2007 at 6:05 am

    I think the Department of Religion shouldn’t interfere, but the Town Planning should make sure that there won’t be a clutter of place of worship, if there are already twelve other churches in the area why build another one? The same goes to other places of worship, is it really neccessary to have so many built in the same area?

  4. Julita Julita Says:
    April 20th, 2007 at 8:56 pm

    Dimp: Town Planning should make sure that there won’t be a clutter of place of worship, if there are already twelve other churches in the area why build another one?

    Sorry, you must have got the number ‘12 churches” from somewhere else because I don’t see in the posting.

    Too bad we are not there to see the truth of the story, which is in fact the important part in any issue.

  5. Eric Eric Says:
    January 20th, 2009 at 10:07 am

    Thank you indonesia!!
    ‘Cos its easy to build a WHOREHOUSE..
    Than build a CHURCH!!

  6. Dragonwall Dragonwall Says:
    January 22nd, 2009 at 3:15 am

    There Ahmadiyah, Muhammadiyah, Islamiyah. There are Christians, Catholics, Adventist and why not pantecosta?

  7. Kinch Says:
    January 22nd, 2009 at 8:21 am

    Speaking as an Atheist, I’ve gotta admit to having a soft spot for the likes of Pentecostalists and Seventh Day Adventists (albeit two very different species)…. sometimes even Mormons (from another planet). This is because the meme they carry and transmit is as much about small town American work and business ethics as it it religious.

    It’s very clear in both Latin America and the Philippines that the more evangelical types are most successful at bootstrapping themselves out of lethargy, fatalism, and poverty. Far more so than those adhering to the go-nowhere inheritance of Mediterranean slothfulness, nativism + native slothfulness, and Catholicism.

    Of course in Indonesia this opens big racial (always going to be Chinese in there somewhere) and Islamic Intolerance cans of worms, so might not be worth the aggro. In a country like Indonesia, if one believes that mass civil unrest and slaughter are bad things, one probably *wants* to encourage as much lethargy and fatalism as possible.



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