Blora Church Closing
Sep 21st, 2006, in News, by PatungA Protestant house-church was forcibly shut down in Blora, Central Java.
In Tlogowaru village, Japah district, Blora, Central Java, a Northern Central Java Christian church was closed by police and local residents, Tempo says, because the number of worshippers, at 38 people, was insufficient to satisfy the requirments of the law for the establishment of houses of worship. Houses of worship must have at least 90 prospective members before permission can be granted for their construction.
Additionally the church did not have formal permission to operate. It appears that the pastor, Yoshua, had once attempted to fool local people into signing a petition of no-objection to the use of the building, which was actually a house, as a church, in order to satisfy another requirement of the law. This had made people angry and they complained to the village authorities and the Department of Religion, who then took action.
Christians in the village are still permitted to carry out services in their homes, provided they do so in rotation, but they cannot build a church.
17 Comments on “Blora Church Closing”
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Lotus 7254 says:
Those who close the curches or support it are bigoted people or narrow -minded community. As we can see in the history, these bigoted people are always way behind in many aspects of human life, education, technology, culture, economy, arts, etc. They only excel at cowardly attacks, violence against innocent people, hatred, and intolerance. If they keep their mind that way — I feel befuddled as to what is driver that they become narrow -minded –, it is certain this community will never contribute good things to history of human life.
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Hassan says:
lotus 7254 and Miss Indo 07: you sounded ridiculously supportive towards an illegally established place of worship.
which part of these statement that you don’t understand?
“Tempo says, because the number of worshippers, at 38 people, was insufficient to satisfy the requirments of the law for the establishment of houses of worship. Houses of worship must have at least 90 prospective members before permission can be granted for their construction”and these?
“Additionally the church did not have formal permission to operate. It appears that the pastor, Yoshua, had once attempted to fool local people into signing a petition of no-objection to the use of the building, which was actually a house, as a church, in order to satisfy another requirement of the law”for God’s sake the pastor lied and tried to fool the people! if you were fooled by someone, wouldn’t you be angry too??
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Mohammed Khafi says:
Hassan,
I agree with you on this point, we have to live by the law of the land. If the law is felt to be wrong or discriminatory we have to amend the law. I personally feel the law is wrong as it does nothing to encourage people of different faiths to live in harmony, infact it encourages people of different faiths to live in their own seperate enclaves.
What we must not forget is the decree also states “that congregations numbering less than 90 people can obtain two-year temporary permits. Administrations are also required to protect and assist existing houses of worship which have yet to obtain permits.” If the pastor involved still resorted to trying to fool locals into signing the petitions when these avenues were open to him then he has nobody else to blame apart from himself.
Also bear in mind that according to the law “Prospective houses of worship must gather together the names and identity cards of at least 60 people who belong to other faiths, who live in the area, and have no objection to the proposed building.” If this is abided by there are large areas of the country where there will never be new mosques allowed because there are insufficient numbers of other faiths to fulfil that part of the decree. I wonder how indiscriminatory our law enforcement would be on those Houses of Worship?
“The Law is an Ass”
Peace Brother Hassan
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Miss Indo 07 says:
yeah hasan,the law my ass! (soory for my language)
but seriously man,the law in indo is rubbish, -
bravo says:
I believe that hasan and Muhammad Kafi are intellect people. But you both dont respect at human right nature.
I just want to ask you guys, Who give a right to believe at something??Can u force me to believe at your faith, perception?? I guess you must agree that faith is a privellege received from God Naturally, even God won’t push people to believe in Him, right?? if so, right now,u will be dead, coz your life and behaviour cant meet his standart.
I can show you that we never do harm to the Moslem in my village even they are only 5 persons there to worship, moreover we help them to build their temple.
I dont see any violance in worshipping God by that people in everywhere the church was closed. They only closed that building but they cant closed the heart of the people to believe their God.
To concern of violance, many are Moslem did it, for example,every day they scream out from the mosque,it’s a violance, many are stuck on the road while some Moslem collect some money to build their mosque. recently , the syndrom of Syariat Islam so stupid and enforced. Some of province obligated the Civil server to read the alQuran before they officialled in each department.
So who is unfair, who condemn in a violance, mosque can established in everywhere, even in Papua where the Christian is majority,but Moslem use the power and stubborn to build an Islamic center there,hei,hasan and Muhammad,cant u see that,
can’t u see the violance by the Indonesian Court, police,government…
How come we agree to the punishment at Tibo Cs,.according to the sources,they are not proved guilty,even in the court , the witnesses are only from Moslem, no one from their family or Christian,so unfair, they are not 100% guilty at all…but they will be punished dead…how about Amrozy Cs, they are already admitted,but not punished yet, so unfair,and ashamed……hope u both can see it guys,
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night says:
the law should be followed .. I agree with that … but the discrimination should not be.
Did you know that building a mosque is easy but to build a church in Indonesia is not easy … the government always put more obstacle to get permittion.
But, thanks God, Christians grow up faster in tense and oppresion. 🙂
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that Law begun with the Moslem radicalism who stand and fight for their faith and God, ashamed one, how do we can defence on God,
The truth is, the law comes when the radicalism start to annoying the place where the Christian worship,and the stupid thing is, the police, government,submit to their mistake action….
they called they are fair,but in fact,never do fair,they called they are justice,but never do justice,look at Aceh, 100% syariat establish and practice,the question is, where and how the non Moslem live there, more ever they will be treated based on Moslem law,ashamed one, is it fair,and justice, ?? justice and fair,never see minority or majority, right,
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Bravo,
I would suggest that you read some of my other comments on other posts on this site before making comments such as you have, I am a great believer in human rights for all, I have no objections to others practicing their religions as they see fit, God is our only judge in this matter. All I said in the earlier comments is that we have to respect the Law of the Land, but in case you didn’t notice I did state that the law in this case is wrong. In that case we all have to make an effort to change the law.
My belief is that there is a path that we can all take which can lead to total harmony between all religions.
Please read some of my other comments before juudging me in such a manner.
Peace
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yes2 bravo,
dont ever say that Khafi is the same with Hassan,
they’re not..
hehehe -
wasn’t it funny why the world we live in has it full sets of human rights, but not even a single human obligation? not even the obligation to be obidient to their creator, to God? God did gave is rights but he also gave us obligations, that way it will be fair.
you know why there is no such thing called human obligations? because the ‘creators’ of human rights wants us to forget about our obligations to God.
if Mohamed khafi is a big fan of human rights, I’m into that, but I’m also a big fan of human obligations.
lastly, I know Indonesia’s law regarding minorities sucks, but so does laws in other countries in the topic of minorities. france, britain, the u.s., they are all the same, still practicing discrimination one way or another. specially on their immigration law.
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mersa says:
If every one works their daily task and responsibilities as human, I am sure they will be very busy and no time even to think of killing other life. Taking other life is the right of our creator.
So.. Why dont we just live our life and keep away from doing sin by disturbing your neighbours. Let your neighbours do their life safe and sound, and take after and feed your children at home.
I believe that there always be a good and bad guys in every religion, ethnic and country. So why don’t we just choose the good way?? You should realize that there will be the day where you can do nothing about it.. Sooner or letter we will be the witness of our own destiny.
We actually admit deep inside our heart that there is an extra ordinary power creating and controlling this universe. Unfortunately, only a few of us who are honest even to them self.
Use our brain and think it over!
Peace
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Mizzy says:
i has comments, even though they destroy lots of church, they will not destroy our heart who worship Jesus Christ, i hope God will forgive the people who did those terrible things….ok Peace
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Paul says:
Hey fellows…
calm down…i have something to say…which maybe sounds bad in your ears. There is no god, who will judge anyone of you…because there is no god. Not in the valley, nor in the sea, nor in the heaven….
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Lochie says:
Moslem sucks, they only know how to kill, how to rape woman, they always think another religion as “kafir”, doesn’t believe god likes them.
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Alan says:
Actually it is not easy to build a mosque in Europe. Where is the freedom there? However, every one wants to open a center of worship in any country, it should fall in the condition that it represents a big number of worshippers. Then why should Indonesia allow to establish a church for a very small number of people?
Indonesia is proud to be a Muslim country. Muslim country means people have faith in one God. While in Chrisitianity, God is confused three. What we get of that?
However, that does not mean to hate Christians or to stop their freedom. But the question arises when we know that in Europe Christianity is dying. In UK alone there are 70 churches are closing every year. Then why the Christian missionaries just would like to open churhes in a Muslim country with little Christians in a way of escaping from the problem in Europe. It is just a hypocrisy! -
mingo says:
Bring on the Crusades. Arthur had the right idea
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