A Witness Becoming

Mission 21, Basel, Switzerland

April 2008

A Witness Becoming:

Women, Theology, and Testimony of Peace

The phenomenon of communal violence, including particularly religious conflict, indicates a greater challenge to the global communities where the response to the violent conflict has often been reduced to naming the other as “the evil other.” It is in the world where “religiously based conflicts continue to structure geopolitics ... of the world”[2] that the practice of listening to and letting local Christian communities speak their own become necessary to understand how Christianity is affected by, and may affect the transformation in the broader community.

Violence against Indonesian Chinese descendant women in Jakarta prior to the resignation of Indonesia’s second president, Soeharto, in May 1998 profoundly shaped my personal-political understanding as an Indonesian Christian feminist theologian that is to bear witness to women’s struggle for peace and justice.[3] Yet not until recently I re-captured the significance of the term “witness” in my theological vocabulary after looking at the way local Christian communities, particularly women, give meaning to their witnessing experiences of communal violence. [4]

Here I will not describe nor analyze the complexity of massive communal violence that took place in various areas in Indonesia following Soeharto’s fall.[5] Rather, I will focus on the way women and their narratives define a new task for doing theology in a multi cultural and multi religious Indonesia with its history of communal violence.[6] I will, thus, suggest that the women are themselves witnesses whose testimonies signify a contextual theological/missiological resource for Christian praxis of peace in the context of religiously pluralistic society.

Theology and Women’s Testimonies of Peace

Following are excerpts from some of the interviews[7] I conducted with 60 Christian women, members of the Christian Evangelical Church in Halmahera (Gereja Masehi Injili di Halmahera/GMIH), about their experiences of the violent conflict between Christians and Muslims in 1999-2002 in North Halmahera:

“Even after 5 years my body still feels the pain every time I remember the moment when the people I knew chopped and killed my husband before my very eyes.” (Voice of a widow left with 4 young children)

“I saw they burned my friend’s house and then threw him alive into fire. They did the same to his father … I hated them … I wanted to kill them, but now the hatred has disappeared. This must be because God has helped me to forgive them.” (Voice of a young woman)

“My husband was killed during the attack to our village. I suddenly became single parent with 2 dependent children. But God has helped me through the most difficult part of my life. I am now the coordinator of the Pemberdayaan Perempuan Kepala Keluarga (The Empowerment of the Female Head of Family) for both Christian and Muslim women in my area. It was started in the aftermath of the conflict to enable widowers like me to lead and support their families by giving assistance, for example, in making and distributing traditional foods in surrounding areas.” (Voice of a young widow)

“My daughter died behind the church … I still can’t go to see the site even after few years … But I have been working together with Muslim community to bring peace into our communities.” (Voice of a mother whose little daughter trapped and killed in the middle of the violence)

The last time I wore my robe was when I was standing between Christian and Muslim ‘troops’ who were ready to kill each other. It always reminds me of the fear and courage inside me when I had to calm down the angry crowds … I stop wore it ever since … I put it in my closet … I always smell scent of human blood every time I see it.” (Voice of a female minister)

“There was a song that I always sang those days … it tells about the Lord who always present in the midst of struggle… I knew the Lord was present when they killed my two adult sons.” (Voice of an old woman)

These excerpts highlight different layers of women’s narratives about communal violence and their hope for peace. The question, therefore, for Christian theologians and churches in Indonesia is that “what do we do with these kinds of narratives?” Furthermore, “have these narratives shaped our theological/missiological discourse of religious pluralism in the aftermath of communal violence in Indonesia?”

In responding to the above questions I looked at series of publication and archives from 1998-2007[8] by churches and Christian communities in Indonesia on the role of religions during and in the aftermath of the violent conflict.[9] Two identifications emerge: First, Indonesian Christian theological/missiological discourses of religious pluralism are not necessarily shaped by local Christian women’s experiences and understandings of communal violence. Second, only few Indonesian Christian feminist/woman theologians write and reflect on local women’s experiences of communal violence, its impact on inter-religious relations, and offer new perspectives on the meaning of suffering and on the question of God’s punishment. Yet they [we] do not critically engage missiological discourse of religious pluralism nor propose new mission theology of religions as a logical consequence of violence between religious communities. It is here, I believe, that Indonesian feminist/woman theologians’ contribution is crucially needed.

The question then remains, “what are we going to do with local women’s narratives of violence?” “Have their narratives pointed out to other dimensions of our theologies/missiologies, but are still being considered outside the framework of our theological discourse/theory?”

Here, I find Rebecca S. Chopp’s essay on reconfiguration of theology, as a critique to modern (Western) discourse on theology/theory, helpful. Chopp re-configures theology into a new discourse called “Poetics of Testimony”[10] that is, the “discourses – poetry, novels, theory, theology– which speak of the unspeakable, and tell of the suffering and hope of particular communities who have not been authorized to speak. … [T]estimony … mean[s] the discourse that refers to a reality outside the ordinary order of things.”[11] Her definition allows me to believe that the Halmaheran women’s narratives have spoken of the unspeakable and defined what truth is beyond any theological categories. They re-imagine the world without violence and, thus, re-create a new sense of reality where peace becomes real.

The questions, then, can our theological/missiological discourse of religious pluralism allow us to connect with the particularity of women’s testimonies of communal violence where religious symbols are used to legitimize violence against each other? Can our theologies reconfigure the theme of the “other” in our religious discourse through the eyes of those women? Moreover, how do we let go pain, hatred, and trauma, while embracing forgiveness and peace?[12] How do our theologies testify to the incomprehensibility of these experiences while remaining plausible in our theological/missiological construction of religious pluralism? Finally, can we witness the presence of God’s Spirit in the life and struggle of those witnesses?

What is needed is a new way of looking at the women not merely as victims/survivors but also as witnesses that is those who speak with authority about what they saw and experience. Therefore, even though I agree with Karlina Supeli’s, an Indonesian feminist activist and thinker, argument on the urgency to re-claim the subjectivity of victims/survivors in our solidarity and advocacy for women victims/survivors of violence,[13]but I also see the necessity of weaving the dimension of witness into this reclaiming. The women are witnesses whose testimonies challenge us to look to even beyond the unspeakable. Their testimonies challenge us not only to listen to silent voices, but even more to let the voices re-shape our theologies and re-imagine new ways of doing theology.

A Witness Becoming: Not an Epilogue

The Christian community in Duma, a Christian village[14] in Galela sub district, one location of my research, commemorated the death of its members during the conflict by burying the bodies in the church court yard and marking every cross on the grave with the same inscription: “Martyr of the congregation” (Indonesian: martir jemaat) and “Do not waste our struggle” (Indonesian: jangan sia-siakan perjuangan kami).[15] Thus, it is crucial to explore how the community’s understanding of martyrdom informs its way of dealing with the conflict and its aftermath.[16] The community also maintains the remnants of the old church building while erecting a new one next to it.

Chopp beautifully offers a new understanding of testimony in comparison to the traditional meaning of martyrdom, as she stated:

If, traditionally, we may have made testimony say “this is the truth, I tell it even if I have to die,” testimony now becomes “I will live to tell this story. I will survive for an hour, a day, however long I can … These testimonies are discourses of survival for hope and of hope for survival.”[17]

The women I interviewed made real what Chopp was talking about. They live to tell their stories so women like me would be empowered to stand before the ultimate face of violence that was committed against humanity and would never give up on hope for a better world, a world of peace. They live to testify to hope and to the possibility of creating and maintaining peace out of their encounter with the ultimate power of death. Their testimonies overcome public-private dualism and create a web of “collective and social”[18] testimonies, which connects the entire community’s narratives of violence and of peace.

The collectiveness of the women’s testimonies was reflected in most of the interviews I conducted in Duma. Almost all the women made reference to June 19, 2000 when asked about the most remembered part of their experiences of the violence. It was the day when the village was attacked and hundreds lives brutally taken away. Their experience on the day is then defined as their “common existential experience.”[19] It is the experience that determines the way they define themselves as a Christian community that has gone together through the brink of death. Furthermore, their now common experience has become their common ground or “point of reference” in creating a “common language” to express their new understanding of living as a Christian community with a history of communal violence. They define a new understanding of martyrdom by emphasizing the legacy of peace, instead of violence, that has been inherited to young generation in the village. Thus, peace becomes their “common language” and “point of reference” that determines their effort to never let such catastrophe happens again.

The women particularly reflect this commitment by pointing towards the need to re-look at the “other,” i.e. Muslim neighbors, not as their enemy, but as their own sisters/brothers. Both communities have gone through the traumatic experience. There is a strong need to create a new web of peace by visiting each other, by creating programs that re-connect both communities even though fear and distrust are still common in their daily activities. I also observed that women are the ones who are very active in connecting two communities and re-building a new sense of trust and hope.

Finally, I came to North Halmahera as a researcher. But I returned with a new sense of becoming a witness. I felt the need to let those women speak with their own definition of truth, of what they saw and experience through which other women, theologians, church leaders, religious communities, and our theological discourse and theory are summoned to testify to life and to engage their “reverence for life.”[20] This is not an epilogue for this reflection, rather, a beginning of a journey ahead where theology/missiology should first of all be interrogated for their moral responsibility to preferentially opt for peace amidst daily reality of violence in our world today. Theology/missiology in Indonesia should be reminded of its legacy to serve “those who suffer and hope, those whose voices testify to survival, those who imagine transformation.”[21]

STT Jakarta, Maundy Thursday (March 20, 2008)

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[1] Ordained minister of the Protestant Church in South East Sulawesi (a reformed church) Indonesia, faculty member of Jakarta Theological Seminary, and is completing her doctoral program in Missiology in the Boston University School of Theology, U.S.A.

[2] Nancy T. Ammerman, "Introduction: Observing Religious Modern Lives," in Everyday Religion: Observing Modern Religious Lives, ed. Nancy T. Ammerman (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). P.4.

[3] This was reflected in my oration at the Jakarta Theological Seminary 67^th Dies Natalis (2001) on Menuju Masyarakat Transformatif: Sebuah Visi Misiologis Feminis tentang Indonesia [Toward a Transformative Society: A Feminist Missiological Vision of Indonesia]

[4] I use the term “communal violence” as a synthesis of the analyses that have been developed regarding the political character of social conflict in Indonesia, 1998-2003. It emphasizes the violence that was committed by religious/ethnic communities against each other while acknowledging its complexity due to the communal character of the Indonesian people that hides the danger of communalism. Frans M. Suseno identified the threat of communalism through the strengthening of certain identities such as ethnic, religious, etc., that can endanger the plurality of Indonesia. See his essay on “Kekerasan Atas Nama Agama: Sebuah Refleksi Interkultural Terhadap Fenomena Terorisme” [Violence in the Name of Religion: An Intercultural Reflection on Terrorism Phenomena] in Jurnal STT Intim, 9 (2007), pp. 17-18.

[5] There have been series of publication on the complex dimensions of the communal conflict in Indonesia both in English and in Indonesian. Among others are, Jacques Bertrand’s Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict in Indonesia (2004), Paul Tahalele’s The Church and Human Rights in Indonesia (1997), Jan S. Aritonang’s Sejarah Perjumpaan Kristen dan Islam di Indonesia [The History of Christianity and Islam Encounter in Indonesia] (2004), Ahmad Suaedy’s Politisasi Agama dan Konflik Komunal: Beberapa Isu Penting di Indonesia [The Politicization of Religion and Communal Conflict: Some Important Issues in Indonesia] (2007).

[6] This is based on my interview with a group of Christian women late last year in two areas in North Halmahera, a majority Christian island in eastern Indonesia.

[7] The interviews, which were conducted in the Indonesian language (Bahasa Indonesia), were part of my dissertation research.

[8] I considered this period of nine years as significant since it includes the years of massive communal violence and its aftermath in various areas in Indonesia.

[9] I only looked at publications/archives by the Communion of Churches in Indonesia (Persekutuan Gereja-gereja di Indonesia) and by 3 ecumenical/reformed seminaries: Jakarta Theological Seminary in Jakarta, Eastern Indonesia Theological Seminary in Makassar, and GMIH Theological Seminary in Tobelo, which was directly affected by the conflict in North Halmahera. Included in this study is the publication by the Association of Indonesian Theologically Trained Women (PERUATI) i.e. journal SOPHIA, and by Indonesian feminist/woman Protestant theologians. One recent, if not the first, publication by Zakaria J. Ngelow, et. al. (eds.) Teologi Bencana: Pergumulan Iman dalam Konteks Bencana Alam dan Bencana Sosial (2006) [Theology of Disaster: Faith Struggle in the Context of Natural Disaster and Social Disaster] discusses the reality of natural catastrophe and social disaster and its affect to theological thinking of Theodicy in Indonesia. It is a good one to start with in looking at the development of theological thinking in Indonesia in the aftermath of, though not exclusively, communal violence. Some feminist/women theologians also wrote on issues of suffering and grace as critical reflections on social and natural catastrophe. Another recent one is Ruddy Tindage’s published research on conflict and reconciliation in Tobelo, the capital of North Halmahera. It is a good reference to see how local voices both women and men, Christians and Muslims, were included in the proposal for the significance of reconciliation in the aftermath of the conflict. Damai yang Sejati: Rekonsiliasi di Tobelo – Kajian Teologi dan Komunikasi [True Peace: Reconciliation in Tobelo – a Theological and Communicational Explorations] (2006).

[10] See her essay with the same title in Criterion 37 (Winter 1998).

[11] Ibid., p.

[12] Cf. Ruddy Tindage’s identification on the lack of church’s constructive approach to the reality of trauma as a consequence of violence. Damai yang Sejati, p. 173

[13] See her essay “Mendengarkan Suara Kesunyian” [Listening to Silent Voice] in Eddy Kristiyanto (ed.) Etika Politik dalam Konteks Indonesia: Pesta 65 Tahun Romo Fagnis. (2001) [Ethics of Politic in Indonesian Context: The Celebration of Fr. Magnis’ 65^th Year]. Pp. 39-68

[14] Duma is considered important in the history of mission in North Halmahera because the first missionary, Hendrik van Dijken (1866), arrived and built his base in Duma.

[15] In the interviews the women explained that the phrase “Jangan Sia-siakan Perjuangan Kami” [Do not Waste Our Struggle] was intended to remind younger generation about the lives that were taken away for peace. Thus, it is their responsibility to work for peace and to never let the violence happen again.

[16] Maurice Barth, "Basic Communities Facing Martyrdom: Testimonies from the Churches of Central America," in Martyrdom Today, ed. Johannes Baptist Metz; Edward Schillebeeckx (Edinburgh; New York: T & T Clark; The Seabury Press, 1983).Pp.43-47

[17] Chopp, Poetics of Testimony. P.7.

[18] Ibid.,

[19] Deshi Ramadhani, SJ. “Membangun Ruang Spiritualitas Dalam Dunia Akademis?” [Building Spiritual Space in Academic World?] Tanggapan atas Orasi Dies Natalis STT Jakarta: Berteologi dengan Nalar dan Spirit [A Response to Jakarta Theological Seminary’s Dies Natalis Oration: Doing Theology with Spirit and Logic] (Jakarta, 27 September 2007).

[20] Chopp. Poetics of Testimony. P. 7.

[21] Ibid. p. 8