Learning about Religion and State from Creative Media

IL News 008/2017

Jakarta, 13 Februari 2017

The view about Religion and State both in the West and in Indonesia is not too different. There are some similarities in terms of Constitution and the foundation for the laws and rules in Indonesia and in the Western countries, for instance the United States of America. Dr Paul Marshall, serves as a Senior Fellow for Leimena Institute and for Centre for Religious Freedom, Hudson institute (USA), explained this in his public lecture at UKI (Indonesian Christian Universiy) on 13 February 2017. The theme for his lecture was, “Religion and The State in The West and in Indonesia”.  This public lecture attended by graduates students of the Christian Education department. The public lecture was opened by Dr Maruarar Siahaan, the President of UKI.

Dr. Marshall presented a video with Indonesian subtitle. In his lecture, Dr Paul Marshall explained a few factors that formed the perspective about Religion and State both in the West and in Indonesia. He then compared the 4 similarities between the USA and Indonesia. First, both are religious nations, not secular, both have their foundations. Second, open to various religious beliefs. Third, there is freedom to worship according to their faiths. Fourth, both emphasized in unity and diversity.

This Video Lecture is interesting and not boring as it came with different scenes for visualizations to enable students to follow the discussions. Mrs. Desi, the Head of Graduate School for Christian Education, UKI, said, “This is very interesting, we hope to have more of this public lecture regularly.” Students also enjoyed the video lecture. They gained new perspectives. This method is very effective and efficient especially in terms of time. After the video lecture, they continued with questions and answers with the speaker. They hope this kind of video lectures could be made available on YouTube to make it more accessible to them and wider audience.