The Catholic Church

Our lively guide Petrus took us to GBPIB, a Church in the eastern part of Lombok. In the beginning they didn’t take us too seriously, but when Solveig told that both her parents are priest, it made all easier.

GBPIB was established on the 11th of July 1966. This church is located in Selong, East Lombok. We were very surprised when they told us that this was both a Protestant and a Catholic church. In practice this meant that for instance on Sundays, the Catholics held their mass from 9 to 11, while the Protestants held their service from 12 to 14. GBPIB have two priests, one Catholic and one female Protestant. The church consists of 175 members all together, 85 Protestants and 90 Catholics. However, the number of members is in constant change because none of the members are originally from Lombok and most of them are here only for a short period in connection with work or studies.

Because of the riot in 2000, almost half of the Christian population fled from Lombok. However, the Protestant leaders we talked to claimed that this event did not have a lasting effect on the relationship between Christians and Muslims on the island. According to what they said, living as a minority in the Islamic dominated society does not create any problems, and they live together in perfect harmony.

On the other hand, GBPIB was established right next to the police station, in an area strictly controlled by the police. Because a Christian church was not accepted in this area, they had to change the church’s name into ‘Bait Allah’ not

to make anyone suspicious. But the sign with ‘Bait Allah’ is still there! A couple of years ago the church spent a lot of money on a church bell they bought from France. However, they still don’t dare to put it up because they are afraid of how the Muslims will react to their action.

The female Christians are imposed to wear their id-card wherever they go, so they can confirm their religion and why they don’t wear jihab. One of the reasons why the Muslims did not want the church to be established in the first place was exactly the bad influence the Christian culture had to the Muslim culture in connection with dress code. Suddenly in the middle of the interview when we started to ask more intricate questions, a policeman that sat together with us wanted to check our interpreter’s id, just to make sure that he really was a Christian.

Even though they said that everything was fine between the different religions, we managed to make them admit that everything was not as perfect as they in the first place persuaded us to believe. It is very difficult for Christians in Lombok to get a high position at work and generally in daily life. In addition, the Christian communities seem to receive little support from the state compared to the Muslims. All the public schools in the area are dominated by Islam and the pupils only get classes in Islamic religion. These examples show us that it is not always easy to be a Christian in Lombok and that they sometimes feel discriminated. In our opinion, it seems like Christians and Muslims live in a brittle balance. As long as the Christians do not provoke and keep a low profile in the Islamic dominated society, everything will be all right.

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