Ascension Thursday Thoughts
Indonesian and American paradox.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and then you will be my witnesses not only in Jerusalem, but throughout Judea and Samaria, and indeed to the farthest ends of the earth.
- Acts 1:8 (NCB)
Greetings and Happy (belated) Ascension Thursday,
As someone who reads the works of the late English author G.K. Chesterton, I have a great appreciation for paradoxes. And as both the title and the opening of this blogpost suggest, it involves Ascension Thursday, celebrated just yesterday.
That was the day in which Christians all around the world celebrate the ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven. And apparently in Indonesia, today’s cuti bersama1, in which employees all around the country gets an extra day off in addition to Ascension Thursday itself, which is a national holiday in Indonesia.
Though from what I heard, that day off will be taken out of the employees’ accrued leave. So it’s not exactly an ideal set up. But that’s not the point.
The point is that Ascension Thursday, a Christian holy day, is a national holiday in Indonesia.
This was something that my American mind struggled to wrap around. And I was compelled to post it on Substack Notes:
Maybe if you live in Indonesia, this is something that you take for granted. But in the United States, a country that’s majority Christian, this is not the case. Take a look at this list of US federal holidays for the Year of Our Lord 2024:
As you can see, the only “religious” holiday that the United States Government celebrate is Christmas, the celebration of the Birth of Christ. And even then, the culture has watered down the celebration by turning the whole thing into a generic “holiday season”.
But enough about Christ’s birth, I want to go back to His ascension.
Everyone and their mother know that Indonesia is a majority Muslim country. They also know that it is the largest Islamic nation in the world. Thus, given the Ascension’s status as a national holiday in Indonesia, one might think that Christians form a very large part of the population, perhaps close to half, or at least a quarter.
Not even close.
As you can see from the pie chart above, Christianity2 form only a little over 10% of the population. And it terms of politics, this is somewhat flattering because in Java, where all the political power is3, Christians form only 3% of the population.
As the above map shows, the majority Christian areas of Indonesia tend to be at the peripheries, like Papua, Inland Kalimantan, and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). In terms of population, they pale in comparison to Java and Sumatra4.
And yet… they were able to accomplish what their American counterparts never did, get their government to recognize the Ascension of their Lord. For reference, here is the the religious makeup of the United States:
As you can see, Christians in the United States form just about 70% of the population5. And this number was much higher in previous decades, as the “unaffiliated” crowd is a relatively recent phenomenon.
So what happened?
The short answer is secularism happened. As it turns out, the real religion of the US is Americanism: There is no god but the Constitution, and George Washington is its prophet.
But even with that, one would think that American Christians, as the majority of the population, would be able to get the Federal Government of the United States to recognize the Ascension.
Apparently not. Hence the paradox: the United States, a majority Christian nation, doesn’t recognize the Ascension of Jesus Christ while Indonesia, a country where Christians form only a small minority, does.
Now this isn’t to say that everything is all fine for Indonesian Christians. In fact, it is safe to say that Christians in Indonesia live under the shadow of Islam, and I don’t necessarily mean outright persecution. That’s the impression I get whenever I talk to my Christian friends and relatives in Indonesia about this topic. I myself have felt this shadow before.
Even so, Christians in Indonesia was able to accomplish things that would put the Americans to shame. Speaking of Ascension Day: in Indonesia, the celebration was once known as “Ascension of the Prophet Isa/Kenaikan Isa Almasih”, Isa being the Islamic name for Jesus. But last year, the Government of Indonesia officially changed the holiday’s name from “Isa Almasih” to “Yesus Kristus” just last year6.
And the potential for Christian political power in Indonesia goes beyond the symbolic. Just a few years ago, the capital Jakarta had a Christian governor, the ethnic Chinese Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, known in short as Ahok. Of course, the knowledgeable reader will point out that Ahok was imprisoned because of Islamic hardliners before he could finish his term. But the fact remained that Christians, despite being a religious minority, had enough political power in Indonesia to get one of their own elected Governor of Jakarta.
To put it in American terms, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy didn’t change the fact that Catholics, a religious minority in the historically Protestant America had enough political power to get one of their own elected as President of the United States.
In an age of popular elections, it is easy to believe that numbers are everything. But that’s not true. A well-motivated minority will always prevail over a disinterested majority. To quote author and culture commentator Brian Niemeier:
Revolutionary political movements only need 10% of the population to succeed. The Church only needs twelve men. The Apostles took on an empire that was far more ruthless and run by much more cunning people than ours [the Americans]. True, they didn’t live to see Rome conquered for Christ, but their heirs did.
Forget numbers. It all comes down to this: what is important to you?
Until next time, Michael P. Marpaung
Collective leave or joint holiday in English.
That being Protestantism and Catholicism.
Java’s influence over Indonesia was deemed to be such a problem that it was behind a lot of things like the “transmigration program” and the upcoming move of Indonesia’s capital from Jakarta to East Kalimantan.
There are more people in Jakarta than NTT. Think on that.
We can quibble about the Mormons later, that’s a topic for another post.
The article is in Indonesian, sorry.