Father Benny: Strengthening Religious Tolerance And Moderation Priority 2022

Special Staff to the Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Pancasila Ideology Development Agency (BPIP) Antonius Benny Susetyo (Father Benny/HO)

JAKARTA - Special Staff to the Chairman of the Steering Committee for the Pancasila Ideology Development Agency (BPIP) Antonius Benny Susetyo (Romo Benny) said that in 2022 strengthening religious tolerance and moderation should be a priority.

This strengthening can be done by opening deliberation for consensus, finding common ground, and providing a complete understanding of religion to the community in order to create peace among fellow believers in this country.

"This helps a person to love, appreciate, and accept differences as a blessing, including providing an understanding that differences in beliefs do not create distance, but instead unite them to respect each other even though they are different," said Father Benny via electronic message, Antara, Jakarta, Friday, January 7 .

He admitted that the problem of intolerance often occurs in a pluralistic society because it is influenced by the lack of religious understanding of someone who does not fully understand religion.

"The intolerance of religious issues from each individual who understands religion is not complete, but it must be seen that this is a fact that occurs in various places around the world," he explained.

He expressed his concern about the practice of intolerance, one of which is the deprivation of the right to worship. He hopes that 2022 can be a new beginning so that the value of tolerance as a universal human value can be awakened.

"I hope that by 2022 tolerance can become something that influences the way of thinking, acting and reasoning so that we can have religion according to constitutional guarantees where everyone has the right to practice their religion, and I hope that the prohibition (of worship) will not happen again," he said.

Father Benny revealed the importance of preventing acts of intolerance in order to restore the noble character of a nation that lives in harmony side by side in a frame of tolerance. "I think the first is that regulations need to be enforced where the law is the supremacy. So if there is a case of intolerance that is not in accordance with the 1945 Constitution and Pancasila, it must be processed and dealt with," he said.

Second, he continued, the resolution is through deliberation and consensus, through dialogue, mutual understanding, mutual understanding, which encourages awareness to return to being fellow countrymen and countrymen.

"With this awareness, a harmonious, harmonious life will be built and the community can express compassion for the weak and excluded, including realizing their human values," said the man who is active in various inter-religious dialogues and other studies in Indonesia.

This alumnus of the Postgraduate School of Philosophy and Theology (STFT) Widya Sasana Malang, East Java, views the importance of religious moderation as a bridge to the values of tolerance. He said that religious moderation was nothing new for this nation.

"Moderation is familiar to the Indonesian people, from moderation it will produce people who are tolerant of differences. Moderation is part of the expression of the way the Indonesian people speak to live side by side,” explained one of the founders of the Free Human Movement with (the late) KH Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur).

Benny conveyed the need for simultaneous programs and efforts to maximize government programs related to religious moderation in order to build a culture of tolerance in society. According to him, the strategy for accelerating religious moderation can be started from the scope of education.

"Through education. It starts with family education where we introduce that diversity is beautiful, and introduces that Indonesia is made up of various ethnicities, races, and religions. Then also through education in schools," said Father Benny.

Second, maximizing the potential of the digital world, which, according to him, can be done by increasing moderation content and the practice of religious life as well as content in the context of culture and Pancasila.

“So (through digital content), many introduce the beauty of diversity, cooperation, and collaboration even though different people can live in harmony. There are many positive practices in various regions of Indonesia that can be adopted," he said.

He conveyed the importance of the support and role of religious leaders and community leaders to take part in encouraging the acceleration of religious moderation in Indonesia to realize 2022 as the year of religious tolerance and moderation.

“The role of the figures is very important, they must be able to actualize the values of pluralism and diversity to become a national treasure, meaning that in their sermons they must provide coolness, commitment to the integrity of the life of the nation and state. So religious leaders become a big force to promote religious moderation in daily life,” said Father Benny.