Muhammad Wildan
Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS) Yogyakarta
Abstract
Religion has been mostly understood as divine or sacred doctrine talking on theology and ritual worships. Along with the complexity of life in the contemporary world, ecology is among the problematic and tough issue. In Indonesian context, among the worse ecological problems are global warming, forest fire, plastic waste, flood, air pollution etc.
On the other hand, as the most religiously growing society, we believe that religion is powerful driver to raise awareness on environmental problems among the society. In doing so, the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS) conducted trainings on religious literacy to hundreds of religious extension officers (penyuluh agama) in several regions in the country. Indeed, religion and ecology is among the subjects on religious literacy. This article is trying to see how the religious literacy program has effectively become a platform to mainstream “green deen” or religious environmentalism among the front-liners of the state in charge of religious guidance for the people. The findings suggest that religious extension officers from all the different faith communities found the sessions on religion and ecology are useful, timely and strategic, as it could enhance the promotion of interfaith engagement and collaboration.
Keywords: ecology, environment, green-deen, plastic garbage, health, religion.
Introduction
Along with the pace of democracy and modernity, Indonesia is undergoing such tremendous changes in many different aspects. As a developing country, Indonesia is facing not only many socio-political problems but also ecological ones. Along with modernization which entail the building of many industries and other physical developments, many socio-political and ecological problems arise. At the social level, there are some elements of the society which is left aside of the modernization and became more marginalized society. Modernization which has eased human being into more modern and simple has some disadvantages on environmental level and ecology at large. The more modern and
sophisticated people, the more wastes they produced such as plastics, emission etc. which also lead to global warming.
Zainal Abidin Bagir even asserts that democratization of Indonesia could also invoke the rise of environmental problems (Bagir 2015).
Unfortunately, the problem of ecology such as plastic waste and emission is such kind of endless challenges, especially for such developing countries as Indonesia.
This complexity of ecological problems which finally lead to involve religious values to raise awareness among the society. Along with the program conducted by the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS) together with British Council and the Ministry of
51 Religious Affairs to train religious literacy to hundreds of religious extension officers (penyuluh agama) in several regions in the country, the program is also trying to mainstream
“green-deen” as a brand to raise ecological awareness. This paper is trying to see to what extent do religious extension officers responded to the issue and to what extent this issue could be mainstreamed in the society.
Ecological Problems and the Role of Religions
Along with modernization of Indonesia which brings about some significant development of the country as well as the society, it also gives some weighty impacts. In the one hand, industrialization and modernization have mostly eased people living in the society in term of transportation, fashion, food, and other kinds of life styles. On the other hand, such modernization also brought about negative influences toward the society as well as the environment. People’s life could be easily endangered due to such modern life styles. Such massive emission of industry and transportation, flood and forest fires due to massive extension of industry, and the massive of plastic waste due to human life styles are among the recent phenomena of ecological problems.
Among the above ecological problems, the most problematic and widely spread issue in Indonesia is plastic waste. As the forth largest population in the world (UN 2019), Indonesia has many significant social as well as ecological problems.
Based on the research conducted by
Jenna R. Jambeck and his colleagues from Georgia University, it is found that Indonesia is the second country (after China) to produce waste plastics discarded in the marine environment (Jambeck et al, 2015). Further, the research also mentioned that Indonesia produced plastic waste as many as 6,4 metric tons per year and a half of it were discarded into ocean. The death of Sperm Paus in Wakatobi beach of North Sulawesi in 2018 due to the abundant of waste plastics in its stomach was only a small example of the danger of waste and debris of plastics in the ocean could endanger the marine life.
The above phenomena in fact prove that Indonesia is facing such huge ecological problems. The forest fire which happened almost every year in some parts of Indonesia is one of the ecological problems. The dense population in some big cities such as Jakarta, Medan and Surabaya also bring about social as well as ecological problems. Other than marginalized communities in some big cities, it is quite obvious some environmental crises such as emission, polluted water, plastic wastes etc. In fact, the government either at Jakarta or local level are aware of this problems.
Although some policies and regulations have been issued to raise awareness among the society, Indonesian ecological problem is still a huge unresolved problem.
On the other hand, in Indonesian context, religions play a significant public role in the society. In such religious country, all religions could not only survive, but also
52 play a significant role in almost all aspects of social life. In this respect, religions as a moral force in the society could also as a driver for the ecological problems. In my views, there should be religious values which are in line with environment or ecology in general. With the power of religious authority, I believe, religions could hand-in-hand with the government to solve ecological problems well. Among the religious authority in Indonesia, the role of religious extension officers (penyuluh agama) could be empowered to socialize the issue to the society at large.
Religions and Ecology
Basically, all religions have good values.
So far religions have talked a lot about faith (theology) and worship matters. To what extent do religions talk about environmental issues? The extent to which religions speak and become a driving force for humans to better protect the environment and preserve nature.
Apparently, almost all religions talk about environmental issues, with relatively the same language. In general religion teaches to maintain a harmonious relationship between humans and nature.
The environment must be preserved and maintained so that humans can continue to live and worship peacefully.
Islam clearly mentions about the obligation of humans to preserve and preserve nature as proof of obedience to God (Qur'an 30: 41). So, in general the concept of human obligation to govern the world properly and responsibly is known as the khalifah fi al-ard (substitute of God on earth). Therefore, Fachruddin
Mangunjaya (2012) states that Muslim world has the potential to contribute positively to environ- mental protection by way of its beliefs and doctrine. In Christianity the moral messages of religion about nature and the environment are also clearly stated. In Genesis 2 verse 15 it is stated that "God took the man, placed him in the garden of Eden to work on it and guarded it." So that in Christians humans are stewardship of God in protecting the world. Furthermore, Pope Francis (2015) issued the Encyclical Laudato Si (Praise to You) which talk about caring for our common home (earth).
In addition, Buddhism also teaches values to maintain harmony with the environment. Inner purity in Buddhism means respect for the environment and the mutual relationship between humans and nature. In the Buddha's view, managing the environment by destroying plants is a violation. History proves that the main event in the life of the Buddha took place under the tree. Finally, Hinduism also teaches to protect the environment. Humans, nature and the environment are a perfect ecosystem of God's creation, interdependence between one another is a natural cycle. This notion is clearly stated in Bhagawadgita III.
Sloka 16.
Mainstreaming “Green Deen”
among Religious Extension Officers
Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS) has a multi-year program namely religious literacy. Originally, the program is designed to reduce religious
53 extremism which recently happened a lot in the country. Essentially, the program refers to learning about religions among religious extension officers in some regions in the country. In Indonesia, religious literacy has become a “multi-faith site for mutual learning among religious communities” (Sofjan, 2019). In doing so, ICRS has built cooperation with the Ministry of Religious Affairs and British Council to conduct workshops among religious extension officers. On the 3rd year of the program, ICRS considers to include the theme of ecology on the workshop. This decision is made based on the assumption as discussed on the previous sub-title that religious values could be good drivers to raise ecological awareness among the society.
Basically, the religious literacy program has effectively become a platform to mainstream “green deen” (Abdul Matin 2015) or religious environmentalism among the frontliners of the state in charge of religious guidance for the people. Among the findings during the workshops of religious literacy program for some religious extension officers in some cities in Indonesia responded positively to the mainstreaming of religious values on ecology, recommendation to the government, and also some best practices they have done so far on their own environment.
First, most workshop participants gave positive responses to the religious values on ecology. They do agree that there are some values concerning to environmental issues on each of their religious values.
Most Christians acknowledged that the
environmental issues have been becoming significant themes on church sermons, while some of their Muslim counterparts confessed that this issue quite rarely discussed or even preached in mosques.
Secondly, most religious extension officers agree that ecological problem should involve all parts of the society. As this problem lies deeply in the society, they believe that it would give much effect from the society unless there significant regulation and enforcement from at the governmental level.
Finally, some of the religious extension officers from many different religions acknowledged that some of them have done some best practices on environmental issues among their communities. Based on their own experiences, they have used some religious values to mainstream religious values on ecology to their respective communities.
Conclusion
Currently, Indonesia is facing significant problem environmentally as impacts of modernization and democratization.
Many environmental problems arise such as emission, plastic waste, flood, and forest fire which all above contribute significantly to global warming. To accelerate the government’s effort to curbs all the above problems, religious values could be empowered to solve the problems. Religion which in fact play a significant role could be a driving force to raise environmental awareness among the society.
54 In general, all religious extension officers as the participants of the religious literacy workshop responded positively the incorporation of ecological awareness on their preaching. They believe not only that their respective religion has its own concern on ecology, but also that they have done quite significant tasks in the society. However, the participants suggest that the government especially at the local level should issued more regulations on ecological awareness as endorsement to the society.
References
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Jenna R. Jambeck (et al), “Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean”
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Fachruddin Majeri Mangunjaya, “Developing Environmental Awareness and Conservation through Islamic Teaching”
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Fachruddin M. Mangunjaya and Jeanne Elizabeth McKayb, “Reviving an Islamic Approach for Environmental Conservation in Indonesia” in Worldviews 16 (2012).
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