The Christian Science Journal, Feb. 2006
I grew up a Muslim. In my homeland of Indonesia, Islam constitutes the majority religion. And in certain areas, such as the part of the country I’m originally from, religious tensions can easily mount because of extremists who tolerate no faith but their own.
While going to Islamic high school, I took a comparative religions class and learned about many faiths I had never heard of before. This education helped, because when I later moved to Jakarta to attend college, I began to search for a religion that would explain God and help me out of my problems.
At the time, I suffered from a kind of depression and also felt I lacked anything worthwhile in life. I thought that maybe Christianity would have something to offer. Because I now lived in an area that better respected one’s right to practice different religions, and since I was no longer living in the vicinity of my family, I felt free to visit Christian churches in the area.
One day while on a walk, I passed the Church of Christ, Scientist, and Christian Science Reading Room in Jakarta. At first I didn’t realize the connection between Christian Science and the Reading Room. I just thought it served as a place for people to come in and read anything. So I went in. As I talked with the attendant and heard about Christian Science, I recalled that I had studied it in my comparative religions class. I began to make frequent visits to the Reading Room and became familiar with the Bible, Mary Baker Eddy’s writings, and the Christian Science magazines. Soon, I realized I had become a very serious student of Christian Science and felt this was my new religion.
However, from the moment my family, friends, and work colleagues found out about my interest in a Christian religion, many of them immediately became hostile and tried to coax me to change my mind. One work colleague, even though we were good friends and still are today, came by my desk every day to contest my new religion. Although I would gently mention my freedom to find happiness in the way that truly felt right to me, most of my friends and family still did not let up.
I can understand why they questioned my belonging to a different religion. I knew that their worry and agitation came simply in response to their love for me. They didn’t want to see me lost in this life or cursed in the afterlife. And as for my friends, I suspect that they feared that our friendship would end if I continued in a different religion. But I decided early on that treating them the way they treated me wouldn’t help the situation. Moreover, striking back at them in anger simply wasn’t the Christian way. Instead, I always tried to show gentleness and compassion toward them.
In recent years, I have noticed a harmonizing and gradual backing off. A couple of major turning points stand out. When I had my office job, people noticed my good health and that I never missed a day of work. And some of them were amazed to learn that I didn’t spend any of the company’s money allocated to employees for personal medical expenses. I explained that Christian Science made it possible for me to go without using medicine.
Second, both friends and family have seen that I’m serious about Christian Science—that I love it more than a passing fancy. Some of them, I think, respect that I take it so seriously, and they’re no longer afraid of what they don’t know about my religion. In fact, a couple of years ago, one of my sisters told me that she approves of my religion and gave me her full support to continue if I feel my religion shows me the light. She acknowledged that each of us has the same goal, even though we may be pursuing different paths to get there.
To me, the hope of harmonizing the tensions between religions lies in realizing that we all worship the same God, even though our understanding of the nature of God may differ. I am very grateful for all I’ve learned through my study of Christian Science about God’s impartial, loving nature for His entire creation. And this knowledge sustains me and helps me in all my interactions with everyone, regardless of what religion each of us practices.
In Herman’s homeland of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim country, Christianity makes up 9 percent of the population.
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