Knitter SOCIAL ETHICS AND INTER-RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE IN THE CONTESTATION OF PUBLIC SPHERE IN INDONESIA

inter religionfaith dialog. However, what usually happens is mere chit- chat or not discuss about religion at all. So it seems or feels like people know other religions because they are living together with people of different religions, but in reality they do not know what others believe in. Christian school is one of the forms of church service and testimony which has been existent since the initial establishment and development of church in Indonesia. Initially, Christian schools and hospitals were means to spread the Word so that many people belief in Jesus. As an example, in the early beginning of the spread of the Word in the Central Java regions, which was around 1920-1930, Bible preaching institutions from the Netherlands Zending established Christian schools HCS met de Bijbel primary school, MCS as one of the means to spread the word of the Bible. These Christian schools generally are of high quality so that many people want to send their children there. However, subsequently there was a shift of the church understanding on the role of Christian schools which is in line with the independence of our country, the Republic of Indonesia, which demanded the active participation of the entire nation in development. Christian schools were no longer facilities to merely preach the Bible, but they have now become a means of testimony and service to show Christian care and participation in the effort of developing the field of education. There was also a shift in the understanding of the preaching of the Biblechurch mission, which do not only put emphasis on spiritual aspects, but encompasses the entire aspects of human life. Henceforth, testimony is no longer separable from service, and Christian school was no longer seen as a means of preaching the Bible, but it’s regarded as testimony and service. Soetjitpto Wirowidjojo 1978:72-73 portrayed the role of Christian school as follows: 1 as a means of church testimony, Christian school witnesses the Bible Glorifying the Kingdom of God; 2 Christian school as a means of service in the field of education to the Christian community and to the general public of the nation; 3 Christian school as a means of communications between church and community. Unexpectedly, a problem came to surface with the issuance of a Letter of Joint Agreement SKB of the Minister of Education and Culture and Minister of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia number 4USKB1999 number 570 year 1999 on the Application of Religious Education on Primary and Intermediate Education Unit under the Scope of Supervision of the Department of Education and Culture, in which it stated that students are to receive religious education in line with the religion they follow. This means Christian schools are obligated to carry out religious education other than Christianity if there were more than 10 students in the class. Subsequently, this SKB became a part of the National Education System Sisdiknas Law of 2003. Hence, since 1999 up to 2003, tensions among Christian schools were heavily felt, in which it culminated into a demonstration rejecting the issuance of the Law Proposal into the Sisdiknas Law. The reason for rejection is that if Christian schools were to provide education of other religions, then it would lose its defining character. In other words, the defining character of Christian schools lies on the implementation of the subject Education on Christianity PAK. This is actually a narrow view. Shouldn’t the defining character of these Christian schools show throughout all the school aspects which reflect the values of Christianity: a relationship of honest care and attention between the teacher and student, among teachers, among students, among teachers, students and other employees; this relationship of love and care is also founded on responsibility, discipline, redemption and peace. An expert on Christian education, N.K. Atmadja Hadinoto 190:166- 167, showed there are three kinds of attitude in regards to religious education in Christian schools: 1 Schools with apostolic emphasis,