Knowledge and Special Skills

previously mentioned televangelists, who generally establish their own service organisation, most Protestant priests work in a team and are responsible to the organisation that requested for himher, that is the church represented by its boardcouncil. If proven to have deviated from moral values highly regarded by the church, a priest can be penalized and even dismissed from hisher office by the organisation that requested himher. Some churches also have periodical evaluation mechanisms for their priests. Even so, it does not mean that priests basically do not have independence. It is in fact excessive independence which is claimed by other professionals to have caused what is currently dubbed ‘professionalism crises’. With reason of professional autonomy, doctors and advocates tend to be authoritarian in providing their services. They feel more responsible to their professional association than to their clients Wiest and Smith, 1990:74. Professional associations to spiritual figures are not yet common. Because of that spiritual figures do not have to deal with tensions among responsibility to the parish and the association. However, in the case of priests, if the position of the church organisation were too dominant, its interest can be in opposition to the interest of the parish. Priests are often conditioned to be mere operators of the churches’ regulations. Those who follow that pattern will not be able to enhance their creativity. They tend to seek safety by hiding behind obedience to rulesregulations while portraying themselves as a good boygirl. But in fact rulesregulations generalize matters. In certain situations, rules can be counter-productive. In many cases, rules need to be reinterpreted. In these kinds of situations, a priest’s professionalism is tested. As a professional, a priest should have the autonomy to take creative and decisive measures which can be accountable to the church. Jesus’ independent attitude towards the laws of Torah should be a rich inspiration to the independence of priests. Spiritual figures independence is also often sacrificed for the interest of economy, politics, and popularity. Many spiritual figures are forced to adjust religious messages with the taste of sponsors or influential figures in the community for the sake of upholding constancy. Hence they distance themselves from the parishes’ lower tier who is usually the ones mostly in need of spiritual service. Near the time of national and regional election, many spiritual figures are approached by political parties to utilize their influence and authority. Many spiritual figures consequently welcome these kinds of approaches happily. By becoming tools for political parties, these spiritual figures sacrifice their independence making it difficult to behave objectively in front of parishes who believe in them. In addition, many spiritual figures choose popularity as their priority. Making it a priority also jeopardizes professional independence because true religious messages are not always popular. Spiritual figures who seek popularity usually avoid delivering critical messages challenging stability and condemning common hypocrisy. Messages with tone of tolerance towards other followers of religions are normally less popular as well. Religious communities prefer messages that nurture fanaticism and narcissism. Consequently, spiritual figures prioritizing popularity are usually trapped into becoming ‘religiotainer’ by conveying light messages providing mundane entertainment, or becoming provocateurs igniting group fanaticism.

2.4 Spiritual Figures Motivation and Commitment

The professionalism crisis I mentioned above is mainly in the form of shift of professional motivation. Since services of professionals such as doctors and lawyers are highly regarded in society, the income they acquire is also very high. This could be an ordeal in itself for professionals to indicate amount of pay as a yardstick for quality of service. The principle of professionalism, that is providing service for the good of the society or community is becoming neglected more and more. Trull and Carter mentioned three dangers of present time faced by professionals, that is becoming too dependent on oneself, too much orientation towards success, and too confident of self-worth 2004:33. Spiritual figures are not free from such temptations. The root of many conflict and difficulty in cooperating among fellow priests lies on those three things. Being too focused on strength, success, and self- worth, a number of priests view their colleagues not as partners but as competitors. Some priests also make the amount of fee received from the parish as a sign of their success. Others boast the large amount of invitation to preach out of their parishes as proof of their gaining popularity. This kind of focus on one’s own success present a bad influence devastating to the religious community. These spiritual figures consider the religious community as mere consumers or objects of exploitation. Their commitment to the community’s religious faith is no longer clear, let alone their spirit to sacrifice for the sake of the community. It is unclear what these religious figures ‘profess’ to as a basis for executing their job. Trull and Carter 2004:40 view the diminishing sense of calling by Allah as an essential factor in relegating the professionalism level of priests into mere discourse for self-success. Prospective students of theology are sometimes laughed at when claiming to have enrolled to school of theology with reason of ‘God’s calling’. Perhaps the people mocking only do so to convince the prospective student not to make that sort of substantial claim too easily. But this experience of being mocked, to some, becomes a sort of trauma which would make them no longer convinced of God’s calling. Since the calling is no longer taken into consideration, they must seek other motivation, both for their study or future job. Ambiguity in spiritual and moral motivation renders spiritual figures lacking true visions. Hence, they find it difficult to devise service