There’s been a great deal of attention given lately to the news that the country of Indonesia has made it a crime for people to have sex unless they are married.
What’s been less noted is that the same new Indonesian penal code imposes a sentence of five years in prison for blasphemy against Christianity. Of course, it isn’t just Christianity that now has the power to impose speech codes on people in Indonesia. It is also now against the law to insult Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Confucian ideology in Indonesia.
You might think that this new theocratic law is insignificant, but Indonesia is the the fourth most populous nation on Earth, behind only China, India, and the United States. Indonesia has almost as many inhabitants as the USA. These new theocratic penal codes force religious observance on a huge portion of the global population, and apply not only to Indonesian citizens, but to anyone who sets foot on Indonesian territory.
What’s more, Christian Nationalists in the United States long to impose the same kind of draconian religious laws. The only difference is that Christian Nationalists want to give special power to punish dissent exclusively to Christian authorities, excluding all other religions from theocracy.
