Why Not Indonesia & Japan — By, Ismael Sapoval

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I waited for two hours in the lobby of a bank until my number was called. My number was 20. When I began to wait they were taking care of customer number 15. Five to go I said—It will go quick. It did not go quick! Finally it was my turn. She was friendly, professional and she did her very best to speak in English and help me open a checking account. I just wanted a simple, no frills checking account. We are making progress and about 45 minutes into it looks like we are coming to an end. Papers were being printed, my picture taken, fingerprinted and just a couple of additional questions. What is your address? What’s your phone number? She continues to enter data. There was a bit of silence as she continued to look at the screen and type. She looks up and asks, what’s your religion? My religion?

At first I thought she was just conversing. She did ask me earlier how long we have been living in Indonesia and what my favorite food was so far, etc. At first I thought she was just asking my religion—you know, out of curiosity. I answered “Christian”. She begins to type. I said, you need to know my religion in order for me to open a checking account? She said, Yes!

What’s my Religion? What is “Religion” anyways?

re·li·gion

The word religion comes from the Latin and while there are a few different translations, the most prevalent roots take you back to the Latin word “Re-Ligare”. “Ligare” means “to bind” or to “connect”.  Adding the “re” before “ligare” causes the word to mean “Re-Bind” or “Re-Connect.”

Religion is basically the word that is used to describe who we are bound to or who we are connected to.

I said that my religion is Christian. I am a Christian. The Bible contains only a few examples of the word “religion.” I will not go into great detail about it at this time, but I will share a couple of verses that hopefully can shed some light on what James in the New Testament thinks “religion” is.

James 1:26 “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless”

James 1:27 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

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By the way, I did open my checking account and walked away with a new and shiny Debit Card. The first time I tried to use it, the ATM machine accepted my card and after entering my pin number the screen goes back to “Welcome to XXX Bank”. My debit card remained in the bowels of a very modern and slick looking ATM machine. I shall go back again this week and take a number!