ABSTRACT
Marriage involves numerous elements such as romance, promise, love, and perhaps in Indonesia, religion. Since 1974 religion has become part of everyday life in Indonesia not only for the religiously inclined but also for those falling in love. The 1974 National Marriage Law, which stemmed from the state’s ideology of Pancasila, stipulates that no marriage is to be authorized without religious solemnization. Couples who embrace different religions began to find themselves in a difficult situation, not because the law clearly banned inter-religious marriage but because it contained a substantial degree of ambiguity on the issue. Inter-religious marriage is, even now, considered to be unlawful by the general public, and the media often reports on the possible expenses incurred by such marriages. 1 This has resulted in some couples filing lawsuits in order to gain legal approval for their marriages, while others have traveled to Singapore or Australia where such marriages are legal. In Indonesia, both partners are presumed to share the same religion at the time of the wedding ceremony and if not, one partner is expected to convert to the other’s religion. Such conversion is not uncommon in contemporary Indonesia. More importantly, for Indonesians, it touches upon the issue of citizenship rather than faith.
