Few days after OMC 8, the US was attacked by Muslim Radicals. The attack re-energized frontal confrontation and changed the relationship between the West and the Muslim world as well as the rest of the world. September 11 attack was heinous acts of few individuals filled with hatred toward the US. However, the attack was just culmination of decades of friction between the West and the Muslim, especially the radical brand.
To the majority of Muslim including those in Indonesia, the West symbolizes infidelity, immorality, and perversion of family and cultural values. The West was viewed as greed, materialistic, and too lenient to what considered taboo, such as sex before marriage, abortion, divorce. Basically, the West was considered a morally corrupt nation that will cause the nation to be immoral. This view was not just empty accusation. From the Hollywood to Free Port, from the US AID to Christian missions, they all did not portray values that were morally respectable.
To the few radical Muslims, the image of the West was extremely negative. They certainly viewed that the US as the conquering foes that need to be rejected by force. Since they cannot hit the West directly, because all their installations were heavily guarded, they directed their attack to the second best thing that represented the West, which was the Christians. Their attacks not only fulfilled their religious duty to eliminate the infidels, but also filled their wallet with treasure. This is because the eastern part of Indonesia where the Christians were residing and blessed with natural resources.
With this background, OMC 9 was held in Chicago in September 2002. (Please note that the OMC was held prior to Bali Bombing.) During the conference FICA realized that we had two major challenges in front of us. One, we were to partner with our local churches here in the US to reverse the immorality. Second, we had to change the mindset of ethnic and religious bigotry including among the Christians in Indonesia.
We needed to show in Indonesia and US that living in pluralistic society did not mean living in immoral society like the West. We could have pluralistic society based on strong universal moral foundation that Christians believed stated in the Bible. In essence, we realized that Christians in Indonesia should shed the shadow of the West and embrace true biblically modeled society. For we know that when Thy Kingdom comes, not everybody believes in Jesus and we need to live in pluralistic society.