Prophetic Pulpit or Hate Speech: The Limits of Criminalising Christian Preaching under Articles 300–301 of the Indonesian Criminal Code

Abstract

The Indonesian National Criminal Code, which came into effect on 2 January 2026, establishes a more explicit connection between religious preaching and the criminal restrictions on religion-related hate speech. The problem intensified following the amendment of Article 300 by Law No. 1 of 2026, which focused legal safeguards on individuals or groups discriminated against due to their religion or belief, and transformed the exclusion in paragraph (2) into a clear legal standard. This research investigates the legal demarcation between safeguarded Christian prophetic preaching and punishable speech as delineated in Articles 300–301 of the Criminal Code. It utilizes normative-interdisciplinary legal research via statutory, conceptual, case law, human rights, and prophetic-theological methodologies. Legal documents are analyzed via grammatical, systematic, constitutional, and prescriptive interpretations. The research concludes that doctrinal critique, theological exclusivity, severe homiletic rhetoric, or simple offense do not suffice to impose criminal responsibility. The proposed interpretation examines the statutory conduct and intent alongside the target, context, reach, and realistic risk of harm. Constitutional Court reasoning on the Electronic Information and Transactions Law is used as a limited interpretive reference rather than a ruling on Article 300. The research introduces a Prophetic-Proportionality Test as an interpretative framework for Articles 300–301, maintaining strong prophetic critique while rejecting protection for pulpits that dehumanize or incite animosity toward religious groups