KETEGANGAN LEGITIMASI PERNIKAHAN DI PERSIMPANGAN IMAN DAN BUDAYA (Kajian Teologi terhadap Praktik Pernikahan Suku Tobelo Galela di Desa Geti Lama, Kecamatan Bacan Barat Utara)

Abstract

This article examines the tension between two coexisting forms of marital legitimation among the Tobelo Galela people of Geti Lama Village, North West Bacan Sub-district: ecclesiastical legitimation and customary (adat) legitimation. For this community, marriage is not merely the union of two individuals but the joining of two extended families bound by social, cultural, and religious meaning. A church blessing is believed to render a couple lawfully married before God and the congregation, while the completion of customary rites determines the couple's full acceptance within the family and community. Tension arises when the two forms of legitimation do not proceed together: couples who have received a church blessing but have not completed the adat process are often still restricted for instance, the wife may not yet be permitted to reside in her husband's family home whereas couples who have completed adat but have not yet received a church blessing remain socially accepted. Using a qualitative-descriptive approach through observation, interviews, and documentation, and guided by H. Richard Niebuhr's theology of Christ and culture together with Paul Tillich's notion of the tension between religion and culture, this study finds that the Tobelo Galela community does not, in principle, treat faith and adat as mutually exclusive poles. The tension is better understood as a difference in the criteria and mechanisms of recognition, which the community negotiates by carrying out both forms of marriage sequentially. The article concludes that contextual theology opens space for the church to preserve customary values that are consonant with the love and justice of the gospel, while remaining critical of customary elements—particularly economic burdens that place undue weight on couples.