Religious Disobedience: Understanding Disobedience to Religious Authority in Indonesia

This study examines how moral violations committed by religious figures affect public trust and foster selective disobedience toward religious authority. While previous research has focused predominantly on interfaith conflicts, this study highlights the internal dynamics of disobedience within religious communities toward religious authority, addressing gaps in understanding how the public responds to moral and legal transgressions. It poses key questions regarding the extent to which such breaches undermine trust and encourage conditional adherence to religious authority. Employing qualitative methods, the research analyses data from online news sources and social media using thematic analysis. The findings indicate that public disobedience is expressed through criticism, satire, and sarcasm—forms that underscore dissatisfaction with both moral conduct and institutional credibility. These expressions of dissent signal a shift in societal expectation wherein public trust is increasingly contingent upon the perceived moral integrity of religious figures. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of public disobedience as a reaction to crises of moral legitimacy and underscores the importance of further research into the interrelation of trust, morality, and authority in diverse religious contexts.