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AWR Chief Editor Cornelis Hulsman was recently invited to deliver the annual Bjoern Bue's Human Rights Memorial Lecture at Norway's MHS - School of Mission and Theology
STAVANGER, Norway (AWR) -- Thank you Dr. Bård Maeland, Dr. Kristin Fjelde Tjelle, and Dr. Jan Opsal for your kind invitation to give the prestigious Bjoern Bue’s Human Rights Memorial Lecture for 2012 on the God-given, equal and inherent dignity, worth and rights of all human beings and since I am speaking about Egypt in particular, Muslims and Christians. Thank you all for attending.
I was impressed by the torch marches last week in different locations in Norway that showed solidarity with Christians in the Middle East. Impressive too was that the new Norwegian Foreign Minister, Espen Barth Eide attended one of these marches. It shows that this subject is important to Norwegians. There is good cause for concern as Christians are hastily leaving the Middle East and if this continues at the current rate, there won’t be many Christians left in the next generation.
It is important to give attention to this, but we also need to be extremely cautious about how this is expressed because very often we also hear presentations that are simply untrue. People sometimes speak of Christian persecution, but I prefer to speak of hardship for all Egyptians, including Christians.
I was raised as Christian and I am Christian. I was raised in an environment with negative views of Muslims and Islam. In 1974, 1975, 1976 and 1977 I went to Israel where I have met with Leif Larsen, a lifelong Norwegian friend whose family I visited before coming here and whose daughter Linn Elise is attending my lecture now. In Israel my views on Muslims and Islam gradually changed. I first met with Palestinian Muslims and Christians. I then went to other Arab countries to hear their views. I have met with many, many people and I have changed.
Personal meetings count. Direct contacts. Not seeing people of other faiths and cultures as abstract entities or even enemies, but as people of real flesh and blood, people with their strengths and weaknesses. I have met with great intellectuals, politicians, students, farmers, and laborers. All have contributed to my understanding of peoples of different cultures. All of them have also contributed to my understanding of God’s word in Matthew 25:35-36, where Jesus said “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was ill and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
These words refer to any hungry or thirsty person, any stranger, any ill person, and any prisoner. Anyone! This includes Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, and people from any other religion. We need to help our neighbor. And when we help our neighbor we in fact have done this to Jesus.
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