Palestinian Pastor Awad

Pastor Awad is in Hong Kong again.  The first time that I met him was in 2011, when he visited Hong Kong.  He gave me a copy of his memoirs, written in English, which was already out of print then.  On Wednesday I went to listen to him again, at the Methodist Church in Wanchai.  This time, a team of volunteers translated his memoirs into Chinese and published it in Hong Kong.  This makes the story much more accessible, at least for the Chinese.  Their efforts are much appreciated. 

We have heard a lot about Palestine from the Jewish point of view, both religious and secular, Zionist and non-Zionist.  We have also heard quite a bit from the Palestinian and Arab point of view, mostly Muslim.  But we have rarely heard from the Palestinian or Arabic Christian point of view.  Many people seem to think or behave as if they do not exist - that all Palestinians and Arabs are Muslims - that the only difference is whether they are fundamentalist or moderate.  Some people believe that there is no distinct Palestinian people - that Palestinians are just Arabs from other countries.  

It seems Palestinians are truly a people.  At least that is what Palestinians believe themselves.  There are 12 million of them, with 70% living outside Israel and Palestine.  And 500,000 of them are Christians: Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists, other branches of Protestants, and yet others.  In contrast, it is estimated that there are 15 million Jews in the world, with 6.5 million living in Israel.  

According to Pastor Awad, Palestinians will accept a one-state solution in which Palestinians are accepted as full-fledge citizens of the State of Israel.  They will also accept a two-state solution in which Palestinians have their own state.  However, so far neither solution has been fully realized.  Palestine is recognised as a state by more than one hundred countries, but crucially, not by Israel, USA, and most of the European Union. 

Some Christians, including many pastors, claim that Christians should focus no preaching the Gospel, and that nothing else matters - not poverty, not justice, not other physical needs and certainly not politics.   When I posed this question to Pastor Awad, his response was that Jesus does not just preach the Gospel - that Jesus also heals the sick and care about other needs; that there is no escape from politics; that we should practice good politics and stay away from bad politics; that recognizing people’s rights is good politics while that depriving people of their rights is bad politics.

Pastor Awad also said that we cannot solve all the world’s problems by ourselves and the ultimate solutions must await Jesus’ coming again.  But we do not know when Jesus will return and must be prepared for His return - by doing what we can to follow Him.  

I cannot agree more.