‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ a rule to live by

Many years ago, my wife and I, and our two young children, embarked on a Middle Eastern experience.

We spent most of 1979 (the year of the terrible Erebus disaster) living in Amman City, Jordan, and then over two years on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

Study of Arabic language and culture occupied the first year, while my Auckland University accounting studies came to the fore at the Cypriot headquarters, and I fulfilled the administrative role required of me while also travelling back to Jordan and into Lebanon and Egypt.

Throughout this time, we mixed and mingled with a multitude of different nationalities, both local and expatriate communities. We came to use a regular expression to maintain our sanity and hold ourselves back from judging others as inferior . . . “It’s not better or worse, it’s different.”

Today, in 21st century New Zealand, that expression still holds true as we watch our country embrace a multitude of people groups who now call this land of the long white cloud ‘home’.

Even in rural towns like Te Awamutu, there is a growing diversity of language and culture . . . and the challenge is to live happily side-by-side.

Whichever political flavour you come from, you know that we face some challenging years ahead as we seek to integrate with each other and share this amazing, beautiful country.

In our diversity, how do we maintain unity? How do we help, support, and encourage one another from such diverse backgrounds and beliefs?

Two thousand years ago, a radical called Jesus, from a little Middle Eastern town called Nazareth, proclaimed these words: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”

What a radical, positive change would come to our society if we could learn to live by those words and embrace all members of our diverse society. Sadly, the Middle East in general has not heeded those words

. . . and I don’t think the majority of New Zealanders have either . . . but what would our nation be like if we did?