Magyar Egyház, 1933 (12. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1933-10-01 / 5. szám
FOR GOD AND COUNTRY fMARTE/ By ARCH-DEAN ENDRE SEBESTYÉN WE DO OUR PART As all signs and evidences go, we are in the midst of a revolution. A revolution which came in a most orderly fashion and along strictly constitutional lines. For its smoothness and dispatch it might well serve as a model for church conventions. Ours is a revolution to the right and in this respect it represents a most powerful warning that revolutions to the left had run their courses and at least as far as these United States are concerned are eternally discredited. Its guiding principle is distinctly moral. And in this aspect it is a sharp and well defined right about face to that mode of human thinking in the valuation of which all the panaceas for the ills of humanity were readily discoverable in the pretenses and pretexts of that viast conglomeratum known as the economic view on life. Though the differences are marked, our revolution in its essentials falls in step with the revolutions of post-war Europe. Fascism, Stalinism or Hitlerism will never find fertile soil in this land. Yet, in laying emphasis on the principle of morality as against the principle of economy; on social relations as against economical relations, and in its bold resoluteness against all elements of disintegration as well as in its equally bold challenge for constructive rehabilitation in the whole realm of national life, it presents itself as very much in common with the main ideas behind the colossal revolutionary movements of present day Europe. A phenomenon of most striking character and equally striking significance is this that the contribution of the American churches toward bringing about this great transformation in the life of the nation is, generally speaking, tantamount to nil. To their unenviable World War record the churches have added a peace record which both in its international ramifications and its one-hundred-percentism at home is well nigh indefensible. The divines of Rome have gone to great pains to broach the idea of Protestant destructionism as culminating in the World War and the ruin and devastation which it has brought. No doubt, the order thus served is beyond all proportions too large for critical consumption. The fact remains, however, that the great church bodies of Evangelical Christianity may rightfully be criticized for their amazing failure in constructive witnessing. For alarmism, notwithstanding all the disquieting symptoms, very fortunately there is no need at all. The redeeming qualities of American democracy have asserted themselves in the election of last November and in the ever gaining impetus with which the national recovery program is marching on its way toward a happy fulfillment. The vast forces of reconditioning and reconstruction set to motion by the President and his administration bound up with a national program amounting almost to a solemn confession of faith in the country and in God bid well that out of the dismal depths which the country has gone through, a new order is emerging, bringing tidings of cheer to all men of good will. On the part of the children of the ancient Magyar Reformed Faith in this country, the program and messages of the President meet with a response of profound sympathy and rejoicing. Nurtured in the cardies of that venerated church body, the ancient Reformed Church of Hungary, which for four centuries has ever and against all odds so gallantly stood up in her witnessing “pro deo et patria”, they can not help readily recognizing in this program and in these messages a singular familiarity with the ideals they have brought here in the much cherished inheritance bestowed upon them by their forefathers. The Free Magyar Reformed Church in America and its official organ, the “Magyar Egyház”, gladly avail themselves of the opportunity to greet the dawning of this great new era and to convey to it this heartfelt message: Godspeed!
