Magyar Egyház, 1957 (36. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1957-08-01 / 8-9. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ 11 HROMADKA CONFUSED AND CONFUTED Dr. J. L. Hromadka, who is emerging more and more clearly before the whole world as the “RED DEAN” of the Comenius Faculty, Theological Seminary, Prague, Czecho-Slovakia, wrote “FURTHER REFLECTIONS ON THE HUNGARIAN CRISIS” in the “Protestant Churches in Czecho-Slovakia”, a monthly publication, Vol. IV. No. 4. His first writing appeared after the Hungarian freedom fight was published in many periodicals on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. In “MAGYAR EGYHÁZ” Vol. XXXVI, No. 3. we brought the article “HUNGARIAN ANSWER TO HROMADKA” which is a clear analysis and answer to all the problems and questions raised. To anyone who took time to read these articles and compared them with the facts about the freedom fight of the Hungarians, the overwhelming evidences in every free press and the report of the United Nations, must have been sufficient. Hromadka spoke again. In his recent “reflections” he said that “it is impossible to remain silent” for we are walking on the edge of an abyss. The real reason for publishing his “further reflections” however, was, that his views were criticized in a great number of foreign papers and many of them employed severe and even “harsh criticisms.” We are willing to forget his remarks and errors which were so splendidly refuted by proving: 1. that the Hungarian freedom fight was not a counter revolutionery uprising supported by foreign arms, but a genuine popular insurgence for liberty; 2. that the Hungarians did not ask or approve the bloody Russian intervention, but soldiers, students and workers equally demanded the Russians to leave Hungary; 3. that the whole freedom fight was not due to a Hungarian nationalism or chauvinism, but those ideals are implanted into the hearts and souls of all human beings for which armless and peacful people died; young and old, often women gave up their lives; 4. that there was no counter revolutionary massacre and “pogrom” as Hromadka indicated, where tens of thousands of Jews and others were murdered, but it was a freedom fight where a blood bath was inflicted upon a nation by a foreign country with their barbaric mongol hordes and merciless tanks and weapons. Before voicing his opinion on the Hungarian events, there were Christians in America and in other parts of the world, who valued and accepted the views represented by Hromadka, but now there remains no doubt in all theologians’ thinking that Hromadka is serving two masters and his views are justified solely by the present atheist government and international communism of which he is one of the most staunch defenders. I. “But why did all this enthusiasm and heroism end in such a catastrophe?” This is a question Hromadka is asking in his peaceful “reflections”? “What are the prime causes of the Hungarian tragedy?” Someone must be very naive or impertinent to ask such questions. We have no reason to think that Hromadka is naive and has no knowledge of the facts with the Hungarian freedom fight. Since he wrote his first untenable attack, he visited Hungary, he had sources available to obtain information that the short lived freedom of Hungary brought fresh hope that there would be no restoration of the old world but a truly democratic new order. The catastrophe came from Russia, the tragedy (which is a good name for all that happened in Hungary) was the bloody intervention by the tanks and weapons of the communist armed forces. It is unreasonable, that Hromadka charges the Western nations with aiding the Hungarians with arms and weapons when there was no such assistance given to them, and in the meantime he is blind to notice the thousands of the Russians tanks horded in from Poland, Roumania and Chechoslovakia against the unarmed populace. If someone is speaking about the “joint responsibility” for all the misfortunes that afflicted Hungary, and for the thousands of suffering Hungarians, men and women, as Hromadka does, then he is on the right track when he points to the “injustices, mistakes and errors on the Hungarian (communist) government and the Hungarian (cmmunist) party and those of all socialist (communist) countries.” Yes, Hromadka is right now on his further peaceful “reflections” that among those who fought and died for Hungary’s and the whole world’s freedom and independence there were many communists whom he calls “progressive and heroic individuals.” The only mistake that Hromadka made is, that those “communists”, workers, young people and intellectuals were not bringing their utmost sacrifice for “socialist progress” — but they all died shaking off the chains of godless communism, in which they were all disillusioned. II. A bold and false accusation that Hromadka hurls against his own friends is, that more and more are the number of those who have a motive of “unfortunate anti-communist obsession” which “prevents them from having a simple, direct and frank view of what is actually going on in our countries behind the iron curtain, what is going on in our simple, personal daily life.” Doesn’t rather Hromadka have an “obsession”? He had the privilege to travel freely in the whole world and see the simple and sincere lives in our homes and churches. Can he bear testimony that the same freedom exists “behind the iron curtain?” No, for it is quite contrary. There are scores of refugee clergymen who can tell him and the free world about the sufferings and religious persecutions which are going on every day under the “benevolent Soviet” communism. The tears of those church leaders who were imprisoned on trumped up charges, the cries of those who went through the horror chambers of Hromadka’s “progressive socialism”, speak a thousand times louder than his “official information”. Thank be to God, the conscience of the free world is being awakened to the atrocities which were committed by the “propaganda clergymen” or “peacepriests” who like Hromadka in every satellite country can only promote the government’s cause and not that of the church. Why did not Hromadka visit the fellow ministers who were banished, deported or liquidated? Does Hromadka think that in the free world no one knows about the forceful government appointments föláll important offices in the church? Why do always the same “party-faithful” and “trustworthy” Hromadka and his fellow travellers represent the churches in ecumenical gatherings, while those who studied abroad and speak foreign languages are compelled to stay in primitive villages where they can hear nothing and do nothing? Why does Hromadka not persuade his regime
