Magyar Egyház, 1962 (41. évfolyam, 2-12. szám)
1962-02-01 / 2. szám
8 MAGYAR EGYHÁZ charge of Indonesian affairs for many years in the past. Between the two nations which were bound together by so many cultural, social and personal ties for centuries all communications have been broken. In New Delhi, where the churches came together to witness to the light of the world, Jesus Christ, an honest and serious attempt was made to renew conversations. And closer to us, it was New Delhi where Hungarian Reformed Christians from Hungary, Rumania, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and the 'Tnited States could meet and exchange views. The examples could be multiplied. People may ask, however, “what are the results?” They nay point out that after New Delhi Indonesian and Dutch relations worsened, Cuba was justly condemned at Punta del Este, the wall stands in Berlin and no freedom is in sight for enslaved East Europeans. Saying these they are right. But ... In the name of Jesus Christ it was possible to loyal citizens of nations between which all communications have come to a halt, where the outbreak of hostilities may be at hand, to exchange views, and to seek ways, for reconciliation and better understanding. This is not one of the big sensations reported from New Delhi and certainly it is not the reason why it will be remembered in the history of the Christian Church. But the fact remains that in a hopelessly divided world with mounting tensions and conflicts such a truly World Council of Churches could be held. As an East European delegate wrote privately to an Asian: “we departed as brethren from them whom we did not even want to talk to in Delhi; a miracle indeed.” Someone wrote about the significance of New Delhi that it was not so much what this assembly said, but what it did. It should not be forgotten, however, that simply the fact of such a world gathering in a divided world is an important witness to the Lord of the Church.----------------0O0---------------RELIGIOUS FREEDOM Declaration by the World Council of Churches Assembly New Delhi, 1961 1. MANKIND is threatened by many forces which curtail or deny freedom. There is accordingly urgent need to reinvigorate efforts to ensure that every person has opportunity for the responsible exercise of religious freedom. 2. Christians see religious liberty as a consequence of God’s creative work, of his redemption of man in Christ and his calling of men into his service. God’s redemptive dealing with men is not coercive. Accordingly human attempts by legal enactment or by pressure of social custom to coerce or to eliminate faith are violations of the fundamental ways of God with men. The freedom which God has given in Christ implies a free response to God’s love, and the responsibility to serve fellow men at the point of deepest need. 3. Holding a distinctive Christian basis for religious liberty, we regard this right as fundamental for men everywhere. 4. We reaffirm the Declaration of Religious Liberty adopted by the World Council of Churches and the International Missionary Council in August-September 1948, and hold to its provisions. We recognize the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed by the United Nations in December 1948, as an important instrument in promoting respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms. 5. Although freedoms of every kind are interrelated, religious liberty may be considered as a distinctive human right, which all men may exercise no matter what their faith. The article on religious freedom in the Universal Declaration is an acceptable standard, always provided that it be given a comprehensive interpretation. Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. 6. The recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family requires that the general standard here declared should be given explicit expression in every aspect of society. Without seeking to be inclusive, we illustrate as follows: 7. Freedom of thought, conscience and belief, even considered as inner freedom, requires freedom of access to reliable information. 8. Freedom to manifest one’s religion or belief, in public or in private and alone or in community with others, is esssential to the expression of inner freedom. a. It includes freedom to worship according to one’s chosen form, in public or in private. b. It includes freedom to teach, whether by formal or informal instruction as well as preaching with a view to propagating one’s faith and persuading others to accept it. c. It includes freedom to practice religion or belief, whether by performance of acts of mercy or by the expression in word or deed of the implications of belief in social, economic and political matters, both domestic and international. d. It includes freedom of observance by following religious customs or by participating in religious rites in the family or in public meeting. 9. Religious liberty includes freedom to change one’s religion or belief without consequent social, economic, and political disabilities. Implicit in this right is the right freely to maintain one’s belief or disbelief without external coercion or disability. 10. The exercise of religious liberty involves other human rights. The Universal Declaration proclaims among others, the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association; the right to freedom of opinion and expression including freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers; the prior right of parents to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children; freedom to participate in choosing the desired form of government and in freely electing officials; freedom from the retroactive application of penal law: and freedom to leave and to return to one’s own country and to seek asylum elsewhere. 11. The freedom with which Christ has set us free calls forth responsibility for the rights of others. The civil freedom which we claim in the name of Christ
