Bethlen Évkönyv, 1993-1996 (Ligonier)
Halottaink
days in prisons, he was also interned for three months in forced labor camps. In 1949, he escaped by swimming a river and crossed over to Yugoslavia. There, in turn, he was arrested by Tito’s border guards. He managed to escape again, and found his way to Trieste, where he served as minister to Hungarian refugees. Subsequently, he attended the Graduate School of Theology at Lausanne, Switzerland. He arrived in the United States and with a World Council of Churches fellowship studied at the Oberlin School of Theology. While at Oberlin, he was a frequent guest speaker and visiting minister in the greater Cleveland area Hungarian Reformed churches. Oberlin awarded Molnár the degree of Master of Sacred Theology in 1954. He assumed his first pastorate in the United States in the same year, when he was elected minister by the Hungarian Evangelical and Reformed Church in Gary, Indiana. In October, 1954, he married a second generation Hungarian lady, Ethel Olga Gergely, at Gary, with Dr. István Szabó officiating. (Mrs. Molnár earned a master’s degree from the Chicago Institute of Art, and was active in the local YWCA.) Rev. Molnár was an effective and faithful pastor, and his eloquent sermons attracted attention in the larger Gary community. He was a frequent guest speaker of service organizations and the media most favorably reported his speeches before the Kiwanis Club of Crown Point and other agencies. (At one of these occasions, he introduced himself by saying: “I am Lajos Molnár, Hungarian, Christian, Man.”) While at Gary, he continued his theological education and became a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago. The topic of his proposed doctoral dissertation was: “Christian and Secular Interpretation of Democracy.” The 1956 Hungarian Revolution found Molnár in Gary. He became an active sponsor of several Hungarian refugees, who arrived during the last weeks of that year. Molnár, however, accepted a new pastorate in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in January, 1957. The new pastor immediately devoted much energy and time into receiving and assisting scores of Hungarian refugees, who arrived in the Milwaukee area. His devotion to the welfare 461
