Calvin Synod Herald, 1976 (76. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1976-07-01 / 7-8. szám

4

CALVIN SYNOD HERALD

descendents who we are and where we came from.

The great danger we face in America today is our rootless society. It is essential for everyone’s mental health to know what he can of his ancestry and background. It gives one security and pride and it becomes an endless source of knowledge and inspiration — and yes, pleasure. Get started on your Family Identity Kit. If your roots belong to only one cultural heritage, cultivate that. If your roots have three or four or even more heritages, cultivate that. You’re lucky if you have more than one. You have a life time of delightful research ahead of you and your rewards will be that your grandchildren and your greatgrandchildren will call YOU blessed. But mostly this rootless society should seek to become rooted in the land God gave you and gave me in which to live and move and have our being.

Our church is on its way, not only this congregation, but the whole United Church of Christ is on its way to become God’s proving ground. We are now in part as you see on this table, what America must become — A nation that will lift up and truly appreciate the immense cultural and historical wealth and resource that is represented by its people of every race, color and creed.

I believe sincerely, that if we fail, then America will cease to be good — and it will cease to be great. Our text comes as a blessed refrain: “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.”

Lose not the heritage of God and lose not the heritage of man.

Let us pray: 0 God, let us not depart from this House until we receive Thy blessing.

Make us to understand that we are people rooted in Thee. Make us to respect and honor our earthly roots, our own and those of others, so that we may not be obstacles and hindrances in Thy Proving Ground — America — God’s land.

Keep us, 0 Lord, to be people chosen as Thy heritage.

Grant us such love of liberty and freedom that will be for all in this land and an example for all the world.

This day we begin, 0 Lord a new century in our nation’s history. Keep her ever in Thy Hand. We ask in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Transcribed from original Tape)

HUNGARY'S RECORD IN OLYMPICS

1896

Athens

Gold

2

Silver

1

Bronz

2

Total

5

1900

Paris

1

2

3

6

1904

St. Louis

2

1

1

4

1908

London

3

4

1

8

1912

Stockholm

3

2

3

8

1920

1924

Antwerpen

Paris

2

did not 4

participate

4

10

1928

Amsterdam

5

5-10

1932

Los Angeles

6

5

6

17

1936

Berlin

10

1

6

17

1948

London

10

6

13

29

1952

Helsinki

16

10

17

43

1956

Melbourne

9

10

8

27

1960

Rome

6

8

7

21

1964

Tokyo

10

7

5

22

1968

Mexico City

10

10

12

32

1972

München

6

13

16

35

1976

Montreal

4

5

12

21

Total:

105

94

116

315

GENOCIDE IN RUMANIA

Two hundred years ago the United States was founded on strong moral principles. The fashionable view today holds that those principles have largely eroded since 1776. We Hungarian-Americans do not adhere to this view.

The United States of America is still the champion of human rights and fundamental freedoms around the globe. It leads the fight for these ideals in the United Nations. It is the hope of oppressed Soviet Jewry and other minorities. As a last resort it gives haven to refugees of tyranny, as many of us have reason to appreciate.

There is now an opportunity to take a further step in the spirit of this noble tradition. Rumania’s dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, is pursuing an increasingly brazen program amounting to cultural genocide against that country’s Hungarian, German, and other minorities. The six major elements of this program are:

1. Elimination of minority educational institutions

Taking full advantage of the State monopoly on education, the Rumanian government eliminates, merges and reorganizes schools at will. As a result, from 1956 to 1974 the number of Hungarian elementary schools dropped from 1,515 to 776. Even official statistics show that only 60-65% of Hungarian children have the opportunity to attend Hungarian grade schools, and only 25% to attend Hungarian secondary schools. Minority origin is a definite handicap when seeking admission to an educational institution. In 1959 the two Hungarian universities were arbitrarily eliminated — and not for the lack of students.

2. Suppression of minority languages

In addition to manipulating the educational system, the Rumanian government employs other methods to suppress the use of minority languages. Rumanian is the exclusive language used at every level of government bureaucracy. This policy encourages chauvinism even in strictly private social situations. Members of minorities often have to put up with derision and threats for using their mother tongue.

3. Falsification of historical data and population statistics

The Rumanian Communist Party produces and disseminates its own version of history. Their semi-fictional version of Rumanian history dismisses the significance of the indigenous Hungarian culture which predates the emergence of the first Rumanian state by three centuries.

Through the notorious communist method of manipulating statistics, the population of minority groups is constantly falsified in government records. The Rumanian