Hungarian Church Press, 1950 (2. évfolyam, 4-13. szám)
1950-03-15 / 5. szám
MOur opinion is that the church should not take part in politics, neither is she to have political power. We are,there*» fora, in agreement with the Constitution which, V7hile guaranteeing the freedom of conscience and religion, separates the church from the state and thereby opens the road towards the free church system". "Yet, while we hold to the idea of the church that is free of politics, we do not see incompatibility in the church's recognising, approving and helping, with her means, that great social transformation that is now taking place in thi-c country* The aots of social justice, the results in helping the poor and oppressed which have already been achieved and will be realized in the course of an unparallelled reconstruction effort, are in the spirit of Christ. "He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out'of the dunghill" /Psalm 113:7./ I ask you: is not our people's demoejney doing the work of "raising the poor", those who were oppressed in the past, "out of the dust" and lifting needy millions "out of the dunghill"? ".every valley -shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain" - says the Bible. I ask.you again: is not our bocialistic development marked exactly by this work of filling up the valleys of mass poverty and bringing down the heights of luxurious ease enjoyed by the few? It is in harmony with our Christian confession that our church looks with love and helping attention upon that victorious building effort which is transforming, in the factories, on the fields and on the office desks, the whole country with its liberated people". "If we think only of what we sav; in the country or even in this capital five years ago - ruins, debris and devastation, - and if we consider what we see now: we must come to this decision. We have even more reason to do so if we consider the hitherto unthinkable dimensions of that development which is envisaged in the new plans that are before us and are being realized". "lieither is it conflicting with, nay, it is the very vocation of our church to take our part, according to our abilities, in the great peace effort of our days. It is less than five yeuüTß that the Second World War ended; there are still tears in the eyes of the widows and orphans, the wounds have not yet healed, yet the imperialistic maniacs of world dominion are preparing a new world war of hitherto undreamed horrors. We know that their sinful intentions can be thwarted, if all friends of peace, v7ithout regard to race, nationality, creed and religion, unite their strength against them. We,Hungarian Lutherans, are realizing with pride that we have been taking part in this struggle for peace and that we were represented, on the World Hally of the partisans of Peace, by our brother, Bishop Vető. The Committee of .this Congress has recently issued a call on the elected representatives of all nations to intensify this struggle for the defense of peace. The delegation of the Hungarian Peace Commission will hand over tomorrow this call to the Presidential Council of the Hungarian People's Hepublic. Our Bishcp Vető is a member of Hungarian Church Press
