Hungarian Church Press, 1950 (2. évfolyam, 4-13. szám)

1950-06-01 / 10. szám

-10-fruiigárián Church Press

1947, the democratic Parliament abolished this invidious distinction. One can safely say that it was a milestone on the road of constitutional development that the Act XXXIII of 1947 abolished all those constitutional disabilities which had so'far prevailed to the disadvantage of the so-called "recognized" churches. Thus tne.Baptist church, - a "recognized" church since I9O5 - which had been burdened by this invidious classification, was now raised to an equal standing with the "received" churches. The new legislation placed the "received" and "recognized" churches on an equal constitutional footing, ,

The benefits of this constitutional achievement were shared - in December, 1947 - with the Methodist church which was declared, try the Minister of 'Religious Affairs and Public Education, to be a "recognized" church. This recognition was a moral victoiy of Hungarian democracy, since the Hungarian Methodist church, in spite of the fact that Methodism belongs to the numerically largest Protestant denominations of the world, had vainly asked, for thirty years, for state recognition.

The XXXIIIrd Act of 1947 was the first law affecting the churches since 1895• When its bill was under debate in the Parliament, the friendly atmosphere of the discussions and the unanimous opinions of all representatives, irrespective of their political affiliations, made it obvious that it was the matter of paying an old debt which was inherited with the bankrupt's estate of the old regime. One of the speakers said this: "I feel that we are now doing justice, quite belatedly, to those martyrs, galley slaves and Protestant preachers of centuries past who wore ready, for their freedom of religion and thought, undergo martyrd cm ".

Then this now law/wr.s crowned by another significant achievement- of Hungarian legislation, the 19th Article of the XLVIIIth Act of I948 which says as follows: "Unless the act is of such a nature that it requires a more severe punishment, a person is punishable with, at the most, one year's imprisonment inasmuch ho or she applies derogatory expressions to the Hungarian democratic state system, to the republic, to a fundamental institution of the republic, to a society or association in the country or to a religious denomination, or inasmuch he or she commits acts to this effect... etc," What is tue meaning of this article? To my mind it means that the state manifests the same vigilance and applies the same sanctions in defending the good name and reputation of the state, with which it protects the good name and reputation of the religious denominations.

The Separation of State and Church...

I mere iy mention that the nationalization of church schools had no practical effect on the free churches since those had always opposed, in principle, the establishment of such schools.

And since the government does not hinder and even gives financial support - should the churches ask for it - to the work of training ministers, the Minister of Religious Affairs guarantees, by a special decree, that the Baptist Theolcgical Seminary will remain in the possession of the Baptist church. We must note that the Baptist denomination pays all her personal and real expenses,