Hungarian Church Press, 1950 (2. évfolyam, 4-13. szám)
1950-06-01 / 10. szám
Hungarian Church Press including tuese of the Baptist institutions, from the voluntary efforings of tin; believers. Yet the outstanding event, in the history of- the last five years' legislation, was undoubtedly the proclamation of the Constitution of the Hungarian People's Republic. When the ''fice------♦ Premier, Matthias Rákosi, or: August 5,. 1949, presented the bill of the constitution to the Council of Ministers, he left no doubt , 1 that Hungary, as a people1 republic, set Lor foot on the road of * Stalin's constitution, which was to be the pattern of the Hungarian _ const itut ion . The Stalinic Constitution, declares the separation of state church. In the sane way, our constitution, while guaranteeing, in the 54th §, the right of the republic's citizens to the freedom of conscience and to the free exercise of religion* declares that "in order tc secure the freedom of conscience,the < Hungarian People's Republic separates the church from the state", /it is a well known fact that several state-subsidized churches made an agreement with the state in terms of which the financial support will gradually cease, Thus the separation will not be an immediate act, but a continuous process. But this does not alter the fact that the momentous decision In this respect was actually made and it stands as a matter of history. There con be no doubt that the problem of separation was raised by our history. It was a shame of all so-called "Christian1 governments that they never had the courage to face this problem . or, at least, to raise it in such a way as to make the-churches realize the urgency of this issue and make preparations— discussion and actual realization of this principle. To be sure, this would not have been a convenient solution to all churches. Outside the free churches, there were only lone voices in the * Catholic and Protestant camps calling for this arrangement, I mention as a-curiosity the fact that there was a high-ranking t Homan Catholic priest, Canon Vurdn of Győr, at the Hungarian • * Diet of 1843-44, who made an eloquent pica for the freedom of conscience and declared that the only right solution of the problem, both from the Scriptural point of view or from that of liurnan right, was the separation of state and church. And yot, sixty years after this event, a leading Protestant personality still Leld the view that it was an "abortive effort" to speak of separation,So this urgent problem was pushed into the background until the inexorable logic of histoiy constrained the churches to face it again. "Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God tliQ things which are-God's". This truth of Jesus • Christ is re el ized in the arrangement whereby the church renders the state its due honour, while the state guarantees the free functioning to the church. In closing my short chronicle, let mo quote the following extract fz'om the declaration oi the 1§45 conference of Baptist pastors: "be regard the love of mankind as the duty standing next to the love toward Goa. Wo believe that the love of mankind bringsmore fruit in what is a "free church in a free, state".Freedom dispels the clouds which obscure the vision of God and casts down the w"11s that separate men from each other.Right,truth and liberty are ideals worthy of the highest veneration which servo man's happiness on this earth...May God bless Hungary! May God bless the .free men when they join their hands! May Hod bless the brotherly cooperation of all peoples and nations!"
