GERALDINE FAGAN
Adopted in 2011, Hungary’s religion law is not as draconian as those in much of the former Soviet Union. Yet it retroactively removes rights enjoyed under Hungary’s profreedom religion law of 1990 and politicizes the process for acquiring “church” status by delegating it to the national parliament. This is alarming backsliding for a European Union member state.
When the law came into force on 1 January 2012, it stripped the legal status from more than 300 religious communities. Only 14 retained “church” status—including the Catholic, Reformed, Lutheran, and major Baptist churches, as well as some Jewish organizations. The remainder either had to register as civil associations or face liquidation.
Responding to a concerned bipartisan group of representatives of the U.S. Congress days after the law took effect, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán insisted that “freedom of religion in Hungary enjoys the highest degree of guarantee possible.” He also promised that transitional measures would prevent “unpleasant consequences” for two months, by which time those found to meet the new law’s criteria would be able to continue working as registered “churches.”
A further 18 religious bodies were re-registered in that time, including the major Adventist, Methodist, and Pentecostal churches, the Church of the Nazarene, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Hare Krishnas, and several Buddhist and Muslim organizations. A further 66 were denied re-registration without explanation, however, according to the Washington, D.C.-based International Religious Freedom Roundtable.
In March 2012 the Venice Commission (European Commission for Democracy through Law) called for the new religion law to be redrafted. That June, Hungary’s ambassador to the United States acknowledged to the International Religious Freedom Roundtable that the law introduced unequal treatment and even discrimination, but pointed out that de-registered religions could still apply to be associations, and would have no problems as long as they were “real religions.”
In February 2013 Hungary’s Constitutional Court ruled that the de-registration of 66 “churches” had violated due process and was unconstitutional. It also noted that making “church” status dependent upon a two-thirds parliamentary vote was “a procedure leading to political decisions” unacceptable in cases affecting fundamental rights, and the lack of any written explanation for rejections meant that there was no possibility for appeal.
The Hungarian government responded by amending both the Constitution and the religion law to consolidate parliament’s responsibility for identifying “established churches” (bevett egyházak). This status would be contingent upon the suitability of a religious community for cooperation with the state towards achieving “community goals,” gauged by the community’s size, charter, and activities. “These, however, are vague criteria,” pointed out David Baer, an associate professor of philosophy and theology at Texas Lutheran University, who spent 2013-14 in Hungary researching the impact of the 2011 law.
The 2013 amendments did allow a religious community to appeal denial of “church” status to the Constitutional Court. Yet as the Constitution and religion law allow parliament to use its discretion in deciding which religious communities should receive this status, the Court is unlikely ever to overturn such a decision. As Baer noted: “If Parliament has a constitutional right to enact arbitrary decisions, the Court cannot strike down Parliament’s decision for being arbitrary.” 1
While still able to function, non-established churches— legally termed “organizations conducting religious activity” (vallási tevékenységet végző szervezetek)—no longer enjoy certain rights held prior to the 2011 law. These include the ability to receive one percent personal income tax donations designated for a particular “church;” matching state subsidies for educational and charitable activities; the ability to offer religious instruction to public schools at students’ request; and to provide hospital, military, and prison chaplaincy.
Two U.S. missionaries told the East-West Church Report in Budapest that the 2011 religion law had not greatly affected their activity. Unable to meet its criteria, Larry Winckles’ Free Methodist congregation registered as “Bread of Life” charitable foundation. Members may still refer to this as a church, he added, but without “established church” status, pastors are unable to be credentialed as official clergy for admission to hospitals and prisons. Terry Lingenhoel of the interdenominational mission OM (Operation Mobilization) described how, once the main Hungarian Baptist and Pentecostal churches received “established church” status, they acted as umbrella organizations for numerous smaller denominations unable to obtain it. In this way, OM is now under the Baptist Church. “It didn’t eliminate a lot of churches,” he remarked. “It made them find another solution.”
Lingenhoel thought there had been abuses of the 1990 law, with communities able to obtain “church” status despite not being genuinely religious. So did Laura Halmaghi of the Salvation Army. While the Army operated in Hungary for more than 20 years prior to the 1948 Communist take-over and was the very first to receive “church” status under the 1990 religion law, she said, it was initially de-registered under the 2011 law. The Army was among the 18 entities that were swiftly re-registered, however; Halmaghi thought due to its history in Hungary and extensive social work. Today, she said, the Army is sustained by the one percent personal income tax allocation— “a fair amount but it wouldn’t cover our social operations” —and a state subsidy calculated according to the number of people it assists. “Based on these numbers, we have serious funding.”
All is not well, however. The Hungarian Evangelical Fellowship was stripped of its “church” status despite operating in Hungary for 20 years and conducting extensive social work; it continues to be the religious community most adversely impacted by the 2011 religion law. Alongside 15 similarly affected smaller religious communities—the majority Protestant and Buddhist—the Fellowship responded by complaining to the European Court of Human Rights, which in April 2014 judged that their rights to freedom of religion and association had been violated.2
Hungary’s Constitutional Court then urged the government and parliament to resolve the conflict between the religion law and international agreements by 15 October 2015. This has still not occurred, however; nor has the legal status of de-registered “churches” been restored. In June 2015 the Fellowship reached a settlement to receive government compensation for the one percent tax donations and matching state subsidies it would have received in 2012, 2013, and 2014 if it had still held “church” status. In October 2017 it similarly obtained compensation for 2015 and 2016. But the church’s legal fight to secure compensation covering 2017 and 2018 continues.
“It’s brought up to Orbán all the time, but he has no shame about not doing anything,” the Fellowship’s pastor, Gábor Iványi, told the East-West Church Report in Budapest. Iványi’s vocal criticism of the Orbán regime appears key to the state’s treatment of the Fellowship; its pariah status also acts as a warning to major churches—anxious to retain their tax donations and subsidy—not to voice similar opposition.
The government’s dislike of Iványi’s church is clear from a 2012 interview in which Minister of Human Resources Zoltán Balog—an ordained Reformed minister—was asked whether the state’s stripping of the Fellowship’s “church” status meant that Orbán’s children—two of whom were baptized by Iványi in the 1990s—were therefore baptized in a “sham church.” Instead of refuting the suggestion that the Fellowship was fake, Balog quipped that baptism could also be performed by a midwife and so remained valid for Orbán’s children. After complaining that Iványi was constantly telling the media that he had baptized the children (which Iványi denies), Balog defended the state’s treatment of him: “Why should someone who does not take the calling of a pastor seriously be surprised if the state does not take him seriously either?”
Balog further questioned why the Fellowship provides social and educational services out of all proportion to its size.3 “Jesus sent a dozen apostles and then several dozen (seventy) disciples out to pursue nationwide, comprehensive social, health, teaching and spiritual activity,” Iványi retorted in an open letter. “He told not even a dozen apostles on the occasion of His Ascension to “go out and make disciples of all nations.”
Iványi also saw no tension between preaching and extensive social work: “Those suffering in the world and in the afflicted areas of Hungary, have need of the words of the Gospel along with solidarity.”4 But the Fellowship, which Iványi estimates to have 100 active groups nationwide, is now struggling to operate its social programs without its previous one percent personal income tax allocations and corresponding state subsidies. The church runs educational and charitable programs at 22 locations across the country, ranging from schools for over 3,000 young people, retirement homes, and hospital care to homeless shelters, including one toured by Queen Elizabeth II during her 1993 state visit to Hungary. A thousand people work for the Fellowship, not including volunteers, Iványi told the East-West Church Report. “It’s a miracle that we’re able to pay the bills every month.”
Notes:
- https://hdavidbaer.com/about/; David Baer, “Continuing Problems with Hungary’s Law on Religion,” 21 November 2013; http://www.uk.upf.org/leadership-conferences/625-continuingproblems-with-hungarys-law-on-religion.
- Case of Magyar Keresztény Mennonita Egyház and Others v. Hungary, Application Nos. 70945/11, 23611/12, 26998/12, 41150/12, 41155/12, 41463/12, 41553/12, 54977/12 and 56581/12.
- András Stumpf, “Nem nyugszunk bele!”, 24 May 2012; http:// www.balogzoltan.hu/nem-nyugszunk-bele/.
- 4 Open Letter of Pastor Gábor Iványi, Head of the Hungarian Evangelical Fellowship, 20 July 2012; http://www.iprotest.hu/archivum/for-the-freedom-of-religion/open-letter-of-pastorgabor.html
Geraldine Fagan is editor of the East-West Church Report.
