church leaders and an ultra right wing party known for its anti Semitic views, an official said Monday January 21.
"Up to 12 pastors have made it clear that they will campaign to become parliamentarians of the Hungarian Justice and Life Party (MIEP)," said Rev. Lajos Bekefy, chief-editor of Reformpress, the news service of Hungary’s Reformed Church. MIEP has made clear it could receive up to 20 percent of the vote as social tensions have been growing in post Communist Hungary.
"The problem is that these pastors said they will refuse to give up their pastoral ministry when they are elected," explained Bekefy, who has close ties with the Synod’s leadership. He said this can lead to tensions with the highest body of the church, as it decided "that a pastor must be suspended from the ministry," if he or she is active in politics or any other foreign or inland service.
UNDER PRESSURE
It comes as Hungary’s traditional churches are under pressure to take a stance against politically motivated incidents against Jews, at a time when the country prepares for general elections in April. In a statement obtained by BosNewsLife the Synod also described perceived anti-Semitic statements made by a pastor as "against the Word of God and irreconcilable with our reformed creed."
It was a reference to remarks made by Lorant Hegedus, a pastor and leading MP of MIEP, which have outraged the Jewish community and Christians. In a recent issue of MIEP’s Reveille newspaper Hegedus warned "the Christian Hungarian state" indirectly against the presence of Jewish people in society.
"Flotsam and jetsam of Galatia have eaten and are eating the country up…they’ve come again from the side of the Jordan…to the bank of the Danube (river)…to give Hungarians one more kick," he wrote.
"HUNGARIAN STATE"
"So listen Hungarians to the message of thousand years of the Christian Hungarian State, which is the only one to lead us into Life: Exclude them out! If you don’t do it with them, they will do it with you," Hegedus added in the controversial article.
The father of the pastor, Bishop Lorant Hegedus, defended his son’s actions, saying that he only reacted to other articles that were written against him. But the teaching staff of the Reformed Theological University in the town of Debrecen said the article
"was against the mission of the Reformed Church and the Bible," Reformpress reported.
In addition the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into the political activities of the nationalist politician, on suspicion of propaganda against a community. The issue of anti- Semitism remains extremely sensitive in Hungary, which was a close ally of Nazi Germany during World War Two. About 600,000 Hungarian Jews were killed during that period.
