involvement in "Christian values" and "Christian politics," a Protestant university confirmed Thursday, September 22.
Rector Dr. Ferenc Szucs, who leads the Karoly Gaspar Reformed University in Budapest, told BosNewsLife he will hand over the document to Prime Minister Balkenende October 10 as "it is very important for us that there is a prime minister who combines his Christian faith with politics."
"Balkenende is a real Protestant Christian a very Reformed man," he said. The Christian Democratic prime minister will also receive the decree as a sign of the "good relationship between the Netherlands and Hungary, our universities and our Reformed churches. We are also very much impressed with the scientific work of Mr. Balkenende when he was still a professor for Christian ethics at the Free University in Amsterdam," Szucs added. He receives the document in the Theological Faculty of the university which will celebrate its 150th anniversary.
CHRISTIAN VALUES LECTURE
Prime Minister Balkenende also gives a lecture on Christian values and attend Sunday, October 9, a worship service of a German speaking Reformed church, the university said. His three-day visit comes amid growing concern within Hungary’s Christian community and pro-life organizations about plans by the government to introduce an abortion pill and "other urgent questions," in the former Communist nation, Szucs explained.
The Karoly Gaspar University was founded in 1993 with support of Dutch Reformed churches as one of the first Protestant Christian universities in the former East Block, following years of persecution endured by Christians under Communism, officials said.
"There was a Catholic university but Protestant people were apparently not able under Communism to launch a university. Perhaps there was also no need for it during that time," a spokesperson said. The university was named after Gaspar Karoly, who was the first Hungarian to translate the whole Bible in the Hungarian language in the 16th century.
