Two tier freedom to religion

Four Christian MPs have introduced a new bill on religious communities last Friday. The bill, which is to be a can be found here. The main points and problems:

- Freedom of religion is conceived exclusively as freedom to religion. The MPs seem to believe that choosing not to be religious equals not using one’s right to religious freedom. Also, the law neither stipulates the right not to disclose one’s religion nor the right not to participate in any religious activity. The bill does not forbid that e.g. a Catholic pupil attending a Jewish school is forced to participate in Jewish religious activities or vice versa, as long as s/he is free to pursue Catholic activities. Also, an institution could require all their staff to attend a religious service.
The principle of state-church separation is rather interpreted to mean that the state does not interfere in church issues (besides paying and granting prerogatives, of course), than as the state’s duty to religious neutrality.

- The bill ensures special protection to religious persons (regarding legal prosecution) as well as to sacral places, activities and symbols. This may pose problems regarding the freedom of speech, as criticism, satire and artworks may be limited in order to enforce this protection. Freedom of speech may also be limited if churches are to be protected by not allowing demonstrations (as happened in Spain).

- It becomes harder to register a religious community as church. 20 years of operation and 1000 adherents have to be presented, as well as a description of the teachings and rituals. To qualify, teaching must provide an overall world view and be directed towards something supernatural. According to the law, the state may not examine the teachings of any religion (the law retains the text form the former law of 1990), but the court will set up an experts’ committee to decide whether a denomination applying for church status really is one. According to the lawmakers, this means no limitation on the freedom of religion, as religious activities can be pursued also within simple civil organisations. That’s true, but it’s harder to do so if you don’t get all the perks, such as 1% of the income tax (similar to the 8 per mille in Italy), tax exemptions, and if you get only half as much state money for your schools and have no right to push your religious education in state schools.
Though the law stipulates that all churches are equal, some are more equal: 44 denominations are listed which will be re-registered as churches by the minister, while all others (ca. 140) will have to re-apply to keep their status.

- The financial prerogatives remain (of course): not only religious and social activities, but also the sale of religious knick-knack, sports activities, publishing, and selling of any material connected with these activities is not considered for profit. Also the letting of premises qualifies as non profit, if they are at least partly used for religious activities (build a hotel, put a prayer room in it and you don’t have to pay taxes – as in Italy). Taxpayers can offer 1% of their income tax to a church (that’s the “second 1%”, the first goes to any NGO). Tax exemptions will be regulated in a separate law.

- Also in the future, church schools and social institutions of churches will be de facto 100% state financed (while schools and social institutions maintained by non religious NGOs at present receive ca. 50% of their costs from the state). This was the main reason for NGOs running schools or homes to become churches.

- Churches have the right to use special criteria for hiring their staff, in order to maintain their religious identity.

- Churches are not required to disclose information containing private data to state authorities (confession secret). This is understandable (confession), but a bit alarming as to the recent past of the Catholic church.

- The bill gives churches the right to participate in the preparation of new legislation!

- Churches may teach their religion in state schools. The costs will be borne by the state.

- The law requires churches to comply with the constitutional rules. Which probably won’t be enforced, as hardly any church carries out its activities according to constitutional rules, e.g. those stipulating equal treatment…

- There is one positive item: if a church person provides services to a non member, they have to make clear that they are a church representative.
Also, there is another small positive item in the justification attached to the proposed legislation: when referring to the international context, the text mentions Europe’s cultural, religious and humanist past.

The Sunday fights

As in other European countries and even at EU level, Christian churches are lobbying also in Hungary for a ban on working on Sundays. With a twist.
While banning Sunday work was put on the agenda by the Christian democrats (KDNP), the far right party Jobbik has picked up the issue and introduced yesterday a proposal to ban employers from requiring their employees to work on Sundays. With loopholes, of course.

Religious feeling triumphs

Over the freedom of speech, or course. The new law regulating the media is waiting for the approvel of the president, who will no doubt sign it without delay. Par. 17.2 goes as follows: "Media content may not lend itself to openly or implicitly offend the feelings of persons, nations, communities, national, ethnic, linguistic and other minorities or any majority, or of churches or religious groups, or to exclude them." ("A médiatartalom nem lehet alkalmas személyek, nemzetek, közösségek, nemzeti, etnikai, nyelvi és más kisebbségek vagy bármely többség, továbbá valamely egyház vagy vallási csoport nyílt vagy burkolt megsértésére, kirekesztésére." For the entire text: http://www.parlament.hu/irom39/00363/00363-0101.pdf)
I will not discuss the relationship between the freedom of speech and religious feelings -- Freedom House has done that, pointing out how these types of laws can easily be used to silence critics and get rid of anyone you want to. The freedom of religion is a segment of the freedom of conscience and of speech, and without the latter, the former is not possible.
Anyone reading the text carefully will note that the defense of religious feelings is not left to the faithful - not only persons', but also institutions' feelings are protected... (and churches do have the financial means to sue, of course)...
http://interalia.org.hu/node/87

How to get an award

The Hungarian State has a tradition of distributing state awards on the occation of national holidays, March 15th and October 23rd to people who have had a big positive impact on society. Of course it comes as no surprise that the present government and the president believe proselytization is worth a decoration:
Out of four medals named after the communist (!) prime minister Imre Nagy who became the national hero of the uprisal of 1956, one was received by a member of the board of the European protestant Hungarian Free University, a private club promoting portestant values.
Out of two Grand Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Hungarian State was given to the catholic cardinal of Alba Iulia in Romania for his merits in keeping up the religious life of the Hungarian minority and the deepening of religoius life.
25 medium crosses were awarded, 10 of them to religious persons for deeds such as the promotion of Christian values, the promotion of Jewish religous life, promoting the reformed church issues among the Hungarian minority in Slovakia, for redeeming lutheran values, for the strengthening of the links between state and churches, and for the promotion of (Catholic) faith schools.

Who will remain?

Meanwhile I've checked the tax office's list on 1% offerings - taypayers can donate 1% of their personal income tax to a charity, and another 1% to a church, or alternatively, to a secular cause offered by the state (for 2009 that was eradication of ambrosia, a highly allergen plant, and a programme to support especially talented kids).
This list includes of course taxpayers only (i.e. people who have a legal income and pay at least minimal taxes), so it does not include for example retired people who have no other income than their retirement benefits. But it still gives a clue about how many adherents churches have.
At present, one needs 100 members to found a church, and though the "statues" (main teachings etc.) have to be handed at registration, the state has no right to check them in any way.
The tax office lists 185 churches for 2009, the biggest one being the catholics, with 534 thousand people offering their 1% (45% of onepercents dedicated), and on the second place, lagging far behind, the reformed church with 186 thousand (20%). The third 'big traditional' church, the Lutherans has 49 thousand taxpaying members (4%). Another 3 make it over the 10000 adherents limit that Szászfalvi has suggested should be introduced: the baptists (1.3%), the Krishnas (1.1%) and a pentecostal church called Hit Gyülekezete (the Faith Church, 1.6%).
Of course as probably not only the taxpayers would count, some more churches will meet the criterion, such as the biggest Jewish and buddhist groups, as well as Jehovah's Witnesses. Overall, there are 25 churches that got more than 1000 donations, and only 15 of them have over 2000 income tax paying members who are devoted enough to fill out two lines on a form. Of these 25, 13 are Christian, 5 Buddhist, and 2 Jewish. Among the remaining, there are the Scientologists, the Jains (who are basically supporting an animal shelter called Noah's Ark), the Krishnas, an esoteric church and another with the aim to reestablish giving birth as spiritual act (supposedly related to the fact that anyone who would like to give birth at home is considered crazy by the medical establishment). Of course some more churches can count on retaining their status as 'established', nemaly those who have been present 'traditionally'. I can only guess about them, but I suppose Jewish and Christian orthodox groups (e.g. the Greek and Serb churches) will be among them, and the muslims will prbably argue that they are traditionally present in Hungary (after all, we had 150 years of Turkish rule, hadn't we...).
The list also contains the total amount of 1%-s donated to the curches, so one can count the avarage personal income (or rather, about the income tax) of the members of one particlar church. Among the over 1000 sized churches, the biggest taxpayers are (reinforcing stereotypes) the Jews (the avarage 1% of the income tax is 5900 forint per taxpayer, while Jews' 1% was 12509 forint for the biggest Jewish group and 10321 forint for the 'Status quo ante' group - the two groups separated in the 19th century over an argument on the relationship with the state).
The by faaar richest church members are Christians, however: the 84 members of the Korean Christians' 1% amounted to 58385 forint per person, which is ten times the avarage income (no typo, the amount was similar last year).
Before I forget: 25% of taxpayers donating their 1% gave it to the secular causes. Their avarage income avarages the general avarage.
But: most taxpayers just don't care. There are about 3.6 million taxpayers, of whom 24.8% are close enough to their church to donate it ca. 2 minutes to fill out the form (for the big denominations: 14.8% catholics, 5% protestant, 1.4% Lutherans, with the rest under 1%), and another 8.3% are dedicated enough to a quite impersonal secular cause (getting no media coverage) to offer their 1%. (Data corrected on 23/10/2010 23:32, after I've found the exact number of persons paying actually more than 0 forint taxes.)

The list: http://www.apeh.hu/szja1_1/kimutat/2010_rend_egyh_kiem.html

Not more churches

Mr László Szászfalvi, state secretary of the Ministry for Public Adminsitration and Justice has outlined last weeks some plans to tighten the rules for establishing religious communities. Currently we have about 185 of them, and among others they have the right to compete with each other for 1% of the personal income tax.
It is rather easy to establish a church in Hungary at present: you need 100 members and you have to submit your statutes and main teachings - there is no testing if the community is a religious one, though it has happened that some requests for registration have been denied.
Mr Szászfalvi said in an interview that they plan to increase the number of members needed to 10.000. Meeting this criterion will pose some problems also for well established communities (such as ca. 150 followers of the byzantine rites present in Hungary since 1800 years or so), so they want to give an exemption for churches present in Hungary for a longer time, i.e. so-called "historical churches". Some big foreign communities such as the mormons may also have to fight for their status.
Of course we do have 'business churches' (bizniszegyházak), i.e. pseudo-religious communities eatablished solely for financial reasons. But surely the most efficient way to stop them would be to just do away with their financial privileges and treating them as any other non profit assosiacion? - Anyway, the state secretary's plans at least prove that churches do indeed enjoy privileges.
But then, as one of the critics mentioned, Christianity also started with only a dozen disciples.

index.hu/belfold/2010/09/29/leszamolnak_a_bizniszegyhazakkal/
http://www.nepszava.hu/articles/article.php?id=352785

Hunting season

A whole lot of institutions has submitted their claims regarding the new constitutions to the committee preparing the text. Many of them seek to impose their particular views on all citizens, and to narrow down rights. Of course especially regarding people’s private lives.

The Lutheran church wants the constitution to protect monogamous marriage and family life. They do not accept same-sex marriage and believe that the present regulation (same-sex couples may enter registered partnerships) is enough to protect against discrimination.
The catholic church agrees with the need to provide special constitutional protection for the institution of marriage and family, especially those with many children.

The Christian Democrat Party (the one which gives the deputy prime minister while making it into the parliament only as an ally of the governing party Fidesz) has also asked the National Organisation of Big Families for their opinion. They wish the constitution to declare that marriage is a lasting bond between one man and one woman, with the aim to produce and raise children. They also want the state to take over the financial burden of raising children and suggest that the right to accommodation should be declared in the constitution. They also want to give the vote to children – it would be of course the parents who would vote on behalf of their children.

The catholic church also wants to forbid working on Sundays. According to their view this is needed for the protection of the family and religious freedom.

Several organisations want the holy crown mentioned in the constitution, the Lutherans suggest the following preamble: “The Hungarian people, thankful for the 1000 year history of Hungary symbolised by the pristine crown of the Hungarian kings...” [No mention of the word “saint” here, of course.] The right-wing Organisation of Hungarians Abroad and the Professors’ Batthyány Circle also suggest the constitution to refer to the crown. They also want to give more power to the president: if he believes a legislation to be contrary to the constitution, he cannot be forced to sign it.

The National Elderly Citizens Association, asked for their opinion by Fidesz, believes that the constitution has to refer to the crown in order to secure the continuity of the state. The new constitution should declare the freedom of the state and the freedom of the members of the Holy Crown. The latter are the members of the state-founder Hungarian nation where ever they live and national minorities as long as they live within the territory of Hungary. Anyone else can live only as a guest in Hungary.

As I’ve already mentioned, the State Audit Office also believes the constitution should refer to the crown.

As to the status of religious communities, the catholic church considers it important that the constitution guarantees that churches can operate independently, free from state intervention. Many aspects of their teachings could be present in the constitution, such as the respect for human dignity, solidarity and subsidiarity, the rights of parents, the right to religious education and the freedom to establish schools.

The Lutherans wrote that they expect the new constitution to strengthen freedom of religion and conscience including the religious freedom of individuals and the autonomy of churches. They would be glad if the constitution also listed crucial values of Christian origin such as the protection of life and methods to ensure empathy towards each other and cooperation, as well as to organise community life. If these are present, it is not necessary to openly refer to Christianism and God.

The reformed churches (Calvinists) want more rigorous criteria for the state registration of religious communities. They also want to include a guarantee that state and church institutions get the same funding for public services. The Jewish community agrees with that.

The Jewish community wishes to include the ten commandments in the preamble, as well as the Judaeo-Christian roots of the Hungarian culture. They also want to include collective rights, such as the right to human dignity of groups.

Actually the only suggestion for the broadening of rights came from the left umbrella organisation of trade unions (as the suggestion to give parents the right to vote in the name of their children violates the basic democratic value that each person’s vote has the same weight). Besides maintaining legislation protecting workers, they would like to introduce the right to opposition and include data protection into the constitution. They also suggest that any kind of private militia should be banned, and that no titles of nobility or similar prerogatives may be given or used.

Religious freedom (both positive and negative) is guaranteed also in the present constitution. The article on religious freedom (no. 60) of the present constitution goes as follows:
(1) In the Republic of Hungary everyone has the right to the freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
(2) This right includes the free choice or acceptance of religion or any other conviction according to one's conscience, and the liberty to express, or refuse to express, to exercise or teach one's religion and conviction through the performance of religious acts and rites, either individually or together with others, either publicly or in a closed circle.
(3) In the Republic of Hungary the Church functions in separation from the State.


http://index.hu/belfold/2010/10/07/egyre_tobb_szervezet_szolna_a_szent_koronarol_az_alkotmanyban/

The present Hungarian constitution in English: http://www.lectlaw.com/files/int05.htm
For data about founding and funding, and religious attendance, check here and here.

Financial audit and the constitution

Have you ever thought about the wide range of fields a state audit office has to be familiar with? In Hungary, this also includes comment on the bases of our constitituion, which the government and the president appointed by the ruling party want to change (allegedly because the present one is the 'communist' constitution of 1949 - while actually, as the saying goes, the only part of it that hasn't been changed after the fall of communism is the date of issuing).
Anyway, the Hungarian Court of Auditors (Állami Számvevőszék), which got some notoriety for deciding financial disputes between the state and the (catholic) church in favour of the church, has been asked to give its point of view on the constituton. Here's is what they issued:

"Proposals of the Court of Auditors
Consttitutional rules on state finances
Requirements [...]
- The Constitution of Hungary has to open a new chapter in our history. It has to close down the post-communist legislational and social progress.
- The Hungarian people needs a loveable and repectable basic law that serves social renewal and integrates experiences made.
- The new constitution has to express both in its structure and content that based on our historical heritage of 1100 years we  wish to establish a set of norms applicable in the 21st century. Therefore among others the following have to be referred to in the preamble:

• the Holy Crown as a preeminent relic of history,
• the impact of Christianity on the development and strenghtening of the moral firmness of the nation 

[...]
Cited at: http://galamus.hu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=31745:az-asz-javaslata-az-uj-alkotmanyhoz&catid=79:kiemelt-hirek&Itemid=115

Kissing the ring

While the pope, XVI. Benedict is busy touring Britain this week, the week before he received the Hungarian president, Pál Schmitt, whom elderly non-Hungarians may know from his carreer in fencing a couple of dacades ago. Later, at the beginning of the 1980s, he made a career in sports diplomacy (being the head of the Hungarian Olympic Committee (MOB) also at the time when the committee decided to boycott the Olympic Games in 1984), and in hotellerie: he was the managing director of the Hotel Astoria in Budapest. About 10 years ago, he became a face of Fidesz, and they -- having won 2/3s of the seats in parliament by receving 53% of the votes --  made him president (which is more or less a representative function, and even Schmitt's critics agree that he is a handsome clothes hanger).
Anyway, he's visited the pope on September 10th, and the two of them had a look at various European countries' constitutions, found out that in 8 of them the church is explicitly included, and Schmitt 'proudly announced ' (these were his words) that 'if everything goes well, Hungary will become the ninth'. They also agreed on the importance of Hungarian minorities having priests speaking Hungarian, and according to Schmitt, the pope said he is well aware of this problem. Other topics were the financing of Hungarian church schools, and the EU presidency of Hungary starting next January. According to Schmitt, the pope even mentioned how much he appreciated that the Remonstrances of Saint Stephen, king of Hungary to his son, Imre (who was later canonised, as his father was) are availabe on the president's homepage.
The Vatican's Osservatore Romano also mentioned the visit, but in much less detail.

As good catholic, the president of course kissed the pope's ring:
http://index.hu/belfold/2010/09/10/scmitt_pal_jelentett_a_papanak/
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:XN_d61Bp0EsJ:www.vatican.va/news_services/or/or_quo/text.html%3Ft%3D1284134603187+pal+schmitt+site:vatican.va&cd=1&hl=hu&ct=clnk&gl=hu

Anomymous experts

The highest official for education, secretary of state Rózsa Hoffmann (who became famous for starting her job with cancelling the newly intorduced prescription that kindergarden should not reinforce stereotypes, including gender stereotypes), intends to make a new law on education and higher education. To this aim, she organised a secret experts meeting in August, and the group of experts has already prepared a blueprint for the main issues - a 43-pager for primary and secondary education, while the tertiary sector got 9 pages. FigyelőNet got a copy of it.
While there are positive suggestions such as improving teacher training, increasing the time children have to psent at school, and having more sports lessons, there are some disputable ideas, such as the one saying preference should be given to other languages than English - instead of English, not along with it (let's be realistic: nowadays, if you have a BA, you won't get a job with at least some English).
While according to the blueprints, the direct state subventions for schools maintained by the local governments are to be increased to 90% of the total cost, these subsidies will amount to 100% in the case of faith schools.
The members of the experts' group are held secret (accodring to the ministry, the membes do not receive any money, and some of them don't want to have their names disclosed) by the ministry, but according to FigyelőNet 'compared to the fact that faiths schools tot up to about seven percent of the sector, faiths schools are -- to put it mildy - overrepresented in the shaping of the strategy dealing with the hole system.' The somwhat piqant part is that though the minister is a member of both Fidesz and KDNP, Fidesz's experts are not involved in the preparation. Or in other words: a party that would get around 1% of the votes if they had to run independently of Fidesz is shaping edcuation accodring to their private agenda.
http://www.fn.hu/belfold/20100906/nemzeti_egyuttmukodes_fidesz_nelkul/

Verstehen Sie Deutsch?

Eine ziemlich detaillierte Zusammenfassung der ersten 100 Tage im Amt von Viktor Orbán:
A detailed account on Viktor Orbán's first 100 days as prime minister - in German:
http://www.jungewelt.de/2010/09-06/004.php

A truly ecumenic prime minister

Though the prime minister of Hungary, Mr Viktor Orbán is a calvinist, catholic spectacles seem to meet his taste much more than protestant puritanism (true, in his youth, around the fall of communism in 1989, he had adpoted a more Voltraian approach to the churches, but he, together with his party, switched to their present worldview in the mid 90s). He participates in the yearly procession of the catholic church  on National Day (20th of August) in Budapest carrying around a piece of a dead body, the alleged right hand of king Stephen I., the christianiser of Hungary and founder of the State.
Now, he's spent a couple of days in Castelgandolfo, the summer residence of the pope, and participated in the foundation of a network of christian legislators with the aim to provide a platform for members of palriaments and clerics to discuss moral values.
http://www.hirextra.hu/2010/08/25/orban-romaba-ment/

The expert

Mrs Rózsa Hoffmann, state secretary (i.e. the highest official specialising in education--her boss, the minister is a specialist in medicine and also responsible for health, sports, social, education and culture issues) for education with a strong catholic background, has already several times emphasised that she intends to improve the situation of faith schools (as well as introduce religious education).
Schools maintained by the local governments receive most of their funds directly from the state budget, but as this is not enough, the local governments have to top these up. For faith schools (and other social services such as homes for the elderly) the situation is a bit different: they not only receive the same state subsidies local government schools, but also the amount the local governments have spent on their schools (in exchange, they have to teach according to hte national curriculum). Of course it's difficult to figure out exactly how much money has been spent by the local governments on their schools, so there is ample room for disagreement and church complaints. This system is enshrined in the Vatican treaty (Concordat) but applied to all faith schools (but not to private schools maintained by others than churches).
Hoffmann now wants to improve the financial situation of faith schools by increasing the ratio of funds provided by the state, saying this should amount to 90% of the costs, and the difference--to be paid by the local governments in the case of local schools--will be taken over by the state in the case of faith schools. From her statement it seems, that though having become a state secretary a few months ago and having been the head of the Pedagogy Department at Pázmány Peter Catholic University (after decades at the ministry of education and as a headmistress of a secondary school), she is not quite familiar with how schools are being financed in the last 12 years. Therefore, contrary to her intentions and somewhat ironically, if this plan is carried out, local governments's secular school will fare better financially compared to the present situation :-).

Equal and more equal citizens

As I mentioned, Hungary held elections in April. While we are still wating for the new government to take over, the parliament is already up and working, and the Society for Freedom Rights is doing their work: as they pointed out, the preambulum of one of last week's bills goes as follows: "We, the members of the parliament of the Republic of Hungary, those who believe that God is the ruler of history and those who endeavour to understand history from other sources..." ("Mi, a Magyar Köztársaság Országgyűlésének tagjai, azok, akik hiszünk abban, hogy Isten a történelem ura, s azok akik a történelem menetét más forrásokból igyekszünk megérteni…"). This is not quite in line with the Hungarian constitution,