Panel Discussion, UU Studies Convocation 2023

International Unitarian Universalism and White Christian Nationalism: What Is to Be Done?

March 24, 2023 — Chicago and online
1:30–2:30 pm (CDT) / 2:30–3:30 pm (EDT) / 8:30–9:30 pm (CET)

The European Union has declared that Hungary is no longer a democracy but rather an electoral autocracy. Hungarian journalists, intellectuals, and human rights activists have charged Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with fomenting racism, homophobia, misogyny, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and anti-immigrant sentiment. The European Court on Human Rights has found that the Hungarian government violated the right to freedom of religion by using the tax system to punish churches critical of his right-wing regime.

In light of the Court on Human Rights’ finding, the Hungarian government’s ongoing and lavishly-funded partnerships with the Hungarian Unitarian Church should at least raise questions from participants in the international Unitarian movement. How should we understand the Hungarian Unitarian Church’s willingness to accept accolades and money from a government that important international institutions have accused of violating numerous human rights, including international Unitarianism’s basic principle of religious freedom?

With facilitation by an American Unitarian Universalist who is also an anthropologist and expert on Hungarian politics and religion, this panel will convene a conversation between, on the one hand, leaders of international U/UU programs with the Hungarian Unitarian Church and, on the other, critics of Viktor Orbán’s regime. The panelists will describe the current political and religious situation in Hungary, with specific attention to how the government has silenced potential opposition from churches in both Hungary and Transylvania’s Hungarian community.

Finally, what is to be done? Should international Unitarians look outside the Hungarian Unitarian Church and explore partnerships with secular NGOs and other Hungarian churches whose leaders have taken a clear stance against autocracy?

Facilitator: Dr. Marc Roscoe Loustau, anthropologist and scholar of religion and politics in Hungary and Romania.

Participants: Rev. John Gibbons, Minister Emeritus, First Parish in Beford, MA, USA; Alex Faludy, Anglo-Hungarian Independent Journalist, Budapest, Hungary; Dr. H. David Baer, Professor of Theology, Texas Lutheran University, USA; Dr. Tibor Tarcsay, Activist and Organizer, Leaven Community, Budapest, Hungary.