Dear fellow citizens,
We encourage you to go to the polling booths and vote! The Reformed Church in Hungary encourages its members and all Hungarians of good will to fulfill their right to vote on 8 April 2018, and contribute to the shaping of Hungary’s future. The right to vote has not always been an obvious privilege. We deem it an important value that we can live in a democratic country. We happily welcome the Hungarian citizens living beyond our borders who are also entitled to vote.
We ask you to make a prudent decision! Become familiar with the programs of the political parties and that of their candidates. Measure those programs to the values anchored in Christian faith, as well as the teachings according to the gospel represented by the Reformed church. In all this, do not forget that our Christian values are under continuous attack in today’s Europe.
We urge you to promote peace! We encourage you not to support programs that question the basic values of the Parliamentary democracy and also those that incite social unrest. This is the only way we can conserve what we have achieved in the recent decades.
We challenge you to stay moderate! We ask you to keep the good order and dignity of our Church during this campaign season. Do not let the church buildings, schools, and institutions of the RCH become a scene of inappropriate political campaign.
Statement on public matters: Members of our Church are Hungarian citizens entitled to express their opinions regarding public matters and politics. We freely represent the values rooted in the teachings of our church, especially during this campaign season. And occasionally, our church takes a stand in public and political matters.
We encourage moderation! We ask politicians to practice self-moderation during their campaigns in order to preserve the peace within society and to ensure the election is determined by competition of political programs for the common good. We urge the politicians not to berate one another.
Presidium of the Reformed Church in Hungary
17 January 2018, Budapest