Author Archives

• A Last Conversation with Eva Balogh about Hungary

  By H. David Baer on December 4, 2021 • ( 0 )

  

  This is an unusual and special episode of BaerTalk. Originally, it was a session of a class I team-teach at Texas Lutheran University called “Democracies in Crisis.” I invited two experts, Dalibor Rohac and Eva Balogh, to speak to the… Read More ›

• Orbán’s Biographer – My Interview with József Debreczeni

  By H. David Baer on November 3, 2021 • ( 0 )

  

  József Debreczeni is a former Hungarian politician who served as a personal advisor to Viktor Orbán between 1994 and 1996. Since then Debreczeni has written extensively on Hungarian politics and public life. His enormous output has helped to document Hungary’s… Read More ›

• What is the Christian Attitude Toward Hunting?

  By H. David Baer on October 31, 2021 • ( 0 )

  

  Predation and hunting would appear to be an essential feature of the natural world. Many animals hunt each other, and many humans hunt animals. Indeed, prehistoric man hunted to survive. Today, of course, things have changed. Hunting is not a… Read More ›

• CPAC Is Going to Hungary, Never Mind Viktor Orban’s Attacks on Churches

  By H. David Baer on October 9, 2021 • ( 0 )

  Here’s a short piece about Hungary that I wrote for The Unhttps://theunpopulist.substack.com/Populist, a substack newsletter started by Shikha Dalmia which is committed to defending liberal democracy and opposing the rise of authoritarianism around the globe. “In his Metamorphoses, written after… Read More ›

• Is America Getting Less Religious?

  By H. David Baer on October 3, 2021 • ( 0 )

  

  The United States is unique among countries in the developed world for its high levels of religious participation. The wave of secularization that swept through Europe in the 20th century seemed to pass our country by. In recent years, however,… Read More ›

• Three Myths About Viktor Orbán and His Remaking of Hungary

  By H. David Baer on September 22, 2021 • ( 0 )

  

  This article was published in The Bulwark. Below is a teaser. You can read the full article by clicking the link at the bottom of the post. “When Hungarian armies invaded Europe around A.D. 900, shooting arrows from horseback and… Read More ›

• The War in Ukraine and the Churches

  By H. David Baer on July 28, 2021 • ( 0 )

  

  In this episode I talk with Cyril Hovorun, an Orthodox priest from Ukraine, about how the war in his country is affecting the Ukrainian people. Fr. Hovorun also discusses the character and history of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, its relationship to… Read More ›

• Nazis, Communists, and Complicity in Evil

  By H. David Baer on June 5, 2021 • ( 0 )

  

  What drives people to cooperate with evil? I explore this question with Alex Faludy, a journalist based in Budapest, and Robert Ericksen, Kurt Mayer Chair of Holocaust Studies Emeritus at Pacific Lutheran University. We consider the cases of Nazi and… Read More ›

• Crazy Like Us: Are Americans Exporting Their Dysfunctions to the Rest of the World?

  By H. David Baer on May 20, 2021 • ( 0 )

  

  In this episode of BaerTalk I talk with Ethan Watters about his book Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche. Ethan Watters is an excellent journalist who writes on psychology and culture. He’s respectful of the field of… Read More ›

• Can Christians in Good Conscience Get the COVID Vaccine?

  By H. David Baer on April 23, 2021 • ( 12 )

  

  In this episode of BaerTalk I explore questions about the morality of COVID vaccines. Some Christians have expressed worry that the vaccines have been developed in a way that makes them complicit in the evil of abortion. The Bishop Athanasius… Read More ›