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 ›
Hungary
Orbán’s Biographer – My Interview with József Debreczeni
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 ›
CPAC Is Going to Hungary, Never Mind Viktor Orban’s Attacks on Churches
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 ›
Three Myths About Viktor Orbán and His Remaking of Hungary
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 ›
Nazis, Communists, and Complicity in Evil
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 ›
Is Rod Dreher’s Live Not By Lies a Good Book?
H. David Baer (professor of theology), Alexander Faludy (journalist, church historian), and Joseph Novak (Hungarian Baptist pastor) discuss Ron Dreher’s new book, Live Not By Lies, and consider the questions: How well has Dreher described the experience of East European Christians? Is Dreher right to draw parallels between 20th century communism and American today?
Christians Associated for Democracy Translates Hungary’s COVID Law
The nonprofit I founded, Christians Associated for Democracy, arranged for the translation into English of Hungary’s recent emergency act on COVID. The law allows the Hungarian government to rule by decree until the end of the COVID crisis, whenever that… Read More ›
Magyarország új egyháztörvénye rosszabb mint az első
Itt tölthető le a cikk A cikk angolul A magyar „rabszolgatörvény” és a bíróságokról szóló törvény miatti felháborodásunkban azonban se feledkezzünk meg arról, hogy az Országgyűlés a 2018. december 11-i mozgalmas ülésszaka folyamán a magyar egyháztörvényt is módosította. Az Orbán… Read More ›
Hungary’s New Church Law is Worse than the First
Hungarian Parliament on December 11, 2018 / source: AP Download a copy of this article here This article was published in, and can be cited as, “Hungary’s New Church Law is Worse than the First,” (2019) Occasional Papers on Religion… Read More ›
The Fall of Hungary: Viktor Orbán’s Push to Destroy Democracy
Demonstrators protesting Lex CEU / Source: CEU webpage Early in April, the Hungarian parliament, tightly controlled by the country’s autocratic prime minister, Viktor Orbán, passed a law aimed at forcing the closure of Budapest’s independent and prestigious Central European University…. Read More ›
H. David Baer 