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SETH HALPERN's avatar

If Hungary is a "traditional Christian society," why is Orban trying to reprogram it?

*Church attendance is pretty low in Hungary. Some claim that only 12% of the population attend church regularly while others come out with a higher figure of 22%. According to the latest study, “Beliefs about God across Time and Countries” by Tom W. Smith (University of Chicago), only 9.6% of the population has a strong belief in God as opposed to 35% in the United States and 25.8% in Ireland. Hungary is closer to Great Britain, Sweden, and the Czech Republic as far as religious devotion is concerned. At the same time the percentage of atheists is relatively high: 23.1%*

https://hungarianspectrum.org/2012/04/21/church-and-state-in-hungary/

*Hungary’s 2011 census revealed that 45.4 percent of the population doesn’t have any religious affiliation. Regular church attendance figures are harder to track down, but what studies I’ve found locate the rate between 12 and 22 percent.* https://berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/posts/religion-in-hungary

Orban has inspired the Claremont/Federalist playbook, ie if you're losing the culture war, use government to shove your culture down people's throats.

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DeeDee D's avatar

But Hungary is very much culturally "christian"; so it's irrelevant if they are religiously Christian or not.

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SETH HALPERN's avatar

The scare quotes are very apt. It's like saying that it's irrelevant if evangelical Christians actually go to church or believe in the divinity of Jesus (a recent poll showed 43% do not) so long as they vote for Trump.

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DeeDee D's avatar

yes, exactly.

I mean, does anyone believe there's anything remotely related to Christ's teachings (or his awesome example) in the behaviors of people like trump, orban, bannon, cruz, putin, mtg, gaetz, jordan... well we could go on and create a very long list. Painfully long.

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Douglas Peterson's avatar

How many election deniers are ahead in the polls at this point? That's a painfully long list, indeed.

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