Viktor Orban And The Future Of The West – The American Conservative

At one point, Orban, a Calvinist, was asked about his government s support for persecuted Christians abroad. As I wrote here last year, he established a ministry out of his office to assist and defended persecuted Christian communities. He told the visitors yesterday that to defend and help these Christians is, for him, his Christian duty. He added that as he sees it, defending Christianity is intimately tied to defending the Hungarian nation, as so many times in this nation s history such as with the Ottoman Turks and the Soviets (but nobody mention the Habsburgs!) the attack on Hungarian sovereignty was led by an outside force that despised Christianity.

Later, when Novak arrived, the two were asked about Hungary s family policy, and its policy towards LGBT people, which has caused such a furor abroad. Orban said the way to think about Hungary s approach is not to think about LGBT people per se, but about how they fit into a society that prioritizes the natural family, and traditional marriage.

We are freedom fighters, he said. That means the freedom of homosexuals as well.

He pointed out that in Hungary, gays and lesbians are guaranteed civil partnerships in law, but they cannot have formal marriage. That is reserved for one man and one woman, because that is what marriage and family is.

In Hungarian society we always make a distinction between love and marriage, Orban said. If they coincide, great, but love is love; family is an institution. His point is that it is possible to be tolerant, and to create a space in Hungarian law where gay people s lives can be made easier, while at the same time prioritizing what has worked since time out of mind.

A German visitor asked Orban during the meeting how he bears up against the withering attacks from him from western European leaders and the media. Because of his roots in the anticommunist movement in the 1980s, when he was a student, Orban said. If you ve had to face down the Communists, taking the slings and arrows of liberals and progressives is easy.

via www.theamericanconservative.com

Rod Dreher in is Hungary again, chatting it up with Viktor Orban. As you can well imagine, I have plenty of doubts about Viktor. He’s anti-Communist, but he’s pretty nice to the PRC. Still, it’s interesting to watch Dreher’s evolution.