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<h1 class="gmail-red-title-large">Viktor Orban, Vladimir Putin Pledge to Protect Christians</h1>
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<a href="https://www.churchmilitant.com/search/category/247/world-news">World News</a><br></span></div><div><span class="gmail-categories"><a href="https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/vladimir-putin-viktor-orban-pledge-to-protect-christians?fbclid=IwAR3VqrLzs6yTUoVGdu333jPQLjkt56KzJXAkV8uZh-jsYebsATwFjQNOp-g">https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/vladimir-putin-viktor-orban-pledge-to-protect-christians?fbclid=IwAR3VqrLzs6yTUoVGdu333jPQLjkt56KzJXAkV8uZh-jsYebsATwFjQNOp-g</a>
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<p><span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>While much of the Western world responds to persecution</b><b> of</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Christians</b></span> in the Middle </span><span>East</span><span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>by dithering (at best</b></span>),<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> </b></span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b><span>prominent </span><span>Eastern Europe </span><span>politicians </span><span>and members of the Trump administration </span><span>are forcefully speaking out and backing up words with actions.</span> </b></span></p>
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<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b><span>This
past October, the Hungarian government organized a conference of
high-ranking clergy and leading Christian figures from the Middle East</span><span>,</span> <span>at which Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, </span><span>Péter</span> <span>Szijjártó</span><span>, emphasized </span></b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b><span>that
for the mainstream of Europe's contemporary political establishment,
"persecution of <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">Christians</span> is the last acceptable form of discrim</span></b></span><span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>ination" </b></span>— despite the fact that the numbers show</span> <span>Christianity to be </span><span>the most p</span><span>ersecuted religion </span><span>in the world, castigating such attitudes as "supreme hypocrisy."</span> </p>
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<p><span>He also argued that "the ideology-based export of [liberal] democracy" to the Middle East has </span><span>led to the instability at the root of the migrant crisis which Europe is now facing and </span><span>actually enabled radical Islamist groups to gain </span><span>power, leading to increased persecution of Christians</span><span>.</span> </p>
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<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b><span>Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor </span><span>Orban</span> <span>both addressed</span><span> the conference, which was held in conjunction with a political summit between the two </span><span>heads of government </span><span>and at which<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> the condition of</span> Middle Eastern Christians was a major topic of discussion.</span></b></span><span> </span></p>
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<p><span>While </span><span>Orban</span><span> limited his remarks to a matter-of-fact declaration that </span><span>the </span><span>conference
was being held to advise the politicians taking part in the summit,
Putin highlighted the gravity of the situation, stating that "</span><span>although
the Middle East is the cradle of Christianity, the position
of Christians in the region is very difficult, with murder, violence
and plunder</span><span>"</span><span> and that "[t]his is an alarm</span><span>ing development ... </span><span>because our identity is</span><span> based on the Christian culture. ... </span><span>It is hard to watch what is </span><span>happening to Christians in the Middle East."</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b><span>He
added, "Russia will do everything to protect Christians. ... We must
help them restore and preserve their Holy Sites, preserve their
congregations."</span> </b></span></p>
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<p><span>Only a month later </span><span>Orban</span><span> spoke at the second Interna</span><span>tional Conference on Christian P</span><span>ersecution, </span><span>emphasizing</span><span> that "f</span><span>our out of five people persecuted for their faith are Christians </span><span>and some 245 million Christians around the globe suffer extreme persecution" but that "Europe remains silent again and again,</span><span>" while "</span><span>European politicians seem paralyzed and unable to do anything, insisting that it is all a matter of generic 'human rights</span><span>.'"</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>He
contrasted the latter attitude to his own country's constitution which
"states that <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>protection of Christianity is an obligation for the
Hungarian state.</b></span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b><span>" </span></b></span></p>
<p><span>Perhaps his most forthright remark was his insistence that Chri</span><span>stians can be persecuted by</span> "<span>population exchange through mass migration [</span><span>by members of</span> <span>religions</span><span> hostile to Christianity], stigmatization, mockery, and the muzzle of political correctness."</span><span> </span></p>
<p><span>And,
in a telling indication of his own priorities, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>he expressed the hope
that providing aid to <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">persecuted</span> Christians will help <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)">Europeans</span> to
recover their own Christian faith.</b></span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b> </b></span></p>
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<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b><span>The conference, </span><span>organized by the Hungarian government's </span><span>State Secretariat for the Aid of <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">Persecuted</span> Christians</span><span> (a rare example of a government department devoted exclusively to the assistance of Christians)</span><span>, </span><span>included over 600 particip</span></b></span><span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>ants from over 40 countries</b></span>. <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Among those taking part were Cdl. Gerhard Mueller, </b></span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b><span>Cdl. Peter </span><span>Erdo</span><span> (primate of Hungary</span><span> and archbishop of Budapest</span><span>)</span></b></span><span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>,</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Eastern Catholic and Eastern Orthodox patria</b></span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b><span>rchs and their representatives, </span><span>bishops and papal nuncios </span><span>resident in</span><span> Middle Eastern countries</span></b></span><span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>,
and influential Christian figures from around the world </b></span>such as Viktor
Hamm, vice president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.</span> </p>
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<img alt="Image" src="https://www.churchmilitant.com/images/uploads/Joe_Grogan.jpg" style="width: 350px; height: 197px;">
<span>Joe Grogan, director of President Trump's Domestic Policy Council</span>
<p><span>Another
of those who took part was Joe Grogan, director of Donald Trump's
Domestic Policy Council, whose presence, like the letter written to the
conference by President Trump, is indicative of serious commitment
rather than of </span><span>pro forma </span><span>politics. </span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b><span>At the insistence of the Trump administration, the </span><span>U.S. Agency for International Development created the <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">Genocide and </span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">Persecution Response Initiative</span><span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> </span>which was modelled on the </span><span>"Hungary Helps" program run by the </span><span>State Secretariat for the Aid of <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">Persecuted </span>Christians</span><span>.</span><span> </span></b></span></p>
<p><span>Though
the U.S. program is not officially focused on assisting Christians, the
regions and population groups on which it concentrates its efforts
assure that it largely works with Christians suffering from current
conditions in the Middle East and, like the agencies of the Hungarian
government, it bypasses the United Nations to assure greater control
over the way in which aid is distributed.</span> </p>
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<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b><span>Central
to Hungarian and Russian strategy for the protection of Middle Eastern
Christians are efforts to create order and stability in the latte</span><span>r's homelands, a policy </span><span>that Cdl. Robert Sarah has endorsed in other contexts and </span><span>which, if successful, will, as the Hungarian and Russian governments know, </span><span>be beneficial to Europe as well as to the local populations.</span><span> </span></b></span></p>
<p><span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">The
danger posed to Europe by the large scale migration of peoples hostile
to </span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Christianity and Western civilization, or who would more broadly
reproduce within Europe the conditions that have caused the exodus in
the f</span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">irst place, is
only one factor. Eastern European leaders have also stressed that even
if migration was limited to those who would make positive contributions
to their new countries, failure to correct conditions elsewhere would
leave many people living under oppression, while assuring a population
influx that could destabilize Europe through the impact of sheer
numbers. </span></p>
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<p><span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Recent
events sponsored in whole or in part by the Hungarian government have
also called attention to <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)">an important economic factor</span> <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)">related to</span>
<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">persecution of </span>Middle Eastern Christians and to <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">migration into</span> Europe —
<span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)">factors </span>that may sway those <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">uninterested in</span> defending Christians </b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">as a
matter of principle</span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">.</span> European nations, and in particular Eastern
European nations, can gain much from international trade with stable
Middle Eastern nations. <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>Chaos<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> </span></b><b>in</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>the Middle East</b></span> </span><span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>reduces<span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"> </span></b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>trade and its benefits</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>while causing migration that can flood </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>the European job market.</b></span></span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b> </b></span></p></div></div>
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