Draconian Church Law Enacted in Hungary

[Jerome]

Parliament to Decide What Constitutes a Church

Parliament should be the arbiter of what constitutes a church and what does not, the ruling Fidesz party’s parliamentary leader, Janos Lazar, said on Monday.

[Besides] the Catholic, the Reformed and the Lutheran church and the Jewish religious community, the status of church will be granted to the Baptists [Baptist Union] and the Faith Church [Pentecostal]

Other religious communities should be able to turn to Parliament and apply for the status. The parliamentary approval will require a two-thirds majority, and the resolution will be non-appealable.

Hungarian Churches Divided Over New Religion Law

"We wanted a new law to make it more difficult to establish churches here - and we're happy the present government has now done something," said Zoltan Tarr, general secretary of the Hungarian Reformed Church

Hungarian Law Seen as Attack on Evangelicals

the "Law on the Right to Freedom of Conscience and Religion" forces more than 100 groups in the country to "de-register" as religious organizations.

Deregistered organizations cannot use the name "church" and have to go through a series of checks and balances set forth by the government before they can be registered again.