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Hungarian Evangelicals Thank God for Viktor Orbán Victory

Despite some misgivings, most supported him as a conservative Christian who would stand up for their values.
Szófia Boros voted for Victor Orbán. The young evangelical mother of two has her misgivings about the man who has been accused of undermining democracy—curtailing press freedom, undercutting the independent judiciary, and changing election rules to give an advantage to his political party, Fidesz.
But in the end, it was pretty simple to support him for reelection on April 3.
“Evangelical Christians support the majority of Orbán’s policies and positions, even if we don’t really admire the way he goes about his politics,” she said. “I voted for him because he is a conservative Christian standing up against a liberal Europe.”
Evangelicals aren’t a big or politically organized voting bloc in Hungary. Only a few evangelical groups are established enough to achieve recognition from the national government, including the Baptist Union, the Hungarian Methodist Church, the Hungarian Pentecostal Church, the Church of the Nazarene, and the charismatic Faith Church, whose pastor endorsed Orbán during a Sunday service.
About half the people in the country consider themselves Catholic, a quarter has no religious affiliation, and 16 percent—including Orbán—identify with the Reformed Church in Hungary, which is part of the mainline World Council of Churches and affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Eighty percent of the country identifies as Christian, but only about 15 percent of Hungarians attend church on a weekly basis.
But a lot of Hungarians, it turns out, feel like Boros. They wanted a conservative Christian prime minister committed to defending what they see as a Christian culture and its Christian values.
“The Fidesz campaign …Continue reading…

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Embezzlement Bedevils Global Church Giving

Experts project fraud will cost Christian ministries $170 billion in 2050.
Embezzlement is a growing problem, globally, impacting Christian ministries and churches of every shape and size. The Center for the Study of Global Christianity projects thieves will take $170 billion in the year 2050, if current trends continue, but there are things that individual churches can do to protect themselves.
Q&A with Todd Johnson, codirector of the The Center for the Study of Global Christianity, on trends in church embezzlement.
Is embezzlement a special problem in churches and Christian ministries?
It is a particular problem with religious organizations because trust is so important. One of the things we found after someone had been convicted of embezzlement, some cases where a pastor was actually in prison, you had church members who still said, “I don’t believe he could do this.” They were the victims, but they still couldn’t accept it.
That shows the power of trust. And trust is good, but if it’s misused—which is the definition of affinity fraud—that’s really a problem.
The Center for the Study of Global Christianity, where you serve as codirector, projects embezzlement in churches in 2025 will be down about $10 billion. Why is that?
I don’t have a single clear answer for that. The projections are composite figures, all tied to gross national income, the demographics of Christianity, rates of Christian income and giving, and the dynamics of fraud. Those are all constantly changing.
It’s almost so complex underneath that it’s hard to ascribe a single reason. These numbers have competing trends within them.

Longer term, the center projects an increase in Christian embezzlement. What is driving that?
It’s going up because of economic growth.Continue reading…