Earlier this month, Hungary’s National Assembly passed legislation banning portrayals of homosexuality or transgender individuals in any content aimed at those under the age of 18, a move that was heartily approved by religious-right pseudo-historian David Barton.
American religious-right activists have long admired Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an anti-democratic strongman who has oppressed news media and civil society in the name of protecting “traditional values,” so it was no surprise to see Barton praise this latest crackdown.
“There’s five nations in Eastern Europe that were former Soviet bloc nations that we would describe as very young Christian nations,” Barton said during an appearance last Wednesday on The Victory Channel. “They’re heavily Christian, heavily influenced by Christian teaching values. You have Hungary, you have the Czech Republic, you have Romania, you have Ukraine, and you have Poland, and they are trying to have their policy line up with traditional biblical values. They believe that God will bless their nation if they do those things.”
“And so I applaud those guys for doing that,” Barton continued. “And quite frankly, most American Christians probably would not have stood with that because we’re so scared of getting beat up on by media and others. But that is a biblically correct position that you have; there are moral rights and wrongs and sexuality, and those are five nations in Eastern Europe that have been trying to uphold biblical standards on morality, and good for them.”
