HVG: How do you experience the fact that while you are in the crossfire of attacks, you are surrounded by almost fan love? Several people who are not religious or members of other denominations directed their one percent donation to the MET.
Gábor Iványi: I feel moved and embarrassed. I am touched by people’s love, because I did nothing directly for him. I’m not a saint, but I have to somehow carry what was made for me in this story. When the condition for declaring it a church was that at least ten thousand supporters had to be verified, I still received calls saying, for example, Mr. Pastor, I am an atheist and a Jew, but I want to join your church. Then we put our heads together and founded the atheist branch of our church.
HVG: At that time, he was expelled from high school, then from the seminary, as well as from the Methodist Church. Are you looking for trouble?
IG : I am a peaceful and comfortable person who would just observe if given the opportunity. I don’t like to do anything against the wind. I have never provoked, but if a person has qualities that make it mandatory to protect others, or it is impossible not to speak out on an issue, then one cannot do otherwise. Or then don’t call yourself a Christian. And a believer has the duty to be politicized to a certain extent. Although not all prophets dealt with foreign and domestic politics, most of them did. And they were not only interested in what kind of ordinary deceit the king was committing, who he slept with, but also how he related to the neighboring peoples and those within the borders, whose voices would not otherwise reach his throne.
Gábor Iványi
Viktor Veres
HVG: Where did you get the faith that gives you the strength to fight? Was there a time when, like Jónás, he would have run away from the mission?
IG : It is made up of many small things, the background I brought, my roots. I am a Christian pastor, but I also confirmed my Jewishness: I took on my Jewish name. My mother and father were sensitive about helping others. There wasn’t much money at home, but the principle was that everyone should be offered what they had. When my sister asked which part of the chicken she would give, my mother told her which one you want for yourself. Such things remain in a person forever. Then in 1976, already as a pastor, I met Ottilia Solt in Szatmárcsek, who participated in István Kemény‘s Gypsy research, but always encountered obstacles. Then I sighed and said that I am now a scattered pastor in 16 settlements, but this is the world where I really feel at home.
HVG: At that time, the Fund for Supporting the Poor, Szeta, was created, and did even Viktor Orbán talk to the recalcitrant priest?
IG : Szeta was created in ’79; At that time, I think Viktor Orbán was still riding the reduced-size bike, because he is ten or so years younger than me. Around 1989, when I heard him speak for the first time, I was already going through all sorts of trials. I felt that I was already a mountain bear with a hole in the fur, but the young people are finally here, led by Orbán, and we have to entrust the world to them. Today I want to bite my tongue, but then I thought and said such things.
