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This is the speech delivered by Dr. Jurášek (photo above, far right), a counselor to the Slovak prime-minister, at the Conservative Summit, held in Bratislava in November 2024. Presented here with the kind permission of the author.
-- from the Editor
Nov. 29, 2024

What is the best way to preserve and spread national and conservative values?

For long years I believed it is this: to deeply follow your conscience, intuition, what you feel deep inside, do it with your full heart, positive attitude, pure intention and to not care whether it is popular or politically effective. I believed that if you do the right thing, then God, Providence, Fate, vis maior – you name it – will make the rights thing happen at the right time.

For me, that meant I did not care about what is popular, just what is true; I did not care whether my articles were read by a hundred or by a hundred thousand, whether I was praised by anyone, whether I would one day be elected or have a career in politics. I did not want any sponsors, I did not want to work with political parties. I did not want any money for what I was doing. It had to be pure, volunteering, bottom-up, grassroots. That was the purest form of activism I could envision. I felt as a speck of light against a big, bad system.

Actually, there is a name for this approach. It was coined by Václav Havel, with whom I disagree on many things, but I believe he got this one right. He named it the “power of the powerless”, which basically means that if you face a big, bad, totalitarian system, it might feel hopeless at first. But if you observe more carefully, you find that the system has many internal tensions and inconsistencies. Many people follow it out of fear, greed or mindless, mechanical habit; there is very little authenticity and morality. So even though the system may seem powerful from outside, it is dead inside.

Communism as a dystopian theory and tyrannical practice has godlessness as its ideological foundation

November 10 marks 35 years since 1989, the fall of communism in Eastern Europe and so, we turn to the spiritual and moral side of the subject. Since on this historic date we abandoned communism as a form of government, he question that begs to be answered is: did we abandon it as a way of thinking?

Can a person have high morals if he denies the existence of God? Is atheism a denial of God, or a substitution of God for man? What does communism have to do with godlessness? Why does man readily believe in Darwin's theory that he descended from the ape, but not in his divine origin—i.e. that he is a creation of God? And what is the greatest test for modern man, who must decide whether he will save himself or allow for even more disastrous cataclysms to befall him?

On these and other critically important issues, we spoke with Adv. Viktor Kostov, editor of the site and NGO "Freedom for Everyone".**

In addition to November 10, the occasion for the interview with Adv. Kostov is the publication of "The Problem of Godlessness" (Issue No. 63 of "Freedom for Everyone") and the participation of Adv. Kostov at the annual international conference "Central Europe at the Crossroads"  in Prague, October 25-26, 2024.

Novetica: On November 10, 1989 we abandoned communism as a way of governing. And as a way of thinking?

Adv. Viktor Kostov:  An important distinction. Management and state power may have changed, but when you mold people and an entire society to think alike, only within the allowed ideologies, there is no way the mentality inherited from totalitarianism will not carry over into the future, which is actually our present.

My answer is -- partially. Just as we have remnants in the thinking of people and the representatives of power, so the controlling, totalitarian thinking, although very softened, is also present in the manner and behavior of people from the institutions. An indicator of this residuality is the fact that the idea is still held that the state, or rather the management bureaucracy, and state bodies bear the main burden for the future of the people and have the right to "rule."

There is very little understanding in society that not only the secular state government should "govern" society and the individual, but there are such, largely independent of the secular state, governments such as: church government, organizational government, family government and personal self-government. People and society are trained to live with the idea that "the state will take care," which, to one degree or another, is a denial of self-governance, a denial of freedom and initiative, and even, I would say, a residual form of slave thinking. This has changed with the fall of communism, and especially for younger people, but the root of this mentality has not been uprooted.

An example from the political system is compulsory voting. Recently, Bulgarian politicians spoke out in favor of increasing fines for people who do not submit to mandatory voting. This idea of forced voting is an ugly remnant of totalitarian communism – politicians want to force people to participate in the political process against their conscience, even when that non-participation is a statement against the political system and its corruption. The motive for such appeals is supposedly to reduce the influence of the bought vote, when in fact the proposal represents a bought vote in its essence - against the threat of a huge fine, you buy the conscience and political expression of people in favor of your understanding and the political system.

Novetica: What connects communism with godlessness? Is it faith?

3rd International Conference "Central Europe at The Crossroads"
Hosted by Patrimonium Sancti Adalberti
Prague, October 25-27, 2024

Bulgaria and Security Challenges in Central Europe
Viktor Kostov, Ph.D.
„Свобода за всеки“ (Freedom for All)

(The speech was delivered at the morning panel session of the conference on October 26)

Dear organizers of this conference,
Honorable guests,

In this presentation I will suggest my opinion as a human rights and pro-family lawyer, and a student of culture and the Christian faith, as to how Bulgaria is contributing, and will possibly contribute in the future, toward the goal of security, stability, and cooperation in Central Europe.

Firstly, these two concepts, security and stability, in the modern world mean law and order without sacrificing individual freedoms.

I will address the two main challenges to geopolitical security in the region. These are 1) the subversion of fundamental human rights by redefining those or flatly violating them, even over benevolent pretexts, and 2) the erosion of the sovereignty of the individual states and their peoples.

Here I will list several interconnected threats to security and stability for the Central European region.

Undermining human rights by redefining them or completely abrogating them by powerful, non-elected elites, in violation of sovereign democratic constitutions and international law.

#1. Rogue ideologues who exhibit disregard for the natural order and show hatred for God and humanity. One example is Uval Harari, a University of Jerusalem professor and spokesman of the infamous World Economic Forum. A man with a “husband” and with misanthropic ideas well favored by the legacy media and naive audiences. Harari’s ridiculous explanation of human rights nears genocidal overtones. He publicly states, basically, that regular people are “useless eaters” and that “there is no God and no human rights.” Harari explains: “If you cut a man open you will see organs, but you won’t see human rights.” This level of ludicrous reductionism and deconstruction of humanity is applauded while it surely qualifies, by their own standards, as “hate speech.” Theorists of this rank proliferate in the organizations that yield power over our states. They filter down through groups of rich and powerful do-nothings like WEF whose unconcealed goal is to save the earth while depriving individuals all over the world of liberty, property and happiness; and while assuring us that slavery is what we have always wanted.

Speech at the Conference “The Future of Central Europe,” Prague, Oct. 13-15, 2023

Delivered on October 14, 2023
by Viktor Kostov

Honorable guests of this conference,

Dear hosts of this important event,

It is an honor and a privilege to be invited to share at this timely gathering.

Introduction

Freedom for All, or “Svoboda za vseki,” is our organization with 20 years of experience in defending human rights and debating theological issues and church and state relations. We started this work in Bulgaria to restore human freedom and dignity after the collapse of the totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe.

We believe that the realm of human rights, in relation to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, is a good approach to engage in the Great Commission. Part of fulfilling the commandment to teach the nations Christ’s teachings is to oppose the tyranny of godlessness and the hatred of our neighbor. In law and politics, the defense of freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and other fundamental human rights is a system of values that reflects love for our fellow man. The protection of the right to family privacy is one of these foundational and recognized human rights.

In this presentation I will submit that the traditional family is under ideological attack. I will also propose that our duty before God to defend the rights of parents and children, as well as defending human freedom and dignity, can be unifying factors for Central Europe.

We, at Freedom for All, have taken cases and presented briefs and legal opinions before the local and Supreme Courts of Bulgaria, as well as taken cases to the European Court of Human Rights. This year we won a case against the Bulgarian government for viciously slandering evangelical Christians in the coastal city of Burgas back in 2008. The case lasted 14 years. In 2018 Bulgaria rejected the signing of the infamous Istanbul Convention whose goal is to redefine man, woman, and sexuality. This was a victory which was won in part because of our previous work against the draft of the Child Law of 2012 and similar “progressive” initiatives.

  1. Freedom for All files a Brief with Parliament against Proposed Crackdown on Free Speech
  2. Written Observation on Draft Seeking Criminalizing So-called "Hate Speech"
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