Orthodox Christians and the Rights Revolution in America: An Interview with Rev. Dr. A. G. Roeber

We are surrounded from every side, it seems, by arguments (and increasingly lawsuits) of various groups over claims to rights they wish to have. The problem is, it is impossible for everyone to possess all of the rights they desire, for the granting of some rights to some groups requires the explicit infringement on the rights of other groups. This, in particular, has been the concern of religious groups in connection with the demands for such rights as access to abortion—and the requirement for, say, such groups as the Catholic order of nuns, Little Sisters of the Poor, to offer abortion and contraception coverage for their employees or pay astronomical fines. For judges who have ruled against the Little Sisters, obviously abortion rights supersede religious rights. 

Of course, Catholics and Protestants are not the only Christians who have been affected by the rights revolution—and at times have found their rights as believers threatened. In his new book, Rev. Dr. A. G. Roeber investigates specifically how the rights revolution in America has affected the Orthodox Christian community. 

The Rev. Dr. A. G. Roeber is Emeritus Professor of Early Modern History and Religious Studies at Penn State University, and is currently Professor of Church History at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. His Palatines, Liberty, and Property was the 1993 co-winner of the American Historical Association’s John H. Dunning Prize for the best book on any aspect of American history in a two-year period. He is a past president of the Orthodox Theological Society in America and most recently co-author of Changing Churches (2012); co-editor, Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Theology (2016) author, Mixed Marriages: An Orthodox History (2018); and editor, Human v. Religious Rights? (2020).

***

Nadya Williams: The idea of rights revolutions has been central to much of academic American history over the past half-century. We talk about Civil Rights, women's rights, and so on. What I appreciate about your book, though, is that you engage with the question of the rights of one particular religious group—American Orthodox Christians--and how their rights have at times conflicted with the other rights revolutions surrounding them. What is the overall argument that you propose in this book?

G. Roeber: As I wrote in the Introduction, “Orthodox Christians in the United States have selectively embraced but also rejected an increasing and sometimes bewildering variety of ‘rights languages.’ Orthodox engagement with rights claims involve issues both internal and external to the Church.” Along with other Christians, the Orthodox inherit ancient and medieval claims about rights but only partly subscribe to rights language that emphasizes “political liberty, individual conscience, and freedom of choice and expression.” 

Nadya Williams: You are an academic historian, but you are also an Orthodox Christian. Is it accurate to assume that this research project was deeply personal? When did you decide that this book was necessary--and that you were the one who should write it?

G. Roeber: I have written a fairly lengthy account of the book’s origins for Public Orthodoxy and would here only repeat in brief that my interest was piqued by the call issued in 2006 by Professors John Witte, Jr. and Frank S. Alexander from their Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. The two posed questions to the Orthodox, asking about Orthodox understandings of human rights, the nature of society, freedom of speech and the on-going debates about rights that involve understandings of sex and gender. Since no Orthodox theologian, historian, or legal scholar had responded to their query, I decided to attempt to do so. An excerpt from the book’s chapter on human rights was published with Fordham University Press’s permission at Canopy Forum.

Nadya Williams: To what extent do you think your findings apply to other American Christians—those who might describe themselves as orthodox rather than Orthodox?

G. Roeber: The book focuses on Orthodox theology, history, and experience, but because of the preponderant historical influence of Reformed Christianity on North America the book examines in some detail both Protestant and Roman Catholic perspectives on the question of “rights” and the challenges posed by secular critics of Christianity’s relationship to rights claims.

Nadya Williams: What was something surprising or unexpected that you learned in the process of researching and writing this book?

G. Roeber: I did not expect the project to take over a decade of research and writing; I was also surprised to find several instances where Orthodox commentators from various Orthodox nation-states examined various kinds of rights language—but did so apparently unaware of what fellow Orthodox colleagues had written.

Nadya Williams: What are the big questions that fascinate you in your reading, thinking, and writing?

G. Roeber: My primary interest continues to focus on the need for a single, unified Eastern Orthodox Church of North America, one that is also seriously engaged with the Oriental Orthodox and the Roman Catholic churches in a pluralistic society and culture increasingly fragmented and nihilistic in its behavior.