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The field of '''political ethics''' examines three specific areas: 1.) Church-state relations, 2.) responsibilities of the state towards its people, and 3.) the responsibility of the people towards their state. Focusing on the political history of the Orthodox Church and taking an Orthodox Christian perspective, this article will primarily turn to [[Stanley S. Harakas]] for ethical commentary.
==Church-State Relations==
Maintaining the Orthodox Christian position that the government as a social institution is a part of the divine plan for humanity, the state must therefore be granted the authority to administer, legislate, and oversee obedience of the law. This authority should be wielded under the acknowledgement that such authority empowers the state as an instrument of God’s will and for the well-being of the people. Therefore, the state does not exist for itself, but for the people. Having said this, the people do not exist for the state either. The proper formula for is that the state exists for the people and the people exist for the service of one another.
Harakas notes that, "Students of Orthodox ethics will recognize in these lines an appeal to what the Orthodox doctrinal and ethical tradition describes as the inborn moral drive and the inborn moral sense and the inborn natural moral law." According to St. [[Ambrose of Milan|Ambrose]], "God instituted the state at the creation of human beings. They were not created for an individualistic purpose, but to be 'of service to each other' and to 'help one another by ... public service ... to increase among us the benefit of living together.' This is an affirmation of the inborn human need to live corporately so as to meet mutual needs. It is a positive purpose for the state to fulfill."{{ref|4}}
==Responsibilities and Rights of the People==
Many Orthodox scholars have been known to make the claim that, “For Orthodox Christians there is no such thing as Christian Ethics.” According to Orthodox Tradition, human behavior grows out of one’s relationship with God. A human being acts on his or her personal experience, faith, knowledge, and every other aspect of the person. The human person also has a complete responsibility for his or her actions and will be held accountable.
Fr. [[Thomas Hopko]], Dean Emeritus of St. Vladimir’s Seminary and renowned Orthodox theologian has this to say on the matter, “Ethical behavior, in this perspective, is never simply the application of formal principles or rules. Orthodox Christians accept certain rules of behavior as normative and binding not because they consider them as universally applicable to human beings regardless of their beliefs and conditions, but because they believe them to be commanded by the living God who acts in their lives and to whom they are indebted and responsible. And since Christians are factually in different stages of belief, understanding, commitment and spiritual growth, their behavior will differ in different times and conditions (see Luke 12:47-48, John 13:17, Rom 2, Jas 4:17).”:{{ref|6}}
“Orthodox Christians are obliged to reflect together on what love for God in Christ and the Holy Spirit requires of believers. We are called to consider in common what God commands each one of us to do. We are especially obliged to do this in respect to specific issues, such as those involving nations and lands, properties and possessions, goods and services, sickness and health, life and death, sexuality and family life, and the use of money, resources and power, which in recent years have become extremely complicated due to social, political, economic, scientific, technological, and legal changes and developments.”{{ref|7}}
