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What shall virtue do to meet brute force?

September 8, 2013

As Americans take a moment to consider that historic day, as well as the recent tragic past in the fight for equality, it is also important for Orthodox Christians to remember the Church’s role in fighting for the full rights of all US citizens. On the cover of Life Magazine dated March 26, 1965, there is an iconic photograph of Archbishop Iakovos (Koukouzis), the leader of the Greek Orthodox Church in North and South America, standing with Martin Luther King Jr. Archbishop Iakovos who led the Church in Western hemisphere for 37 years (1959-1996), went to Selma, Alabama to support the cause of African-Americans in the aftermath of the beating of Rev. James Reeb. Minister Reeb, a Unitarian Universalist cleric, was brutally beaten by white segregationists while marching for civil rights in Selma, Alabama in 1965. He died two days after the beating at the age of 38. The photograph on the cover of the popular magazine made a very vital, but dangerous statement in 1965, that white Christians were actively willing to support the cause African-Americans were fighting and dying for, not because the cause was an African-American cause but because it was an American one: equality under the law. The portrait reveals a very stoic looking Archbishop in his black robes and kalimavkion and veil (head covering) standing with great determination next to King. It certainly was a brave and courageous move for the Archbishop to support King, who at the time was under FBI surveillance, yet an action he believed was a bold, moral imperative. His presence was indeed virtue in the face of brute force.   

In his autobiography, Archbishop Iakovos divulged that his own priests as well as Greek Orthodox Christians from the South advised him not to travel to Selma to be seen as an active supporter of King and “civil rights agitators.”  In his own words, the Archbishop remembered the difficult pressure and opposition from his own people that he experienced. And yet he went to Selma “against the advice of his clergy and staff, who worried correctly that he would be called traitor to the quest of marginalized Greeks for full acceptance as Americans. Not a single member of the Orthodox community…appeared for scheduled events at his next stop, and he found himself alone in a Charleston hotel room…”[1]

“He found himself alone…” It might be argued that the Archbishop was not alone, he was supported by his faith and his conscience that he was on the side of right. In the face of ridicule, shunning with the possibility of being punished by a lack of support, including financial, from his fellow bishops, clergy and archdiocese, the Archbishop stood up for what was morally right.  In his eulogy for Rev. Reeb, the Archbishop made a point that he was always in total support for equal rights for people of all races.

 I come to this memorial…to show our willingness to continue this fight against prejudice, bias and persecution. In this God-given cause, I feel sure that I have the full support of our Greek Orthodox faithful…Our Church has never hesitated to fight, when it felt it must, for the rights of mankind…there are times when we must risk everything, including life itself, for those basic American ideals of freedom, justice, and equality, without which this land cannot survive. Our hope and prayer, then, is that we may be given strength to let God know by our acts and deeds, and not only by our words, that like the late Reverend James Reeb, we, too, are the espousers and the fighters in a struggle for which we must be prepared to risk our all.[2]

Perhaps in order to save face, because he knew that he did not have the moral support of his flock, the Archbishop said that he had the full support of the Greek Orthodox community. I imagine that he knew that he had his work cut out for him, to convince those under his pastoral care (omophorion) that the fight for equality for all races was a Christian one, a righteous one.  What courage it must have taken for Archbishop Iakovos to stand alone, offer his support in deed, and commit himself to lead the “change he wished to see in the world.”[3]

Where is the Iakokos of today who is willing to stand up for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered Orthodox Christians who are being killed, beaten, maligned, and persecuted?  Where is the virtuous bishop in the face of the use of brute force against gays and lesbians in Russia, Georgia, Moldova, or Ukraine? How is it possible that Orthodox bishops remain silent as they read about the capture and torture of innocent gay men? Does not a single bishop in the “Holy Synod” of the Russian Orthodox Church have the courage to stand up for those oppressed without cause? Is there not a single bishop in the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North America with a backbone willing to say “enough is enough”?  These bishops are men who are themselves either gay or have siblings, or relatives or friends who are gay or lesbian and yet they remain silent in the face of Orthodox Christians denied basic human rights, simply because it is safe and convenient or politically expedient. Where is their virtue in the face of brute force? Shame on them!