Q1 - What do the Orthodox church teaches about Human Rights in general ?
This question is very general, so in the absence of any particular aspect to focus on, I would say that my church is in favor of human rights.
Q2 - What do the Orthodox church teaches about Women’s rights ?
I suppose it depends on what is meant by “women’s rights”.
At this link you can read the thoughts of my bishop, HG Bishop Youssef The Coptic Orthodox Church has also been at the forefront of opposing violations to women in Egypt (e.g., “female circumcision” which is prevalent in Egypt), just as the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (our daughter church in Ethiopia) has publicly opposed practices harmful to women in Ethiopia, such as
child marriage. I think this is one of the problems in answering your questions as they are asked: What “women’s rights” mean is a culturally-specific idea.
Q3 - Do the Orthodox Church support killing LGBT people or put them in prisons or treat them less than human brings ?
Certainly not! Lord have mercy. Such things are awful and very much against the spirit of mercy and forgiveness that is at the heart of the Orthodox approach to dealing with sinners, which is what we all are whether we are gay or straight or anything else.
(Even though I heard that the anti-gay bill in Uganda is supported by Roman Catholic Church, which I can’t believe because I don’t imagine that the Catholic church would do such thing especially at this age of time )
Maybe it would help you to separate, as much as you can in your own mind, the official teaching of the RCC from whatever happens in any particular place? I do not believe that the RCC would do such a thing, either, but perhaps some very conservative individual priests might express some terrible views or try to do some awful things. This is why both of our churches (RC and Orthodox) have procedures in place for dealing with bad priests or bishops or other ecclesiastical authorities who harm the people with wrong teachings and actions (note: I don’t know what “anti-gay” means in a Ugandan context, so I also do not want to imply that the RCC in Uganda is wrong in supporting anti-gay legislation, but I do think it is necessary to recognize the difference between being against gay marriage or things like that, and being against gay
people as people). May the Lord have mercy on any who do not remember the two commandments on which hang the entirety of the law (to love God and to love your neighbor).
Q4 - What do the Orthodox church teaches about the freedom of religion and freedom of science ?
What is “freedom of science”? As far as freedom of religion, this is something that I think most people in my Church are busy fighting for in places where they themselves don’t have it (in Egypt, Libya, Sudan, etc.), so of course we are in favor of it.
Here is another answer from HG Bishop Youssef that you might find helpful, about the free will we have to worship God or not. It is very simple: We choose what we want to do and who we want to serve. That is the freedom that God has given us, and we will be accountable for how we used it.
Q5 - What do the Orthodox church teaches about religion and state ?
This is one area where my reply will probably differ from that of the majority of Orthodox posters here, as they are Eastern Orthodox and I am Oriental Orthodox, specifically Coptic. The Coptic Orthodox Church has never had good luck with governments, unlike the Byzantines (Eastern Orthodox/Chalcedonian Eastern Romans) who had their own empire. There was not so much time between the end of the Diocletian persecutions (which mark the start of our church calendar, beginning with the first year of Diocletian’s rule in 284 AD) in 313 and the aftermath of Chalcedon (451), and this period was perhaps the only truly restful period for the Coptic Church in its relations with the state, though it too was not without its problems (HH St. Athanasius the Apostolic was exiled several times during this period, to be replaced unsuccessfully during his absence by Arian intruders). These experiences as well as the formative nature of monasticism as begun in Egypt before that time by St. Antony the Father of the Monks led to the development of a certain strain of thought in Coptic Orthodoxy that we are to be set apart from the life of the state. We still do pray, as is traditional, in every liturgy that the leader of the land be blessed and guided to fulfill the will of God, but in practice I think you will find a much more negative attitude toward the state or the concept of Christian governance (at least among Copts; not so among Ethiopians or other other OO, necessarily) in our tradition than you might among those of the Eastern Orthodox confession, as they were the ones who ruled the Eastern Roman empire (also not without problems) before it was taken from them by the Muslims, just as Egypt and other strongholds of Oriental Orthodoxy were largely taken from us long before the fall of Constantinople.
It is a complicated question and no doubt my view is simplistic and shaped by the way that I read my sources, but I think this is an area of genuine difference between particular churches, even within the same communion (cf. the Ethiopian Church, which has always been intimately related to the royal court and following that the Ethiopian state ever since the days of King Ezana, the first Christian monarch of that kingdom).
