While recently the Orthodox Diocese of Alaska of the Orthodox Church in America has intervened against the establishment of a proposed open-pit copper mine, its moral critique lacks proper attention to issues of prudence. In what follows, my focus is not on the moral legitimacy of the dioceses argument against the mine but on the prudence of its opposition. The moral right to property, and the morally right use of property, in the moral tradition of the Orthodox Church is the fundamental issue. This article argues that seeing the issue through the lens of property rights can help strengthen the Churchs position, open additional avenues of dialogue with the various economic interests involved in the mining projects, and do so in ways that help foster the long-term economic and cultural interests of Native Alaskans.
Gregory Jensen, "The Pebble Mine Controversy: Property Rights in the Orthodox Moral Tradition,"Journal of Markets & Morality 18, no. 2 (Fall 2015):331-347.