A. Eustace Haydon, a signer of the 1933 Humanist Manifesto, Dean of the Department of Comparative Religion at the University of Chicago, and for some years a Leader in the Ethical Culture Movement (AEU) had this to say on the spirituality of humanism: “The Humanist rarely loses the feeling of at-homeness in the universe. The Humanist is [...]

Compassion without reason is ineffective; reason without compassion is destructive. “Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he’s been given. But up to now he hasn’t been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life’s become extinct, the climate’s ruined [...]

How the National Prayer Breakfast invitation edited Thomas Jefferson: “In extracting the pure principles which he [Jesus] taught, we should have to strip off the artificial vestments in which they have been muffled by priests, who have travestied them into various forms, as instruments of riches and power to themselves….We must reduce our volume to the [...]

How can you make resolutions you’ll actually keep? Making general resolutions to change (”I’ll lose weight” / “I’ll stop smoking” / “I’ll do something about my job”) rarely results in actually achieving what you resolve. Those general statements are good starts, though. Think smart. That’s S – M – A – R – T — a way [...]

We as humans factor in far more than basic probabilities — hope, greed, whatever. I found this article fascinating! Are Birds Smarter Than Humans? – PDF file Related posts No related posts.

I cannot fully celebrate anyone’s death. It would make me less than I want to be. It was Osama bin Laden’s celebration of death of others in the service of his ends that led him to inspire so much pain and suffering. I don’t want to be like that, even in a [...]

Recently, someone asked me about the “correct” version of the quote from Felix Adler about “eliciting the best” or “bringing out the best.” Here is an edited version of my response, based on quick research: He said it several different ways. Here are two I can document as actually being from him: The title of [...]

I found this on the way to looking for something else: a paragraph from an early constitution of the “Ethical Union” of the first Ethical Societies in the United States, referred to in a book published in 1896 as being from “a few years ago.” The general aim of the Ethical Movement as represented by this [...]

Inspire and motivate young people. The Ethical Society has an opening for a part-time Sunday School Director to serve grades pre-K through high school.

• Curriculum focuses on humanist values, personal ethics, world religions, community service, and character development.
• Director will work with paid staff, volunteer teachers, approximately 40 families and 70 students.
• Salaried position. Estimated 10-15 hours a week.
• Qualifications: understanding of Ethical Humanism, curriculum development, and excellent people skills, especially recruiting and working with volunteers.
• Send resume to Sunday School Director Position, 9001 Clayton Road, St. Louis, MO 63117. Inquiries: (314) 991-0955.

Position Description

Status: Part time

Hours: 10+hours per week (specifically 3.0 of these hours will be Sunday morning from 9:15AM-12:15PM when the Sunday School is in session).

Reports to: Head of Staff

General Description:

The Ethical Society Sunday School director provides leadership and inspiration for the education of Sunday School children and youth, ages pre-kindergarten through high school. (See the Sunday School Core Values at the bottom of this post.)

Purpose of Position:

The Sunday School Director(SSD), guided by the Ethical Education Committee (ECC) is responsible for development and maintenance of the Sunday School (SS), i) curriculum and overall program, ii) interfacing with volunteers, staff, families, members, iii) promoting the benefits of community interaction and personal growth for the students. These efforts secondarily help with the growth and development of the Ethical Culture Movement.

Duties:

Evaluating the work of the SS with the support of the Ethical Education Committee, SID (Special Interests Director), and SSAA (Sunday School Administrative Assistant).

Developing and maintaining SS curriculum and lessons.

Preparing the annual budget with the ECC and SSAA.

Preparing new lessons when necessary.

Enlisting and training volunteers from the SS and the Society to assist and teach.

Assisting staff and volunteers with student behavior that disrupts the SS milieu.

Providing volunteers and staff with lessons and all necessary materials.

Communicating regularly with students, families, and the community to promote classes. projects, and events with the assistance of the SSAA.

Assuring that students, parents, and newcomers are greeted and welcomed at SS and related events.

Meeting regularly with the Leader, Ethical Society staff, EEC, Program Council, students, Nursery School board, parents , and others when indicated.

Communicating with SS directors of other Ethical Societies, share programming information, and participate with the AEU Religious Education Committee when appropriate. Potentially travel to participate to the AEU Religious education Conference.

Assisting in planning and coordinating

• Valentine Buddies (February)
• Thanksgiving Festival (November)
• Spring Festival (March)
• Youth Sunday (May)
• Coming of Age ceremony and luncheon (May)
• Recognition Breakfast (May)

Qualifications: understanding of Ethical Humanism, curriculum development, and excellent people skills, especially recruiting and working with volunteers.

Core Values

The Ethical Society’s Sunday School core values are an essential part of the curricula. All lessons emphasize the 12 core values:

• Ethics is my religion.
• Every person is important and unique.
• Every person deserves to be treated fairly and kindly.
• I can learn from everyone.
• I am part of this earth; I cherish it and all the life upon it.
• I learn from the world around me by using senses, mind, and feelings.
• I am a member of the world community, which depends on the cooperation of all people for peace and justice.
• I can learn from the past to build for the future.
• I am free to question.
• I am free to choose what I believe.
• I accept responsibility for my choices and actions.
• I strive to live my values.

“Slaves, Servants and Soldiers: Uneven Paths to Freedom in the Border States, 1861-1865, ,” a platform presented by Dr. Louis Gerteis is now available on our podcast page.

By exempting the Border States from the terms of the Emancipation Proclamation, President Lincoln continued to extend to them some of the autonomy they had enjoyed during the first years of the war. Civil governments continued to function in Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and in the new state of West Virginia, but Lincoln also authorized the imposition of martial law in these states. Lincoln rejected repeated pleas to resolve the tensions in the Border States, either by placing them entirely under federal military control or by deferring to the authority of their civil governments. Lincoln’s middle course helped to insure that the Civil War in the Border States earned its name. Conflict in these states raged at the most intimate levels of civil society.

Platform: Groping Toward Democracy in a Jim Crow City by Priscilla Dowden-White, Ph.D.

Decades before the 1960s, social reformers began planting the seeds for the Modern Civil Rights era. During the period spanning World Wars I and II, St. Louis, Missouri, was home to a dynamic group of African American social welfare reformers. The city’s history and culture were shaped both by those who would construct it as a southern city and by the heirs of New England abolitionism. Allying with white liberals to promote the era’s new emphasis on “the common good,” black reformers confronted racial segregation and its consequences of inequality and, in doing so, helped to determine the gradual change in public policy that led to a more inclusive social order.
11 a.m. Auditorium.

Platform Music: Member drummers

Colloquy: A guided meditation and discussion on a topic that changes weekly.
9:45 a.m. Boardroom.

Forum: “War Made Easy”, part I by Don McQueen
9:45 a.m. Hanke Room.

Sunday School:
10 a.m. until noon

Ethical Mindfulness Meditation:
8 – 9:30 a.m. The Foyer.

Ethical problems are often complicated and require more than a formula to solve. The proper resolution of ethical problems requires judgment and good decision-making.

To understand the nature of ethics, let us consider the following scenario. Take a typical morning where you wake up to begin your weekday. You wash, brush your teeth, have breakfast, listen to or read the news, then set off for work. You probably gave little thought about any of these actions, if you thought about them at all. For example, you walked from your bed without thinking about which foot to put in front of the other or whether to turn right or left on your way. You didn’t have to make up your mind as to which brand of toothpaste to use; you grabbed what was there. Nor did you think of whether to brush up-and-down or sideways. Perhaps you gave some thought to whether you would have coffee or tea, but probably none as to whether you would put your food on a plate or in a bowl. While there is a plethora of sources for daily news, yours, in all likelihood, came from the same source today as the day before.

Even before you leave the house, you have taken many actions, although few were decisions. They were routines, habits, unthinking responses to the environment. Habits are behaviors that are done on a subconscious level. Some of your behavior was once a choice: this beverage, that brand of toothpaste. The choices reflect personal preferences. Other habits emerge from your upbringing and your culture. You never decided that eating with utensils was better than chopsticks or hands.

In many ways, many of our decisions are unreflective, nearly unconscious and pre-packaged. (In his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel Kahneman calls this kind of thinking System 1.) No matter. Most have little impact on other people and therefore are not in the realm of ethics. And if your habits satisfy your needs and meet your desires, then they are fine. Some of what you routinely do, though, had a moral dimension, which you may or may not have recognized at the time you first expressed your preference. Does the toothpaste manufacturer provide adequate wages to its workers; did the farmers who picked the beans for your coffee receive a fair wage; does the means of transportation you take to work harm the environment?

Let’s take a look at where your actions are judged as being good or bad. In places governed by strong social customs, someone is good because a social norm is followed. For example, a good wife takes care of household chores properly; a good farmer properly tends to the field; and a good silversmith makes beautiful jewelry. A good person performs sacrifices to the ancestors and fulfills religious and social requirements. Similarly, a good child carefully observes what it means to be a good adult and undergoes traditional rites of passage into adulthood. A good person, then, carries out the roles laid out by the group, the tribe, the religious tradition, and the laws.

In many places, the word “good” mainly refers to the fulfillment of roles and set duties. Little discretion is permitted. In fact, that which deviates from the norm is what is meant by “bad.” Good is conforming to social conventions. The word is still used in this sense today. For example, a good child listens. A good pilot is one who knows how to fly a plane well. It is what you probably mean when you say “good dog”; that is, the dog did what you told it to do. Even inanimate objects can be “good”; a good car is one that does what you expect of it.

But children aren’t dogs, adults are more than their roles, and a good pilot may be a very bad person. So, too, a good businessperson is more than one who simply follows the rules. What distinguishes the moral sense of good from other meanings of the word is that ethics implies judgment. Ethics is more than conformity and compliance. When there is a conflict between self-interest and the common good or when there is a conflict between two or more moral values, there must be judgment. Without informed judgment there is no ethics.

Some are tempted to say, “Tell me what to do and I’ll do it. Don’t bother me with all this thinking.” While thinking can be a burden, (also explained by Kahneman; he calls System 2, the reasoning part of the brain ‘lazy’) avoiding ethical choices can be even more of a burden. If you follow social convention but the conventions themselves are morally questionable, you make the world a worse place. If you can’t distinguish between self-interest and the common good, you will either unwittingly harm yourself or others.

The nature of the choices we make in our daily habits are often individual and minor and have little to do with business ethics, but they are continuous with the rest of your decisions. Of course, you might object that choosing toothpaste isn’t the same as choosing the moral thing. True enough. Which toothpaste to put on your brush is largely a personal and somewhat trivial matter.

But thinking about morality exists on a continuum, and when you understand the nature of ethics in your daily routines, you are better able to conceptualize the ethical problems you face in your personal or work life.

 

 

 

We are mentioned in this article in the Post: Atheists gather for a holiday they can believe in: Independence Day Glad to get a mention. Our Ethical Society is definitely an atheist-friendly group with many atheists, but we’re not exclusively an atheist group. We’re nontheist in that belief in deities is not required or even important to [...]

A British animation that captures the best of Orwell’s “fable” while making it sufficiently subdued for children. There is violence, but it takes place “out of camera,” as it were.

Surely you know the story: The pigs of Manor Farm stage a revolution against Jones, a drunken sot who has neglected his animals. But like most revolutions, it soon devolves into conditions worse than with Jones for the rest of the animals, and a vicious power grab by the pigs.

One of the best parts is that early in the change from Manor Farm to Animal Farm, the pigs post a series of rules that sound good as far as they go. Then one by one they modify the rules to suit themselves. While I would normally show the cover of the DVD in the photo category, this time I’m posting a screen shot toward the end of the film.

Statements in this review do not necessarily express the thoughts or opinions of the Ethical Society of St. Louis or its leadership.

]Newt Gingrich’s attack on Mitt Romney’s role as a businessman is understandable but strange coming from a fellow Republican. All the Republicans vie to lead the country make to prosperity by the promotion of unfettered, deregulated, pure capitalism.

Romney, a billionaire plus, defends his actions at Bain as having created 100,000 jobs. Baloney, says Gingrich. Romney is a corporate raider. The Wall Street Journal writes that more than 20% of the firms Bain’s invested in went bankrupt within eight years and some of those that stayed in business engaged in severe downsizing.

How does Romney defend himself? On the stump he rhetorically deflects the arguments, but he is straightforward in his book No Apology. There he explains what he does (and what capitalism does so well) as creative destruction.

Romney didn’t create the term. He borrowed it from free market economists, who took it from mid-twentieth century economist Joseph Schumpeter. Schumpeter himself got it from Karl Marx. While the emphasis in meaning has shaded over the years, the basic metaphor is correct: Capitalism unleashed uproots the old economic with creative approaches. Nothing works as thoroughly or relentlessly as capitalism does.

Daily our lives are faced with novel ways of doing different tasks, with new products that even science fiction writers have a hard time predicting.

Innovation is the way of capitalism. It ploughs under what stands in its way. This is all to the good if the extent of the destruction is the replacement of one product with another (the TV for the radio).

Capitalism also turns over the social order and here is where the Republicans today are tripping over themselves. You cannot support both unleashed capitalism and a stable social order. Along with new products come new ways of doing things; along with new ways of doing things come new ideas.

Capitalism isn’t a conservative process (conserving what we have). Romney is right: it is creative destruction.

In the wake of this creative destruction is the long trail of people whose lives have been unturned, overturned, gone under and marginalized. While in the long run it may be that many more will

prosper than suffer, that doesn’t help those who live not in the long run but in the now, in the present. Nor does it help everyone. It may create more good than

harm but harm there will be.

And that’s where compassion, concern, social justice and ethics play a role. Those hurt by the destruction can’t be neglected. Those who prosper and a system that touts its virtue by its success cannot be blind to the destruction that it also causes.

Maturity and morality requires taking responsibility for your actions. You can’t take the good and forget about the bad (although there are strong psychological reasons why we do this). There are also strong psychological reasons why we insist on a sense of fairness.

So while Romney is right that he was acting like a proper capitalist, he is wrong in neglecting to point to the role that society has in helping those who have been in the way of the destruction he helped bring about.

 

Here’s an extended excerpt from last Sunday’s platform address, “Growing Together,” given by yours truly as a kick-off to our yearly pledge campaign. Please feel free to comment and share with others.

We often talk about growth here at the Society: both the personal ethical growth that each of us seeks for ourselves and for our children, and also growth in the number of people whose lives we are able to affect.

And in a wider context, of course, every day we hear anxious politicians and economists debating the growth of the economy: Is it growing fast enough, how can we increase the rate of growth? And yet not often enough, I think, do we hear, or have, discussion and debate about how to define healthy growth.

I recently read What’s the Economy For, Anyway? by John De Graaf and David Batker. It’s a question I’ve been asking myself for years, particularly when I hear that “the economy” requires that a certain percentage of people be unemployed; or that we can’t require manufacturers to follow environmentally sustainable practices like being responsible for how their products are ultimately disposed, because it would be bad for “the economy.”

These kinds of statements never make sense to me because “the economy” is an abstraction; it doesn’t have needs and it doesn’t suffer. People have needs; people suffer. People invented the economy, presumably to make human life better. So to talk about people as if we served the economy is to get things entirely backward—as when Emerson wrote, “Things are in the saddle and ride mankind.”

What’s the Economy For, Anyway? critiques the cult of economic growth as measured by Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. Since GDP grows when people spend money on anything–including chemotherapy, oil-spill cleanups, the Iraq War, campaign attack ads–clearly we cannot measure the health and success of our country simply by looking at whether GDP is growing. Rather, in order to find a way to properly measure the health and success of an economy, we have to decide what the economy is for—what the purpose of the economy should be.

The book’s authors suggest that the purpose of an economy should be to provide the Greatest Good for the Greatest Number over the Longest Run. Whether that’s the perfect purpose for all time, I don’t know. But it sure sounds a lot better than growth for the sake of growing, without regard for whether we’re growing trees or ulcers, wiser citizens or just bigger banks.

So I’ll accept this as a good answer to the question “What’s the Economy For?”: The economy is a system created by people to provide the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest run. Instead of GDP this could be called GEP: Gross Ethical Product, especially since it’s clearly based on utilitarian ethics.

I want to use this new definition of Gross Ethical Product to help us answer a more local question: What’s the Ethical Society’s Economy For? Why do we want to grow our resources?

If we think of the Ethical Society as seeking the Greatest good for the greatest number for the longest run, what does that look like? Figuring out what is the greatest good is our main ongoing endeavor—educating ourselves and the wider community about the pressing issues of our day, insisting that such decisions should be guided by reason, science, compassion, and a faith in universal human worth. Our faith in universal worth leads us to advocate for the greatest number—for the human and civil rights of all people, especially those whose worth is questioned by others and whose rights are being denied, whether for reasons of color, sexuality, money, religion, belief. In this election year we again have politicians seeking votes by demonizing certain groups, the rich seeking to divide and further weaken workers. The Ethical Society stands for the Greatest Good for the Greatest Number. And we make decisions on what is the greatest good for the greatest number by looking to our ideals for the future, “for the longest run.” We have a vision of a future for humanity in which all people act so as to bring out the best in each other and in themselves, living in such a way that the environment and other species are actually helped rather than hurt by our presence. We’re supposedly the smartest species on this planet; that seems like a worthy purpose for the longest run.

–

[I also announced our second new societywide ethical action project, the “adoption” by the Ethical Society of St. Louis of the city school of Gateway Institute of Technology.]

. . . Ethical Culture as a movement from the beginning identified education as the key to breaking cycles of poverty and to creating a better society for all—to create the greatest good for the greatest number requires providing the best education to the greatest number. The NY Society created the Workingman’s School, the first free kindergarten in NY, the Ethical Culture schools and the Manhattan Trade school for Girls, all before building themselves a permanent home for the Society. Similarly, the first project of this Society in 1888 was the creation of the Self-Culture Halls to provide educational opportunities to workers and their children, long before the building of the Sheldon Memorial Hall.

The adoption of Gateway will finally provide a new way for the Ethical Society to reengage with city students, to build stronger ties outside our community, and to pass on the opportunities that many of us have been lucky enough to receive.

The adoption of Gateway is one living example of how we can Grow Together here at the Society. We can grow as individuals by sharing our talents or just ourselves and our time with those young people who need a helping hand just a few miles from our doors. And we can grow as an Ethical Society by putting our values and our good words into actions and giving those who come in our doors–long-time members, newcomers, visitors–a way to make a difference in the life of this city, and therefore in their own lives.

And isn’t that what we ultimately want? To be a part of a like-minded community where we can share openly our deepest beliefs and thoughts and feelings, and where we can join together to make a difference in this world, to be the gardeners of the future that we would like to see, and grow something beautiful together.

An article by Donna Britt about women and housework has been making the rounds today on Facebook. Basically, Britt writes about the rage that women feel because they continue to do more of the housework while also now engaging in significant careers. Britt's article (really an excerpt from her new book) ends with a realization that the person she has to change is herself--that she's the one making these demands on herself.

I don't necessarily resonate with the rage part, perhaps because I have a partner who does more than his half of the house and child work in our family, but I do resonate with the idea of placing demands on myself that my husband doesn't. Even though we both do housework, it seems to matter to me more; my husband doesn't think much about it if the laundry piles up, knowing that he'll get to it, while I tend to fret and grumble and see the mounting pile of clean, unfolded clothing as some kind of indictment of me as a wife and mother.

Why is that? And more importantly, what can I do about it?

The why has a lot, I think, to do with society and expectations, and probably some to do with my own personality, too. But the solution is what interests me more. Because this is where I think getting religious about things helps.

Religion--or any philosophical system--can offer an alternative to what society says we ought to care about. If I remind myself that my deepest values center around love and dignity for all people, is the laundry really that important? Sure, eventually you want folded clothes...but it doesn't really seem worth beating yourself up if you remember that your goal in life is to live compassionately, not neatly.

Of course thinking of this is the easy part. Remembering it is another story. Good thing my job is reminding people; all I need now is to listen to myself.

Inspire and motivate young people. The Ethical Society has an opening for a part-time Sunday School Director to serve grades pre-K through high school.

***********************

Updated (1x) the bullets.

• Curriculum focuses on humanist values, personal ethics, world religions, community service, and character development.
• Director will work with paid staff, volunteer teachers, approximately 40 families and 70 students.
• Salaried position. Estimated 10-15 hours a week.
• Qualifications: understanding of Ethical Humanism, curriculum development, and excellent people skills, especially recruiting and working with volunteers.
• Send resume to Sunday School Director Position, 9001 Clayton Road, St. Louis, MO 63117. Inquiries: (314) 991-0955.

*********************** Position Description

Status: Part time

Hours: 10+hours per week (specifically 3.0 of these hours will be Sunday morning from 9:15AM-12:15PM when the Sunday School is in session).

Reports to: Head of Staff

General Description:

The Ethical Society Sunday School director provides leadership and inspiration for the education of Sunday School children and youth, ages pre-kindergarten through high school.  (See the Sunday School Core Values at the bottom of this post.)

Purpose of Position:

The Sunday School Director(SSD), guided by the Ethical Education Committee (ECC) is responsible for development and maintenance of the Sunday School (SS), i) curriculum and overall program, ii) interfacing with volunteers, staff, families, members, iii) promoting the benefits of community interaction and personal growth for the students. These efforts secondarily help with the growth and development of the Ethical Culture Movement.

Duties:

Evaluating the work of the SS with the support of the Ethical Education Committee, SID (Special Interests Director), and SSAA (Sunday School Administrative Assistant).

Developing and maintaining SS curriculum and lessons.

Preparing the annual budget with the ECC and SSAA.

Preparing new lessons when necessary.

Enlisting and training volunteers from the SS and the Society to assist and teach.

Assisting staff and volunteers with student behavior that disrupts the SS milieu.

Providing volunteers and staff with lessons and all necessary materials.

Communicating regularly with students, families, and the community to promote classes. projects, and events with the assistance of the SSAA.

Assuring that students, parents, and newcomers are greeted and welcomed at SS and related events.

Meeting regularly with the Leader, Ethical Society staff, EEC, Program Council, students, Nursery School board, parents , and others when indicated.

Communicating with SS directors of other Ethical Societies, share programming information, and participate with the AEU Religious Education Committee when appropriate. Potentially travel to participate to the AEU Religious education Conference.

Assisting in planning and coordinating

• Valentine Buddies (February)
• Thanksgiving Festival (November)
• Spring Festival (March)
• Youth Sunday (May)
• Coming of Age ceremony and luncheon (May)
• Recognition Breakfast (May)

Qualifications: understanding of Ethical Humanism, curriculum development, and excellent people skills, especially recruiting and working with volunteers.

Core Values

The Ethical Society’s Sunday School core values are an essential part of the curricula. All lessons emphasize the 12 core values:

• Ethics is my religion.
• Every person is important and unique.
• Every person deserves to be treated fairly and kindly.
• I can learn from everyone.
• I am part of this earth; I cherish it and all the life upon it.
• I learn from the world around me by using senses, mind, and feelings.
• I am a member of the world community, which depends on the cooperation of all people for peace and justice.
• I can learn from the past to build for the future.
• I am free to question.
• I am free to choose what I believe.
• I accept responsibility for my choices and actions.
• I strive to live my values.

February 5 after platform will be a special and very different “First Sunday Lunch” at the Ethical Society. In fact, it will be a radical “unlunch” that will not provide any food; instead, it will provide an opportunity for reflection, compassion, service, and inspirational fellowship.

The Ethical Society of St. Louis has been asked by Kingdom House, our Ethical Humanist of the Year Awardee for 2009, to make February a special “Green Bag” food drive month for their food pantry for needy families. In this ongoing economic crisis, use of the pantry is up 60% in the last 4 years and donations are desperately needed. Ken Gottman from Kingdom House will be giving the 9:45 Forum on Hunger and Food Insecurity on February 5th as well.

Hunger is an invisible problem in America: we like to think that our great country can provide at least basic survival needs for all its people, but the truth is that many, particularly children, do not get enough to eat, and in addition suffer poor nutrition because of lack of access to healthy food.

How the Invisible Banquet will work: participants will line up as usual for a First Sunday Lunch, and a donation of $5 (or more or less as you are able) will be collected. In the kitchen, volunteers will hand out reusable Green Bags with information about the food drive. Then we will gather together in the Assembly Hall for a short inspirational program on the invisible issue of hunger.

The money collected at the Invisible Banquet will be used to buy food for the drive, and members are encouraged to fill their green bags throughout February to whatever extent you’re able—many people in our community would like a chance to help but don’t necessarily have an easy way to do so, so don’t be afraid to ask friends, family, neighbors, or coworkers to participate! If you need to make more room in your Green Bag, you can drop off food throughout the month in the hall outside the kitchen.

Our goal is 2,012 items for 2012! I know we can do this together. I thank you in advance for your support and your shared sacrifice to help the children and families in our community that go to bed each night quietly, invisibly hungry.

~ Kate Lovelady, Leader, Ethical Society of St. Louis

Platform: Is the Affordable Care Act Unconstitutional? by Greg Magarian

The Obama Administration’s signature legislative achievement, the Affordable Care Act, has sparked political controversy at every stage of its consideration. Now the Supreme Court is preparing to decide whether or not the Act violates the U.S. Constitution. In particular, legal challengers argue that the Act’s “individual mandate” – its requirement that all U.S. citizens purchase health care coverage from private insurance companies – encroaches on the powers that the Constitution reserves to the states. The challenge has divided the federal courts.

This talk will introduce the key constitutional concepts that frame the debate, evaluate their application to the health care controversy, and suggest how the Supreme Court may ultimately resolve the challenge.
11 a.m. Auditorium.

Platform Music: Kevin Lucas, marimba

Colloquy: A guided meditation and discussion on a topic that changes weekly.
9:45 a.m. Boardroom.

Forum: Hunger and food scarcity in our area and around the world by Ken Gottman, Director of Faith Community Relations for Kingdom House
9:45 a.m. Hanke Room.

Sunday School:
10 a.m. until noon

Ethical Mindfulness Meditation:
8 – 9:30 a.m. The Foyer.