Praxes of Ethical Religion

“We live to the extent that we affect others. We live in our radiations. This is my central thought. We exist as spiritual selves only in so far as we influence others. We develop, broaden, and deepen our spiritual life, by making more comprehensive, more profound, and stimulating our influence upon others….We must recognize the interlacing of life with life.”

The above passage from “Religion of Duty” written by Felix Adler (the founder of Ethical Culture) highlights what for Adler was the central responsibility of an ethical life; namely, that ethics is possible only within worth-affirming relationships. Adler also argues that we have a duty, as it were, to recognize the interdependence of all life. These are tall orders. Relationships can be a challenge – blessings as well as drudgery, and how do we recognize “the interlacing of life with life” as anything more than an idealistic slogan?

According to several US polls, Americans are a very religious country. Nearly 95% of Americans profess some religious beliefs - even though these results are skewed depending on the definition of religion. Of these, only 49% of Americans identify themselves as belonging to a particular denomination. This clearly demonstrates that there are congregationally-based religious Americans and non-congregational religious Americans.

I have always been interested in the history of ideas. As a young man, I read all the philosophy books that my small town library held, and can still remember a few authors that especially captured my attention; Albert Sweitzer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, the Buddha, and Plato. I was so intrigued with ideas that I knew from the 8th grade on that in college I would study Philosophy, which I did at Texas A&M. In a somewhat ironic twist of fate, A&M was also home to Dr. John McDermott - one of the foremost scholars on the American philosopher John Dewey. I say ironic, because I certainly had no appreciation for Dewey's philosophy of experience then despite the huge influence it has on me as a thinker today.

When Newt Gingrich was head of the Republican Party, he and his cohort crafted a list of carefully selected words which they agreed the Party should to be identified with. They published a pamphlet entitled “Language, A Key Mechanism of Control” and sent it to Republicans across the country. The pamphlet contained “positive” words and “negative” words. The positive they would use as often as possible when describing their own – or the Party’s – initiatives and leaders. The negative would be leveled against their opponents.

As most of you know, I am a big fan of Halloween. I have been so since I was a small child growing up in rural south Texas - a place filled with ghost stories, old houses, and little else in the way of entertainment. My brothers and I used to create our own "haunted houses," and then charge the local children a dime to enter. Actually, my brother Robert was the special effects genius. I remember a ship's commode that was the centerpiece of one of his numerous spooky props. Lifting the lid, and gazing through the wax paper you could see my brother's head eerily lit in the bottom. The children found it chilling and the adults just seemed to laugh.

In the Unitarian-Universalist Songbook there is a wonderful passage;

We come together this morning to remind one another to rest for a moment at the forming edge of our lives, to resist the headlong tumble into the next moment, until we claim for ourselves awareness and gratitude, taking the time to look into one another's faces and see there communion; the reflection of our own eyes. This house of laughter and silence, memory and hope, is hallowed by our presence together. - Kathleen McTique

These beautiful words resonate well with the primary purpose for being an Ethical Society; to be a place where the worth and dignity of all are upheld and affirmed. An important part of this process is to take time being "present" for one another. Humans often allow past experiences arising from earlier encounters with others to cloud our judgment. We come to expect certain behaviors and opinions from our friends. We remember a hurtful experience we had with a neighbor that colors all future encounters. We immediately raise our guard around some, and expect nothing but warmth and kindness from our companions. The truth of the matter, however, is that humans are so dynamic and changing, we really don't encounter the same person twice.

In his book Reverence; Renewing a Forgotten Virtue, Professor Paul Woodruff makes an interesting observation. He points out a distinction that exists between the truly religious and the superficially religious. We've all met truly religious people. Some of them are theists; some of them are atheists. What identifies them is their gentleness towards other people and profound sense of awe at the wonder of life. They are noticeably different than superficially religious who use their religious beliefs as a weapon to demean or belittle others, or as a way to build walls separating humans into groups. Woodruff makes a keen observation that truly religious people often admire other religious people, regardless of their faith. The question is, he asks, what do they admire?

Come out of your meditations and leave aside your flowers and incense!
What harm is there if your clothes become tattered and stained?
Meet him and stand by him in toil and in sweat of your brow. - Rabindranath Tagore

The Hindu mystic poet Tagore believed that both humans and the divine were engaged in a creative process - a process to give birth to goodness in the world. What made this poet so remarkable for his day and age (Tagore was born in 1861), is that he didn't believe that goodness was "found," or that goodness was an attribute or gift only of a Creator. Rather, that goodness was possible only when humans labored with divinity. If humans give up the project, goodness withers away.

In a recent talk I explored the difference between religious belief and action. It is interesting to note that the original church probably concerned itself more with action than with beliefs. In fact, Paul spent a good deal of time telling his growing congregations how they should act towards one another (acts of charity, communal sharing, etc) rather than denouncing acts over faith. The change occurred during the Roman persecution of the early Christian church. When the Christians realized that they weren't going to defeat the Romans in battle - especially after witnessing that the Jews were nearly annihilated for taking a stand at Masada - they decided to undertake a new strategy, one which would win them countless of conversions for the next 1000 years. They simply took Roman philosophy and "adopted" it by showing quite simply how the Christ figure could be seen as the fulfillment of Roman philosophical striving.

We are a humanistic community of individuals passionately committed to living ethical lives . . .

Ethical Culture examines life through the lens of human experience and searches for meaning within human relationships. It is a part of that great and living humanist tradition that affirms the primacy and beauty of this life and this world, and that cherishes reasoned inquiry and the scientific method.