Hugh Taft-Morales Leader, Philadelphia Ethical Society For thousands of years, humans have created statues in their own image. Artists have carved marble, forged metal, and sculpted clay to depict people as beautiful, heroic, or infamous. What purposes do these sculptures serve as cultural symbols and historical markers? How do they make life meaningful? Hugh draws [...]

Jeffrey Green, Political Scientist University of Pennsylvania Bob Dylan isn’t just a brilliant songwriter but also a modern-day prophet. So argues Jeffrey Green in his forthcoming book, Bob Dylan: Prophet Without God. Dylan is not a conventional prophet of salvation, explains Green, the director of Penn’s Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy. But [...]

Come celebrate community as we gather to light candles and kindle hope for brighter days ahead. Please contact Hugh to recommend readings and/or to volunteer to be a reader.

There are no scheduled platforms for Sunday, Dec. 24 or Sunday, Dec. 31. We wish you all happy holidays and a hopeful 2024. Join us again on January 7th.

Human-I-Tree is an original vision grown through community engagement at the New York Society for Ethical Culture by Audrey Kindred‘s collaboration with artists, activists, and children of all ages. It honors how every breath we take as humans is integral to the life of trees. Audrey brings Felix Adler into dialogue with ecological hero and [...]

Hugh Taft-Morales Leader, Philadelphia Ethical Society As we ring in the new year, we pause to remember those who are no longer with us. Join Hugh Taft-Morales and members of the Ethical Society in honoring important people in our lives, whether they be family, friends, or famous luminaries. Share your remembrances or just come to [...]

Kee Tobar discusses how systemic racism consistently extracts people of color from due-process procedures. Tobar will focus on two policies: Pennsylvania’s Childline Registry and Medicaid Estate Recovery. Both adversely affect BIPOC family legacies and communities, and their ability to transfer wealth. Tobar, a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, is an attorney, author, and anti-racism [...]

On April 4, 1967, at New York City’s Riverside Church, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence.” In it, he condemned the harm done by the war to poor people here and in Vietnam. And he called for its immediate end by nonviolent means. As the current heartbreaking [...]

Joan Maya Mazelis, Associate Professor of Sociology Rutgers University-Camden   Like most Americans, people in poverty cling tightly to the belief that they should manage their struggles independently. For that reason, they frequently avoid social ties. Yet when these people do seek assistance, they may learn that personal failings alone do not cause poverty. Mazelis [...]

W. E. B. DuBois famously declared that "the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the colour-line." This line cut deeply into DuBois, cleaving his body, mind, and soul in two, creating a painful “double-consciousness.” Fredrick Douglass, however, spoke of the color line primarily as outside of himself, a boundary drawn between races which divides [...]