One Nation, Indivisible: Protecting the Separation of Church/State with Lori Lippman Brown Sunday, September 14, 11am
Our government’s secular character, built into it at our nation’s founding more than 200 years ago, protects both religious and nonreligious Americans. Over the past three years, Lori Lippman Brown, director of the Secular Coalition of America, has served as the first Congressional lobbyist explicitly representing the 10% to 15% of Americans who are nontheistic (humanists, atheists, agnostics, etc.) Brown reports on how this unique lobby is being received on the Hill, in the media and by our theistic allies, and will discuss the coalitions of religious and nonreligious Americans fighting to protect the separation of church and state.
In September 2005, the Secular Coalition for America hired Lori Lippman Brown as its first director. A lawyer and former high school English teacher, she served as a Nevada state senator from 1992-1994. Among her many honors are the Secular Student Alliance's Freethought Backbone Award, Civil Libertarian of the Year from the Southern Nevada chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, Legislator of the Year from the Nevada chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, Friend of the Center award from the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada, and an award from Valley Outreach Synagogue.
The Hidden War at Home: The Domestic “War on Terror” with Aziz Huq Sunday, September 21, 11am
Thinking of civil liberties abuses in the “war on terror,” we most often think of Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and CIA black sites in Europe and elsewhere. But there is another, less remarked side, to the "War on Terror" occurring close to home, in immigration agencies, in prosecutor offices, and in the police stations. In surprising ways, this domestic front, because it receives so little attention, is the site of deeper civil liberties violations than places in the media spotlight. Aziz Huq directs the liberty and national security project at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. He is counsel in several cases concerning detention of citizens and non-citizens without due process, including a group of U.S. citizens detained in Iraq, and Ali Al-Marri, the only person detained as an “enemy combatant” in the United States. He teaches a seminar at NYU Law School on "Just War Theory and Terrorism," and in 2006 was awarded a Carnegie Scholars Fellowship. His recent book Unchecked and Unbalanced: Presidential Power in a Time of Terror, coauthored with Fritz Schwarz, was called "necessary reading" by Michiko Katakana in the New York Times.
How Do We Create A Good Life? with Rev. Nettie Paisley Sunday, September 28, 11am (This is a special Member Sunday platform welcoming new members)
Ethical living is based on right conduct. Right conduct does lead to a good life. When we live an ethical life, how good do we really have to be?
Nettie Paisley is a long time community activist and has been an active member of the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture since 2003. She was until recently chair of the Society’s Life and Ethics Committee and served as board trustee and pledge secretary during the 2007-2008 season. In June of 2008, she was ordained as an Interfaith Minister through the One Spirit Seminary in New York City. Rev. Paisley performed her internship at the Church of Gethsemane, which was founded by and serves ex-prisoners and their families. Among her many community activities, Rev. Paisley has adopted an elementary school, PS 44, in Bedford Stuyvesant where she provides educational, social and fundraising support. A social entrepreneur, she launched a holistic and wellness center called Southern Comforts, and she continues to enjoy spreading inner peace to others through the healing practice of Reiki.
OCTOBER
An Ethical Culture with Susan Rose Sunday, October 5, 11am
What does it mean to live an Ethical Culture life? Susan Rose, who grew up in the Brooklyn Society and is now clergy leader of Ethical Society Without Walls, an internet based congregation for those who do not live near a society, will reflect on that question based on her 50 years in the movement, and ask the congregants to think about it together.
To Love What Is: A Marriage Transformed with Alix Kates Shulman Sunday, October 12, 11am
The writer Alix Kates Shulman speaks about her new memoir To Love What Is: A Marriage Transformed about the ongoing anxieties, risks, and surprising rewards of her new life caring for her husband who suffered a serious brain impairment in a fall. She discovers that what may have seemed a grim life-sentence to some has evolved into something unexpectedly rich.
Oliver Sacks said about her new book, "This is the story of great love forged when death almost parts you and then doesn't, a book that will take its place next to those slender volumes that become tattered and torn as I read and reread and reread, as if my own life depended on it...Shulman's masterpiece."
The Ethical Classroom with Lisa Sevrin Sunday, October 19, 11am
Lisa Servon, the new dean of the New School’s graduate school of urban policy and teaching award winner, reflects on teaching as a moral vocation.
The Financial Mess: What’s Going On? with William K. Tabb Sunday, October 26, 11am
A primer on how we got here, what is being done and what may happen. William K. Tabb has been Professor of Economics, Political Science and Sociology at the Graduate Center for the City University of New York and Professor of Economics at Queens College. He is well known for his popular writing in progressive magazines. His scholarly books include Economic Governance in the Age of Globalization (Columbia University Press, 2004), The Amoral Elephant: Globalization and the Struggle for Social Justice in the Twenty-First Century (Monthly Review, 2001), Reconstructing Political Economy: The Great Divide in Economic Thought (Routledge, 1999) and The Postwar Japanese System: Cultural Economy and Economic Transformation (Oxford University Press, 1995).
NOVEMBER
RECOVERY: Imagining America After Bush with Lawrence Bush Sunday, November 2, 11am
What will it take to redeem America from the radical disruptions caused by the Bush Administration? What paths towards healing and change do we most want to see from a new administration? Join Lawrence Bush in a participatory discussion designed to move us from anger to hope. Lawrence Bush is editor ofJewish Currents magazine and the author most recently of Waiting for God: The Spiritual Explorations of a Reluctant Atheist.
Post-Election Reflections for the Grassroots with Elizabeth Yeampierre Sunday, November 9, 11am
Elizabeth Yeampierre is director of UPROSE, the Sunset Park environmental, social and economic justice group. Elizabeth, a lawyer by training, was an instrumental for getting New York State's first brownfield legislation passed, and has received many honors including the 2004 National Latina Leadership Award from the National Foundation of Women Legislators and its affiliate, the National Council of La Raza.
The Meaning of Work with Richard Kiniry Sunday, November 16, 11am
For most of us, our jobs take over much of our time and energy. How closely do you connect your values, your work and your sense of self? The clergy leader of the Philadelphia Ethical Society will consider how we can bring our values into our work situation, whatever that is, and the possibility of expressing our creativity, our interests and passions. A former Catholic seminarian, Richard has been Leader of the Philadelphia Society since 1990, and is coordinator of the national ethical action committee.
Wampanoag! with Remi Gay and the Children’s Assembly Sunday, November 23, 11am
Brooklyn Ethical’s traditional Thanksgiving celebration with the Children’s Assembly.
Colloquy on Valuing with Constance Pigozzi Sunday, November 30, 11am
Colloquies are an opportunity for deep group reflection on a theme.
DECEMBER
Even the Black Sheep has a Shrine with Dr. Michael Franch Sunday, December 7, 11am
Dr. Michael Franch is an affiliate minister at the First Unitarian Church, Baltimore, and has served as leader of the Baltimore Ethical Society. He is a "leader at large" of the American Ethical Union. Dr. Franch is a storyteller and historian who has taught history at a number of colleges. Queering Democracy: James Baldwin, Bayard Rustin and the Quest for Democracy with Rev. Osagyefo Sekou Sunday, December 14, 11am
Rev. Sekou, the author of the critically acclaimed Urbansouls and a social justice minister at Middle Collegiate Church in NYC, reflects on the contribution to democracy in thought and practice by these two major black, gay thinkers and civil rights leaders.
Solstice Celebration with the Children’s Sunday Assembly Sunday, December 21, 11am
Join the Children’s Sunday Assembly in celebrating the Solstice!
Colloquy Sunday, December 28, 11am
Colloquies are an opportunity for deep group reflection on a theme.
JANUARY
Multicultural Modeling: Growing Anti-Racist Activism in Ethical Culture With Hugh Taft-Morales Sunday, January 4, 11am
In 1922, Langston Hughes wrote that, “Tomorrow, I'll be at the table, when company comes nobody'll dare say to me, ‘Eat in the kitchen,’ then. ~Besides, they'll see how beautiful I am and be ashamed.” Eighty-five years later, even with an African American President-elect, there are still too few African Americans at the table. Hugh Taft-Morales, an Ethical Culture leader-in-training at the Northern Virginia Society will share his insights about his own process of moving beyond paralysis and fear in facing racism towards a more empowering multicultural perspective that honors the inherent worth of every one and strengthens our humanism.
1pm Workshop: "Bringing out the Best in a Diverse World: Multicultural Fluency in Ethical Culture" This hour mini-class will share the lessons of Ethical Culture for embracing social diversity of a range of types. If, as Felix Adler has taught, by bringing out the best in others you bring out the best in yourself, what happens if you bring out the best in a wide and diverse group of others? You might bring out a wider and more diverse best in yourself. (By Invitation Only)
Storytelling and Community: the Charley Horwitz Memorial Platform with Lee-Ellen Marvin Sunday, January 11, 11am
Does storytelling build communities? Can it make our activism stronger? Do you need powerful stories to create a powerful movement? Lee-Ellen Marvin has been a professional storyteller for 21 years, and an activist in the peace and justice movement for even longer. Most recently, she has been encouraging both storytellers and activists to develop their talents so they can tell effective stories about the most important news of our times. (Marvin's latest story project is "Standing Up: Women in Peace and Social Action, " about women in history and the present, "standing up, speaking out, and making noise.")
Colloquy Sunday, January 18, 11am
We will explore themes based on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's notion of "Beloved Community". Participants are invited to share their own experiences and insights into what a beloved community might look like for each of us.
The core value of the quest for Dr. King’s Beloved Community was agape love.
'Agape does not begin by discriminating between worthy and unworthy people…It begins by loving others for their sakes” and “makes no distinction between a friend and enemy; it is directed toward both…Agape is love seeking to preserve and create community.”
Civil Rights Festival With the Children’s Sunday Assembly Sunday January 25, 11am
Brooklyn Ethical’s annual celebration with the Children’s Assembly.
Sunday Platforms are a long-standing tradition within Ethical Culture to bring light and heat to matters of ethical concern in a formal setting. Every Sunday, platforms examine major ethical issues and explore the personal and social aspects of living an ethical life.
