EthicalStL.org

Hear a special panel highlighting the voices of our lay leaders — members who help guide and sustain the Society’s programs, initiatives, and community life. Together they will reflect on what leadership means in our values-driven community, how their experiences embody our mission of inspiring ethical living and working for a more just world, and why shared leadership is central to our success. Panelists will also share some of their most formative experiences at the Ethical Society and discuss ways they believe our organization can continue to improve and evolve into the future.

At a time when fear and division threaten democracy, Humanism offers a different path, one rooted in dignity, truth, and solidarity. This Platform will explore how Humanist values can inspire hope and guide us to resist authoritarianism, defend human rights, and strengthen our communities with courage and compassion. Let’s reflect on how “Humanism in Action” can be our most powerful response to rising fascism.

Celebrate books and how all varieties of fiction are important to surviving and thriving in the modern world. Reading fiction serves a wide variety of purposes – including some that may surprise you. This goes for not just “serious” literary fiction, but popular genres like romance and mystery.

The holocaust wiped out most of my family. But if it had not happened, I likely would not exist. How can I reconcile the suffering my ancestors underwent for refusing to abandon their Jewishness with my own abandonment of it? What can my family’s history, and the history of the holocaust, teach us about being good humans? And what can that history teach us about navigating these turbulent times with ethical integrity?

As the current iteration of the conservative movement continues to escalate its attacks on trans people in the United States, it does so by asserting that there are only two sexes and that one’s gender is immutably connected to one’s sex. It would be easy to assume this only harms the roughly 1% of the population who is trans, but in fact this harms us all. Drawing from his own journey of self-discovery and the people who inspired him along the way, Grayson will share what he’s learned about gender, identity, and how breaking free of restrictive boxes is an essential component to the fight to build a better world for us all.

How does freedom grow—not just as a right, but as an unfolding communal task? Join Dr. David Breeden for a reflection on Ethical Culture, German Idealism, and the liberal imagination’s enduring work of crafting justice, dignity, and shared possibility.

Jamie Frazier shares her perspective, through her own personal journey, on how a person goes from being under cult-like influences, to a place where they are free to question and free to choose what they believe. She will also share her thoughts on how to interact with individuals who are still in their echo chambers.

Change is a fact of life: all the time, every day and every moment, we face changes large and small. We change as we age. Relationships with those we love can change. Our jobs change, our families change, our world changes. Sometimes change is welcome – at other times, scary. Right now the USA is experiencing disorienting change at a bewildering pace, and many people are afraid. How do we find the courage to face the changes that are happening now, and how can we face them together?

In 1912, the labor hymn "Bread and Roses" was sung by striking textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The song advocates for workers to receive “Bread”—the wages working people need to support their families, and “Roses”—the beautiful things that make life worth living, such as art, music, and nature. Over 100 years later, St. Louis-based arts organization Bread and Roses Missouri amplifies and elevates the voices of working people through art, performance and activism. Executive Director Emily Kohring will talk about how participation in creative experiences can be healing and transformative for working people and their families, and how they use theatre to highlight the stories of the working class and the Labor Movement that are too often left out of our cultural narrative. She’ll discuss the intersection of the arts and advocacy, and how justice-focused arts organizations like Bread and Roses are navigating these challenging times.

In our divisive political times, Dr. Kyle Reyes presents a new framework rooted in Humanity and importance of human communication and understanding. Based on a five-year research project, Kyle proposes a new approach to intentional and humanity-driven living in the workplace, in our communities, and in our homes. Now more than ever, we need bridge-building solutions that embrace human differences as opportunities for growth and connection.