EthicalStL.org

Mary Beth Tinker is a nurse and a life-long activist. She divides her time between living and working in Washington D.C. and her public speaking engagements all over the country, addressing primarily student audiences. Ms. Tinker was in the 8th grade when she and her brother decided to wear black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War. In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the landmark decision Tinker v Des Moines Independent Community School District, upholding the free speech rights of public school students. The Tinker case remains one of the most important cases ever decided pertaining to students and the first amendment.

Dale McGowan grew up in St. Louis with parents who allowed and encouraged him to think for himself. He ended up a decent enough fellow who also happens to be a secular humanist. Now a father of three, he confronts what should be the central question for all freethinking parents: Do I raise my kids as Freethinkers, or as freethinkers? Dale makes a heartfelt case for the lower case, for the sake of integrity, the kids, and the culture. lt;brgt;lt;brgt;Dale is editor and co-author of Parenting Beyond Belief and Raising Free-thinkers, the first comprehensive resources for nonreligious parents. He writes the secular parenting blog lt;a href="http://parentingbeyondbelief.com/blog/" target="_blank"gt;The Meming of Lifelt;/agt; and teaches seminars for non-theistic parents across the United States. He currently serves as U.S. Communications Coordinator for Nonviolent Peaceforce, a global civilian peacekeeping organization, and as executive director of Foundation Beyond Belief, a new humanist charitable and educational venture. In 2008 he was named Harvard Humanist of the Year by the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University. Dale holds degrees in physical anthropology and music theory from UC Berkeley and the University of Minnesota. He and his wife Becca, a first grade teacher, live in Atlanta with their three children.

The Ethical Culture Movement offers not only a philosophic theory about life but also, if we care to work with it, an approach to living. I want to ask, what does ethical living mean, certainly not obeying traditional moral rules. I will offer the idea that having the courage to be yourself not just as an individual but as a person among others is the route to living well. lt;brgt;lt;brgt;Richard Kiniry has been Leader of the lt;a href="http://www.phillyethics.net/" target="_blank"gt;Philadelphia Ethical Humanist Societylt;/agt; since 1990. He spent his college years in a Catholic seminary, raised chickens in India for two years with the Peace Corps, and had his own stained glass business for many years.

Welcome back to those who have been away for the summer or who are new to our community. This morning’s platform will set a course for an exciting new season at the Ethical Society, reflecting on who we are, how we can continue to build on the strengths of this wonderful and vibrant place, and how we can reach out to all those who so need a place to call home. Come hear about the Long Range Plan for our Society, the product of more than a year of hard and thoughtful work, and how we can work together to make our plans reality.

Members of the St. Louis Ethical Society share their thoughts about their ethical home.

A comparison of classical Buddhism and Ethical Humanism that explores the overlaps of these traditions, both of which are non-theistic and focused on practical ways to improve human life.

Mr. Mazen Badra, a Palestinian, was co-moderator with Dr. Sapir Handelman, an Israeli and visiting professor at UMSL, in a Mind of Peace Experiment (MOPE; lt;a href="http://www.mindofpeaceexperiment.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"gt;www.mindofpeaceexperiment.blogspot.comlt;/agt;) conducted this past year. MOPE is a series of unique exercises in peacemaking and conflict resolution. It proposes simulations of a potential Palestinian-Israeli public assembly – a multi-party negotiating congress. The assembly is designed to involve the people in the peace process through provoking a public debate over central issues. lt;brgt;lt;brgt;MOPE brought five Palestinians and five Israelis together to discuss and propose resolutions to critical points of conflict that divide the two communities. MOPE is based on the belief that civilians are at the center of the conflict and need to be at the center of the solution. Mr. Badra will discuss MOPE, and offer his perspectives on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. lt;brgt;lt;brgt;Mazen Badr has been a university lecturer for more than 22 years. He has taught business management, accounting, economics, and marketing courses. Of the 22 years as a lecturer, 16 were at Birzeit and Bethlehem Universities in the Holy Land. He relocated to the US in August of 2002, and in October of the same year joined Sanford-Brown College, the Fenton-Missouri Campus, and currently chairs two Bachelor Programs – Business Administration, and Health-care Management. lt;brgt;lt;brgt;As a peace activist who believes in non-violence, Mr. Madra started promoting dialogue and understanding between Palestinians and Jews in 1988. When he moved to the United States, he reached out to two Jewish Rabbis in St. Louis resulting in the formation of an organization called 'The Children of Abraham.' He is a frequent guest speaker at universities, churches, Jewish congregations, and schools.

My perspective is Neo-Vedanta or Neo-Hinduism, one of the primary responses within Hinduism to the challenge of modernity. It was first articulated by Swami Vivekananda in 1893 at the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago. Dharma is a comprehensive term that means etymologically, 'that which holds a person or thing'. We will start with the fundamental insight of the Hindu ethos about the nature of reality, using that as a key to understand dharma. We will then examine various aspects of dharma: physical, intra-personal, moral, and spiritual. Finally we‘ll look at dharma as both the stable basis of secular life and the foundation of spiritual life. lt;brgt;lt;brgt;Swami Nishpapananda is a monk of the Ramakrishna Order of India, and an assistant minister at the lt;a href="http://www.vedantastl.org/" target="_blank"gt;Vedanta Society of St Louislt;/agt;, where he has resided since 1974. He became interested in Vedanta through college course work, joined the Order in 1981 and received final monastic vows in India in 1995. A graduate of Washington University, Swami Nishpapananda manages the book and multi-media publications of the Vedanta Society and is active in inter-faith work in the St Louis area.

This talk will use past and recent findings from evolutionary anthropology and psychology to highlight some of the main features of our evolution as human beings with language, cultures, and what we Westerners label as "religion." Why do all cultures (if not individuals) have behaviors and narratives that we can classify this way? How did these things evolve, and in what sense are they universal? We will deal specifically with three features of religion, morality/ethics, ritual, and myth, and the emphasis will be on small-scale societies. lt;brgt;lt;brgt; Liz is a retired anthropologist and speech/language pathologist. In her retirement she has been an active participant in Washington University's Life-long Learning Institute and recently taught a course titled "The Religious Animal." Liz earned a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Michigan in 1974. In her retirement, she has moved back into this field and is continuing to explore her lifelong interest in some of the "big questions" that have philosophical as well as scientific roots.

Born in Germany in 1902, Walter emigrated to New York in 1927 and migrated to St. Louis in 1932 where he joined the Freethinkers and the Ethical Society. In 1948 he became a charter member of the Rationalist Society of St. Louis. lt;brgt;lt;brgt;Walter was an avowed atheist, ardent rationalist, and enthusiastic supporter of Democratic Socialism. We'll take a brisk walk down the memory lane of Walter's long life and cross paths with some of the notable people he met along his life's journey: Margaret Sanger, Norman Thomas, the Reuther brothers (Walter and Victor), Madalyn Murray O'Hair, Sen. Paul Simon, and Mark Twain's cousin, Cyril Clemens. lt;brgt;lt;brgt; Patricia Konert von zur Muehlen met Eleanor and Walter at the Society in 1975 and they became good friends. After Eleanor's death in 1993, Pat took Walter on outings almost weekly. Walter died 25 May 1999.