How Ethical Culture Helped Save American Society

Leader Joseph Chuman

Liz Singer presides

“Our Society is in a state of crisis, divided by class, democracy compromised. We have actually been there before. From the last decades of the nineteenth century until World War I, American society suffered from the weaknesses and oppressions that looked very much like those we confront today. But visionaries and activists rose to the occasion and restored American society from the ravages left by the Civil War and accelerated by the Industrial Revolution. The Progressive Movement, of which Ethical Culture was a major component, asserted its influence on all levels and had many different expressions, from organizing labor, to building settlements, to winning for women the right to vote, to busting up monopolies that kept the laboring masses poor and oppressed.

In my first address of the new season I will take a look  at the Progressive Era and Ethical Culture’s place in it. it is my hope that the address will produce an ample introduction to the environment that gave birth to Ethical Culture and the notable men and women who were part of it. But my purpose is not solely historical. Its intent is to serve as a source of inspiration for us even now.”  -Joe Chuman