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Platform Meetings

Everyone is welcome to attend our Sunday morning platform meetings. From the first Sunday after Labor Day through mid-June, they are held at 11 AM. During the summer, our program is more varied, but we usually start at 10:30 AM. Our thought provoking platform addresses cover a wide range of subjects relating to ethics in modern life. 

Our speakers offer thoughts related to the philosophy of humanism or share their experiences and commitments in the struggle to foster peace, justice, economic fairness and racial and religious harmony.

Our leader speaks on the first Sunday of each month occasionally on the differences between Ethical Culture and other religous movements. Sometimes our meetings take the form of interviews or group discussions. Three times a year, special celebrations are held in conjunction with the children of the Sunday School. Babysitting is available for infants and toddlers too young to sample our Sunday School.

Music, small discussions, coffee and socializing are also important elements of our Sunday morning experience.

If you would like to sample our programs before visiting (or you are too far to visit) you may also choose from a large selection of audio tapes available for a nominal fee. Call (201) 836-5187 for more information or send us an email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

The Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County welcomes people of all races, ethnic origins, religious backgrounds, and sexual orientations. The Society has a barrier free front entrance.

 

 Below are some of our Platform Addresses: 

Moving Toward Universal Healthcare Coverage: Principles, Political Rhetoric and Stakeholders’ Tug-of-War

Dr. Richard H. Bernstein’s platform address of Sunday 30 March 2008
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The Israel-Palestinian Conflict: Each Side's Contrasting Narratives

Because this is a very difficult and emotional subject, I think it’s helpful for you to know something about my background.  It is, at least in part, a basis for my point of view.  I grew up in Antwerp, Belgium, and lived there until the age of 11.  I came to New York in 1940 in what I think was the last boat before Germany invaded.  The reason I’m alive and here is because of my mother.  She was organizing a soup kitchen feeding refugees from Germany, and she heard the stories and convinced my father to leave.  I was aware of anti-Semitism from my early years.
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Can Ethical Culture Help You in a Time of Personal Crisis?

By Marc Bernstein
Few in this room believe in a God who answers our prayers.  Probably no one believes in an afterlife that will redress our suffering here on earth.  Yet Ethical Culturists suffer like everyone else.  We bury our parents, our spouses, and sometimes our children.  So, when life seems unbearable, what does our faith offer us?  This is a question we do not often raise these days.  But it was a question Felix Adler asked repeatedly.  He believed Ethical Culture had an answer to the problem of suffering.  I will draw on some of his ideas this morning.
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Two Possible Futures for Ethical Culture

By Marc A. Bernstein, Ph.D.  Sunday 27 April 2008

I became interested in Ethical Culture’s future when I began to study its past.  About a year ago, Howard Radest, the author of Toward Common Ground, the history of our movement, recommended that I bring his book up to date.  He had taken our story only to 1951, the seventy-fifth anniversary of Ethical Culture.  Much had occurred in the movement since then, and it was my job to write it up.  I did a cursory review of our last five decades, with an eye toward the arc of my proposed narrative.  I immediately saw a problem.  How, I asked myself, could I keep the story of our last half-century from being a tale of decline, if not failure?  If that question sounds bald, consider the following.

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Roe vs. Wade vs. Socrates

I recently received a pamphlet from the National Organization for Woman (“NOW”).  Its front page said in bold letters:  Keep Abortion Legal NOW. Its text read:
 
Dear Friends of Woman’s Rights:
 
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The Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County
687 Larch Avenue
Teaneck, NJ 07666
201-836-5187
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