The outgoing Administration's treatment of terror suspects caused national and international dismay.  The American Ethical Union and other religious and secular groups condemned torture and so-called "enhanced interrogation techniques" as immoral, debasing, and ineffective for gathering intelligence.  During his campaign, the President-elect condemned torture as a betrayal of American values.

Time: January 31, 2009 7:00 pm

Place: Home of the Stanton's (directions upon request)

Join a viewing and discussion of the award-winning movie "Watermarks" which tells the story of a reunion of a Jewish girls' swim team separated by the Holocaust. After 60 years the group reunites for an inspiring team swim. Greta Stanton, mother of NoVES member Andy Stanton, was a member of the team. Greta will be participating in a speakerphone discussion.

Suggested donation: $5.00

A recent study showed that teens pledging to remain virgins were as likely to have sexual encounters as those who made no pledge.  Children pledging to remain celibate not only were as likely to have sex as other children, they were less likely to take the necessary precautions to prevent pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases.  Despite these sobering facts, some parents continue to oppose comprehensive sex education, and instead insist on "abstinence only" sex education.

Melissa Sinclair will discuss how sex education is taught in schools now, describe our society's attitudes to sex education, and suggest what we ALL can do (if you have children or not, if they are grown or not) to improve how we view and talk about sex in society.

Date: February 7, 2009 9:00 am to 3:00 pm (Snow date February 21)

Place: Green Hedges Arts Building

This engaging interactive workshop led by Leader-in-training Hugh Taft-Morales, promotes white anti-racist activism and multicultural fluency in the lives of participants, their families, and their friends. Anyone, of any racial and ethnic background, is welcome to attend. Within an environment of safety and integrity, the class explores how to transform roadblocks to multicultural agency and anti-racist activism in ways that bring out the best. The values and ideas of Ethical Culture will inform our discussions. As we learn how to become more multiculturally fluent, we will have some fun and do some real work.

Suggested donation: $25

One led our nation in a Civil War so that we could fulfill the words in our founding documents.  The other explained how nature changed and developed.  Each understood the risk of his actions but bravely pushed forward.  In honor of the bicentennial of the birth of both Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln on February 12, NoVES Leader Jone Johnson Lewis will highlight the ethical concerns of these two individuals who, each in his own way, had enormous impact on the world we live in today.

Many parents hope that their children will learn to make the right moral decisions.  But our children are bombarded with conflicting messages from the internet, friends, family, and society.  How should they respond to peer pressure, to violence, to dishonesty and to material temptation?  They get different answers from all sides. 

In response, some parents end up taking their children to church or temple -- even when they don't believe the dogma -- in hopes that their children will learn, somehow, how to be good. But religious doctrine often is rule and punishment-based.  Rules help when the issues are simple and clear. But in our complex world, children need tools that can help them decide on the right course even in the most confusing situation.  

Arthur Dobrin will also be leading a workshop related to this topic, at 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. at the nearby Vienna Community Center.  (About the workshop)

Jerry Ziskind Memorial Workshop

You're invited to join Arthur Dobrin, author and teacher, at the Vienna Community Center on February 15, 2009, at 1:30 p.m. for an interactive workshop on How to Raise a Moral Child. The presenter offers hope that raising moral and caring children is something that can be achieved with the right attention and reinforcement.

As parents, do we have a successful plan for teaching right from wrong all worked out? Or do we still struggle with the challenges of raising honest, thoughtful, and compassionate children?

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus..."

Our new president hesitated for just a moment.

"...and nonbelievers."

In the first minutes of his presidency, Barack Obama acknowledged that there are Americans who do not believe in a higher being. He included them in "our patchwork heritage."

Meet the Sunday School staff, volunteers, and children, and learn more about the curriculum of the Northern Virginia Ethical Society's Sunday School. See if the Sunday School is a good fit for your family!

Do you want to raise honest, thoughtful, and compassionate children? Traditionally religious Sunday Schools not meeting your family's needs?

The Northern Virginia Ethical Society's Sunday School is holding a special Open House to introduce families to how our Sunday School can serve families who want to raise their children to be citizens of the world: compassionate, creative, and able to use their reason.

Find out more about our Sunday School on this site or contact the Sunday School director, Lynn Konnerth, if you want more information: email or phone: 703 503 3216

Members: if you want to help out with this Open House please contact Lynn.  Thanks!

Jone Johnson Lewis, NoVES Leader, presents her pretty-much-annual platform address highlighting an individual's ethical life journey.  As with other figures, she's picked a person this year who has some connections to our own Ethical Culture movement -- Frederick Douglass was, for instance, a hero of Felix Adler, who was the first Leader of an Ethical Society, and he spoke several times at Ethical Societies during his lifetime.

In the whirlwind of our busy lives, it is a special moment when we experience another person as unique and of inherent worth: the quick glance into a stranger’s eyes, the extra pause and embrace of a loved one going off to work or school, the spontaneous appreciation of a colleague.   The brief moments of recognition of another’s humanity offer us a form of transcendence that seems both personal and universal.  They happen to us, and to most of the six and a half billion other people on the planet, everyday.  How are we to make sense of these experiences?  What form do these flashes of connection take?  Are they of the head or of the heart or both?  Like sparks, they seem to shine bright and then fade.  How can we use these moments to ignite and sustain the fire of commitment to build a better world?

But salvage from that wreck he did, and with what he salvaged he founded Ethical Culture—a progressive religious movement that espouses

The Northern Virginia Ethical Society celebrates Spring with an annual festival. Each year we gather to welcome to warming and longer days with an event for all. Join us in our celebration, which will include music, poetry, song, and a communal potluck meal.

Image (c) 2009 Jupiterimages. Used with permission.

One thing that most fundamentalist theists and some current anti-religious books have in common: they assume everyone means the same thing by such words as "God."  Ethical Culture is nontheistic, and by that we mean that we don't require belief in any deity as part of our identity.  That doesn't mean all members of our community are atheists or even agnostics.  The god some of us disbelieve in isn't necessarily that god that others in our community believe in.  Jone will explore some of the newer concepts of deity that are current in liberal religious circles, and also explore whether there are other beliefs that might be more difficult to reconcile with an ethical humanism than some versions of god-belief.

When we sing our children to sleep, what words do we use?  Are they the ones we remember from our own childhood?  Or do we make up new words? Join Amanda Poppei of the Washington Ethical Society to talk about the importance of words and language in our religious communities from this unique perspective.  And come early tojoin a pick-up chorus and sing some lullabies with Melodie!

We're closed on April 12 -- no platform meeting!

Jone Johnson Lewis, NoVES Leader, says: "I keep hearing that we can't take on global warming in the current economic downturn, or that we have to choose between working on issues like poverty or racism or sexism or a better relationship with the environment.  But do we really have to choose or can we see these challenges as interconnected, and look for actions that are also interconnected?"

Felix Adler was not a big fan of psychology.  As William James and Sigmund Freud became more popular, and interest in the inner life grew, the Victorian Adler resisted what he considered this narcissistic invasion of the private world. Today, however, counseling is an important part of Ethical Culture; it nourishes ethical relations and our congregational life.  Hugh Taft-Morales explores two counseling orientations – those of Alfred Adler and existential therapists such as Victor Frankel - that reflect many Ethical Culture values.  He will share some of his personal experience in therapy as well as his philosophy of counseling to bring out our best.

HIV/AIDS has hit Sub-Saharan Africa harder than any other world region -- destroying lives, deepening poverty and hampering the overall advancement of nations.  Africare is there, helping Africans to fight the epidemic through several programs.  Abdalla B. Meftuh, MD, MPH is currently providing technical assistance and back-stopping to Africare’s four-country (Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda) COPE (Community-based Orphans Care, Protection and Empowerment) Project.  COPE aims to empower young children crippled by the loss of their parents and caretakers by giving both the children and the larger community the tools they need. The Africare work addresses basic needs like food, shelter, education, health care and age-appropriate income-generating activities.

"Father of the Harlem Renaissance," Alain Locke promoted African American artists, writers, and musicians, encouraging them to depict African and African American subjects, and to draw on their history for subject material. A Harvard Phi Beta Kappa graduate and the first black Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, Locke had his greatest impact upon African American art while at Howard University (1917-1953). There Locke served as chair of the philosophy department and conveyed to his students the value of the fine arts. He started a drama group, the Howard Players, and a literary magazine, the Stylus.

We've been hearing a lot about leadership lately.  But what exactly is leadership?  Some confuse leadership with authority or power.  Others mistake an engaging personality with leadership.  But leadership is far more than this, and with leadership comes ethical obligations -- for both the leaders and for those who follow.  Jone Johnson Lewis will address the role of leadership in families, work, and politics -- and what an ethical humanist perspective on leadership might look like.

Many have attempted to discern whether change is predictable.  Some religions view history as a circle, with events repeating themselves endlessly.  In modern times, we've seen analysis of historic trends as cycles and swings from one view, to its opposite extreme, and back.  Fashion seems cyclical -- just ask the mother worried about her daughter's new outfit, one so similar to the fashion she donned in her youth.  Jone Johnson Lewis will ponder change, swinging pendulums, and cycles, questioning the role of change in human life. 

In honor of Memorial Day, we'll also remember some members of our community who have died in the last few years.