Humanists: Ethical Culture's Maturity

It is axiomatic for Ethical Culture that a good deed is better than a bad creed. This week, when the New York Society for Ethical Culture—mother chapter of the nationwide American Ethical Union—celebrates its 90th anniversary, it can take credit for enough good deeds to honor spiritual institutions ten times as big. Over the years, members have been responsible for creating the N.A.A.C.P., the American Civil Liberties Union, the Legal Aid Society, the Visiting Nurse Service, and the nation's first settlement house.

Ethical Culturists wince at being labeled atheists, but their basic premise is that man can help build himself a better society based on a rational morality and human cooperation without reference to belief in God. Founder of the movement was Felix Adler, a rabbi's son and professor of Hebrew and Oriental literature at Cornell, who reluctantly decided that there was no hope of reforming Judaism from within. Giving up religious practice, Adler in 1876 undertook a series of Sunday morning lectures on contemporary moral issues. Among his early followers was Samuel Gompers, first president of the American Federation of Labor.

Intellectual Leadership. Like Adler, most members in the New York Society have always been dissident Jews, who shared his belief that religious dogmatism leads only to strife. Elsewhere in the U.S., Ethical Culturists are mostly ex-Protestants, with a sprinkling of former Roman Catholics. Intellectual standards are high; a majority of the societies' 5,500 members are college graduates.

Although nontheistic, Ethical Culture has legal recognition as a religion. Its ministers, called leaders, conduct marriage and funeral services and preside at Sunday morning meetings, which blend organ preludes and thoughtful moral lectures on issues of the day. Most of them have a practical knowledge of what they speak. Jerome Nathanson, chairman of the Fraternity of Leaders, heads the New York Committee to Abolish Capital Punishment. Another leader, Algernon Black, is active in SANE and the Euthanasia Society of America.

Not Divinity, Humanity. Like many another reforming movement that has grown old, Ethical Culture worries about losing its bite. Despite a steady growth of about 500 members per year, good new leaders have been hard to find. Many potential members, some society officials fear, may well be repelled by an antiquated name, suggestive of Victorian rationalism. In New York, society switchboard operators lately stopped answering calls with a cheerily cryptic "Hello, Ethical," after one caller snapped: "I don't give a damn about your morals; just connect me."

Ethical Culture is continually seeking out new problem areas of life where its moral purpose might help alleviate the sorrows of existence. Without forsaking its tradition of activism, the society is concerned about the intellectual problem of articulating a system of moral values and standards that can survive an age of relativism. More than ever, Ethical Culture stands firm in its belief that the society will always be a haven for spiritually minded men and women who desire to serve humanity without serving divinity as well.