Living Proof that Family Values Without Religion Build Character

Ethical Culture is a religion, but not in the popularly held theistic sense. To put it another way, we are a nontheistic religion. We don't address theological topics or subscribe to or against supernatural belief. Our members include atheists, agnostics, theists, deists and probably others. Rather than dogma or ideology, it is, among other things, our congregational and social character that binds us together into a community.

That said (that is, that we are a religion) the title of this post is may not appeal to some of our members. We in EC teach family values to our children in part by bringing them together in a Sunday school. So the following quote from President Obama's autobiographical book The Audacity of Hope would not necessarily serve as an accurate depiction of the experience of most EC families:

"I was not raised in a religious household. . . . Without the help of religious texts or outside authorities, [my mother] worked mightily to instill in me the values that many Americans learn in Sunday school: honesty, empathy, discipline, delayed gratification, and hard work. She raged at poverty and injustice. Most of all, she possessed an abiding sense of wonder, a reverence for life and its precious, transitory nature. …”
“Given the increasing diversity of America’s population, the dangers of sectarianism have never been greater. Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.”

The quote is used in this ad from the American Humanist Association. Although the ad is not a perfect match for EC sensibilities, it resonates. It builds a case that nontheism works and that religious texts, dogma and ideology are not required to build moral character. The most visible recent example of this? President Obama.