Dr. Khoren Arisian, Leader Emeritus
1950
I had sauntered onto a nearby unpaved path and slowly climbed among the rocks, thinking intensely about what I might do with my life. As I climbed to the top of an overlook the sky was vast and luminous, the crisp moonlight illuminated the valley, and off in the distance was the island's inconsequential-looking-chapel. With the warm summer breeze on my skin, I suddenly felt a cascade of tingling sensory impressions, causing me to feel extended into earth and sky and also into that little chapel, a symbol of human culture, striving and reflection. I felt utterly empowered, literally wired into the cosmos; at one with myself. I have not been as focused in my whole life as I was at that moment.
I had been attending a week-long summer youth conference on an island off the coast of New Hampshire. Beholding this view had provoked an inner experience of extraordinary depth, consolidating all the things rolling up in me that I was fascinated about. It was 1950: I was 17 years old. That night, during that strengthening, directive experience, I made decisions that set me on my adult path: to enter a liberal ministry. I heard no voices; doves didn't suddenly descend from the heavens with a message from afar; I just had a great silent inner dialog that no words can describe. I didn't feel my individuality to be swallowed up in some vague oceanic experience; if anything, it was underscored and enhanced. For a moment or two I actually felt invincible!
I was going to be my own kind of religious leader: no incense, robes, or the usual paraphernalia. I chose the path of moral universalism: we are all moral equals. In ethical humanism: our highest purpose is to help improve the lives of human beings, according to their own best wishes. I would not engage in social engineering, but would contribute to the creation of conditions in which people could live richer, more satisfying, self-directed lives. This also meant I would hold the reconstruction and reform of the American democratic prospect constantly before me. Such were the implications of that extraordinary evening in the summer of 1950.
2003
The radical right is threatening our nation's founding principles; its true believers are the greatest danger this country is facing right now. Discussions framed from only their viewpoint go unopposed. Psycholinguistics - the repetition of concise phrases - that encapsulate their views permeate the media. I'm outraged at the notion of Christian superiority that the right wing perpetuates, for we are all equal as moral ends in ourselves.
I would love for us to revitalize the New York Society as the epicenter of the Ethical movement; to return it to the spirit of its radical roots in shaping major issues - not just locally, but nationally and perhaps beyond. We plan to organize a series of major public events, to generate some ethical friction in the effort to influence public opinion. The Advocacy Forum will explore issues such as the current assault upon civil liberties, the theological foundations of the religious right, and the paradox of worldwide American dominance. Stoke the public mood, then create a movement to harness its latent energies. The Advocacy Forum may have the potential to become one of the leading public opinion engines in the city. This is what Adler would describe as potentiality transformed into potency.
Millions of Americans are flustered, confused. This country is wealthy beyond belief, yet $15K per year for a family of three is poverty level in this country, a fact that immediately gets you to think about social reform and ethically motivated political action, recapturing in the spirit of our day the reform ethos of the progressive era of moral idealism. We all deserve to flourish if we can; consciousness of our inherent worth is the true source of freedom.
How, than, does one get through all the social machinery (meetings, reports, deadlines) to achieve this underlying goal? How to make most of this gift of life we have at our disposal? With the Advocacy Forum as a fulcrum, restoration of our magnificent building on Central Park West, and continued investment in our ethical humanist initiatives, we hope to prepare ourselves organizationally to attract people of all ages to the Society who want to help answer such questions and formulate the responses with programs and action plans. Our Society with all its promise is ready to go forward only to the degree that we awaken to that possibility and pull together with others who feel a kinship with us.
Career Highlights
- 1954 - Tufts University, American history major
- 1957 - Crane Theological School, Tufts
- (First year at Manchester College, Oxford, England.)
- 1958 - First Unitarian Society in Iowa City, Iowa
- 1964 - First minister of new Unitarian Church of Sarasota, Florida
- 1965 - The only clergyman from Sarasota to travel to Selma, Alabama, for the march led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. a flash point in the civil rights struggle.
- 1966 - Merrill Fellow at Harvard Divinity School
- 1967 - Leader, Boston Ethical Society
- 1968 - Board of Leaders of the New York Society. Service included being a director and co-founder of the Ethical Culture School of Adult Education, a member of the Chaplaincy Task Force for the New York Board of Corrections, and a founder of the New York Society's Prison Reform Task Force.
- 1979-1997 - Unitarian Society of Minneapolis
- 1982 - Co-founded North American Committee for Humanism and the Humanist Institute.
- 2000 - Senior Leader, New York Society for Ethical Culture
