Do Ethical Culturists believe in the divinity of Jesus?
No, but we do appreciate the contributions of great religious leaders such as Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Lao Tzu, and Confucius. Jesus teaches, for example, an ethical message important to Ethical Culture. Jesus saw the spiritual realm as inside a person–“The kingdom of heaven is within you.” Jesus, like Buddha, called on people to live ethically rather than merely satisfy the rules of religious ritual. For Jesus, the evil deeds of others never justify one’s own evil. The ethical response to evil (“Love thine enemies as thyself”) is to elicit the good within people and to transform the evil in oneself. Jesus also pointed out that people are punished not for their mistakes (sins) but by their mistakes. The ethics and spirit of Jesus, a person of pure good will dedicated to serving humankind as his highest calling, remains a powerful and needed influence in modern society.
