“Peace, Poverty, and the Planet”

Hugh Taft-Morales explores what it will take to bring lasting peace to the planet. While grateful for the energy and time diplomats and strategists contribute to contain violence, he wonders if such efforts will fail without a radical change of perspective on the part of most of the human race. From a Humanist perspective, the recent Encyclical Letter of Pope Francis entitled “Our Common Home” can be instructive. It emphasizes the fundamental interrelatedness of all of nature and society. War, greed, and exploitation feed off each other. To build peace, we need sustainability and justice.

Hugh Taft-Morales joined the Baltimore Ethical Society as its professional leader in 2010, the same year he was certified by the American Ethical Union as an Ethical Culture Leader. He also serves as Leader of the Ethical Humanist Society of Philadelphia. His presence in Ethical Culture has been termed “invigorating.” Taft-Morales lives in Takoma Park, Maryland, with his wife Maureen, a Latin American Analyst with the Congressional Research Service, with whom he has three beloved children, Sean, Maya, and Justin.