The Breakfast Forum at UUCLV meets most Sundays before service to keep our congregation up-to-date with educational topics and social activism in line with our Principles. You are welcome to attend in person at the Lehigh Valley Active Life Center (1633 West Elm St., Allentown, PA 18102) or attend via Zoom.

The meetings begin at 8:30am with a meet & greet. The presentations begin at 9:00am and end at 10:00am to allow preparation for the worship service.

This Month’s Breakfast Forums

January 4

The Collapse of Liberalism?
Presented by Bill Bekkenhuis

The recent radical worldwide assault on liberalism is neither recent nor radical seen in the context of human history where authoritarianism has always been the norm. And when the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and rapid nationalization and industrialization occurred in a rapid succession, there was an immediate pushback. In this first conversation we look at liberalism as radical and recent and hear from a current liberal skeptic.

 

January 11

The Counter-Enlightenment
Presented by Bill Bekkenhuis

In our second conversation, we look at the Counter-Enlightment through the perspective of Isaiah Berlin, who attempted to understand the history of the ideas of liberalism and illiberalism.

 

January 18

The German Conservative Revolution & Traditionalism
Presented by Bill Bekkenhuis

In our third conversation, we look at the German Conservative Revolution as well as the traditionalist, fascist-adjacent thinker Julius Evola and his influence on some current names in the news.

 

January 25

The Dark Enlightenment
Presented by Bill Bekkenhuis

In our final conversation on the challenge of illiberalism we consider the Dark Enlightenment of the 1990s and beyond and its influence on some billionaire technocrats uncomfortably close to our current administration.