Ethical Action

Many of us feel the urgency of building understanding and respect among people of diverse cultural backgrounds, but it can be hard to know where to begin and how to keep it going. Know Your Neighbor: Multifaith Encounters is a coalition of religious and humanist groups led by the Islamic Networks Group (ING), and created in response to rising hate and division against Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (AMEMSA) communities and other minorities. It provides a shared space where individuals and communities can find and attend events of other religious and cultural groups in their neighborhoods, and can invite the interfaith community to their events in turn.

How can your Society take part?

1. Join the Campaign as a partner. The Washington Ethical Society is already a partner, and is listed on the interactive interfaith map with a link to their Society website.
2. Encourage other humanist and faith groups to join the Campaign. If you work in an interfaith coalition already, helping them get connected to this network is a great way to expand their reach and impact.
3. Bring your members to a local Know Your Neighbor event. The interactive map shows upcoming events in the current month, as well as local groups that you can partner with. Don’t see an event up near you? Try contacting one of the groups nearby and see what’s coming up, extend your support as a neighbor, and invite them to keep in touch.
4. Organize your own Know Your Neighbor event! ING has a speakers bureau ready to give talks to better familiarize non-Muslims with Islamic culture and interfaith panels on topics like “Shared Values Among Faiths,” “Religion and Pluralism,” and “Separation of Church and State.” They are also willing to work with groups to create custom talks and panels to bring different groups together, and have materials suitable for Sunday Schools. Host an event, post it on the map, and invite other groups in your area to attend!
5. Organize a training for your Ethical Action Committee or others in capacity-building and engagement with interfaith work. This is a great place to start if your Society has never engaged with faith groups before and would like further education before jumping in.

In explaining the Know Your Neighbor Campaign, ING writes,

“It is human nature to mistrust the unknown. Our communities are only as strong as the connections we have, the connections we make, and the connections we build. It is not enough to engage with others in our communities only in crisis situations when there is a need to respond to an immediate threat. Instead, we need to intentionally build the strength and capacity of our communities on an institutional and organizational level – which begins when we get to know our neighbors.”

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent an unprecedented step toward creating a global framework of humanist ethics that can bring humanity into a new era of sustainability- both with the environment and in our relationships with each other. The 17 SDGs create a plan of action “for people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership” :

https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics

The SDGs are intended to apply to developed and developing nations alike. It remains up to each country, each community, each person how they will choose to make them a reality. The Ethical Action work of Societies typically reflects one or more of the SDGs, and by engaging our Committees and our members mindfully with the SDGs, we can connect ourselves with this global community working toward common goals for humanity. For one example, see how the Ethical Society of Austin uses the SDGs to plan their Ethical Action here.

Is there a resource you'd like to see or share that's not here yet? Email klaclair@aeu.org and let us know!