Sign-on Letter Calling Faith, Spiritual, and Communities of Conscience
to Protect our Neighbors and the Environment

Looking to sign as an Individual/Leader? Here is the Individual/Leader Sign-on.

In the spirit of shared purpose, we sign here to join with faith, spiritual, and conscience-led communities across Washington in pledging to care for our communities and the environment through voting in the 2024 elections. We join with Earth Ministry/WA IPL's Cast Your Vote Washington campaign and acknowledge the common ground between many faith, spiritual and conscience-led traditions. We recognize that our common home is shared, and therefore, commit to bringing moral accountability to educate and activate on ballot initiatives and candidates in this 2024 election season.

As community committed to caring for our neighbors, whether they are bird or beast, person or plant, water or wind, we commit to join with others across the state pledging to actively encourage our community members to cast their votes to elect representatives and consider ballot initiatives, which:

• Are consistent with our sacred duty to protect vulnerable community members from harms like health-affecting pollution, increasing weather extremes, and reduced financial support needed for just transition towards healthier ecosystems
• Prioritize restoration of waterways, wild and tended lands, biodiversity, and the vast, complex skies and climate systems burdened by pollution.
• Reorient policies toward ethics, which center care and reciprocity with our natural world.

Therefore, we join with faith-rooted and conscience-led communities to say NO on:

• Initiative 2117, which would eliminate WA's ability to cap pollution and fund greening projects statewide, and
• Initiative 2066, which bypasses elected leaders' careful work to meet community goals for healthy indoor air quality for schools, homes, and buildings; energy efficiency and decarbonizing our built environment; and prioritizing electrification in new buildings.

Further, recognizing that the reach of our community extends beyond physical or digital structures where we gather, we commit to reminding community participants that voting represents a sacred duty to participate in the wellbeing of our communities and the environment. As such, voting enables stronger institutions and clearer accountability for policies to reflect community interests in Washington state. 

Together, our faiths and spiritual traditions bring meaning and instill joy, awe, and respect for a sacred duty to cherish and protect life-giving aspects of our world. Our communities face unprecedented heatwaves, drought, and extreme weather events, and we can make choices to prevent harm now and into the future. There is always an opportunity to end harmful practices. Therefore, we unite to advocate for protecting our communities and the environment.

As we have learned through experience, the arc of history bends toward justice and love of neighbor can strengthen our communities to resist “false witness” through misinformation. We affirm that faith-rooted, conscience-led people are crucial to a fair and just election, a free society, and a resilient and regenerative future.