Lauren Smith

During my Chuck Green Summer Fellowship experience, I had the privilege of partnering with Gender Justice. Gender Justice is a nonprofit based in Saint Paul that works to advance gender equity through the law, meaning most of their work is done through impact litigation in the Minnesota courts and advocacy in the Minnesota legislature.

At GJ I primarily assisted with the progression of one of their main partnerships: the Minnesota coalition of Proteus Fund’s Rights, Faith, and Democracy Collaborative (RFDC). The RFDC brings together their five member organizations – Gender Justice, Jewish Community Action, OutFront Minnesota, and Take Action Minnesota – united by the common goal of combating White Christian Nationalism and eliminating the weaponization of religious exemption laws as a means to discriminate against women, LGBTQ+ people, and religious minorities.

Throughout my summer, I worked with the coalition in various ways, all with an emphasis on aiding them in meeting their goal of educating people to realize full inclusion and justice for those harmed by religious extremism. I began using the messaging research previously conducted by the coalition to create a one page document that synthesized both the threats of the harmful ideology perpetuated by the Christian Right and the work being done and needing to be done in opposition. After distributing the one-pager at Twin Cities Pride and getting to talk to many different people about the ways they are being impacted by religious extremism, I conducted one-on-one meetings with each of the coalition partners to better understand how they viewed the purpose of the RFDC and how my work could further goals and mission.

Then I jumped into my main summer project; I researched White Christian Nationalism from its roots to its most recent manifestations and created a curriculum and slides for Gender Justice to use in future presentations and education opportunities. In the slides, I focused primarily on ways we see people being harmed by religious extremism in Minnesota and offered an alternative narrative for progressives to think of religious freedom, not as antithetical to civil rights, but as integral. Hopefully, this narrative helps eliminate White Christian Nationalism as more people start to understand that religious freedom should be neutral, non-discriminatory, and a tool for attaining social justice and equity.

As the summer comes to an end, I find myself extremely grateful for my experience as a Chuck Green Fellow. As a fellow, I was able to make decisions and shape my own summer in a way that would have been impossible without this program. It was through that autonomy that I was able to find a partner organization that aligned so well with my own values and aspirations who allowed me to spend the summer researching and working on issues that I care deeply about.