Government Fellow 2023-24

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NAOMI WASHINGTON-LEAPHEART: HI. I'm Reverend Naomi Washington-Leapheart. I am the Government Fellow for Religion and Public Life here at Harvard Divinity School. I didn't always work in government. In fact, I never would have imagined that I'd be working in government. I was trained as an organizer and educator. And I've always positioned myself in opposition to what government systems are doing.

But I had an opportunity to consider working in municipal government as the director for faith-based and interfaith affairs for the mayor's office in the city of Philadelphia. I checked in with all of my communities of accountability, right? I wanted to know, am I a sellout for saying yes to this opportunity? Will I have power that I don't currently have on the outside of the system? What will people think of me, the radical, prophetic faith leader, going into the government bureaucracy?

After this mild existential crisis, I decided to take the job and shape it into something that is prophetic on the inside. It's possible to speak truth to power while associated with power. A burning question that I have, as we explore the relationship between religion and government, is, how can the prophetic tools and practices, forms of inquiry that we cultivate in religious communities be employed inside government structures?

I'm also interested in how ideas about religion, ideas about the realities of religion, and how ideas and attitudes about religious people get employed by government professionals as they make decisions about policy, as they strategize about how to tackle some of our biggest issues and challenges? So I want to drop down into the messiness of the relationship between church and state, between faith and politics to really imagine how government can also be an instrument of prophetic liberation. And so I'm so excited to work together in community with all of my colleagues to ask these and more questions.

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