It's my first week in DC, and it's shaping up to be an interesting week. I don't actually start at my internship until Thursday (and then we have Friday off), so these first 3 days this week our group is visiting different organizations around DC. Today we kicked things off by visiting International Justice Mission and The Institute for Religion and Democracy. IJM was a great visit. I know a decent amount about IJM and what they do, so it was really cool to get to meet with some of their staff members and hear about what they do in their jobs. The Institute for Religion and Democracy was, well, interesting. As we were talking about it afterwards a friend of mine described it as "The Institute for Criticizing Liberal Christians," which seemed fairly accurate after spending almost an hour listening to and questioning the president of the Institute. The organization actually started in the 80s as a response to Christian denominations who were supporting Socialist/Marxist regimes in developing countries. It served as a watchdog against this type of action, ensuring that Christians supported democracy. After the collapse of the Cold War it had to search for a new mission, which it did, but as far as we could tell that mission was a little bit less clear, and seemed more intent on making sure the Church remained conservative.
Tonight in class we had some interesting and intense discussions surrounding the Faith Based Initiative, and what types of organizations/services should be publicly funded and which should not.
As much as I enjoyed our visits and all, I'm really looking forward to getting started with my internship. I'm really excited to get to learn more about how Development, Politics, and Advocacy all intertwine, especially at a non-profit in DC.
And for all who are worried about my eating while I'm here, no worries, I'm keeping myself well fed.
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