Lauren Moore, SOL Intern 2022
Hey everyone! My name is Lauren Moore and I am originally from Glendale, Arizona. I’m currently pursuing my Masters of Divinity at Duke Divinity with certificates in Gender, Sexuality, Theology and Ministry and in Faith-Based Organizing and Advocacy. While I’ve always been deeply interested in social justice, I wanted to pursue human rights in some form of vocation after I worked in a group home as an Assistant Manager for a year. Here, the evil reality of systemic racism and oppression was made clear to me. The children I interacted with and cared for were born into a malicious system of which they could not get themselves out of. And specifically, I could not get them out of. I tried desperately to set them up for the “American dream” but quickly learned America truly did not want them to achieve their dreams. Or, in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., I learned that “it is a cruel jest to tell a bootless man to pull himself up by his bootstraps.” After this realization, I shifted my sights to public policy and advocacy, wanting to take the dominating powers affecting those I love head-on.
With all this being said, I am so excited to be an intern with SAF this academic year. I graduated in 2020 from Grand Canyon University with a Bachelors in Christian Studies with an emphasis in Biblical Studies, knowing since 13 that I wanted to be a pastor. As time has passed, I have grown to understand that the pastoral vocation is not limited to caring only for the spiritual health of people. Instead, it is all encompassing in caring for the physical, mental, emotional, and therefore political wellbeing of people as well. In short, I believe my pastoral call must be a political one.
When I received the information that I would be working with SAF, I was thrilled. I am deeply passionate about activism, social work, and community organizing and cannot wait to use my background and passions to advocate alongside those who have been doing this work for a long time. I am looking forward to the wisdom, experience, and stories from those who have come before me. I have so much to learn and am excited to get to work and try to support the people who need it the most but perhaps receive it the most sparingly- our farm workers.