WAKE FOREST, N.C. — The new head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships told reporters March 22 she values Baptists’ “special gift to the nation” — religious liberty — and looks forward to tackling religious liberty issues in her new role.
Melissa Rogers, a Baptist church-state expert who has been on the faculty of Wake Forest University School of Divinity in Wake Forest, N.C., said in a conference call organized by the White House that she both understands the Baptist “point of view” and aims to work with adherents of “different faiths and none.”
“Baptists have always joined hands across lines with those of many faiths and those who don’t claim faith and have a commitment to the common good,” Rogers said. “The Baptist history of religious liberty is a special gift to the nation and I look forward to working on religious liberty issues in this new role.”
Rogers, who was appointed March 13, had been director of the Center for Religion and Public Affairs at Wake Forest, where she also taught courses on church-state relations and Christianity and public policy. She is a former general counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and is a member of Columbia Baptist Church, Falls Church, Va.
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