The White House announced March 13 that Melissa Rogers, a Baptist church-state specialist who formerly worked at the Baptist Joint Committee (BJC) for Religious Liberty, will serve as special assistant to the president and director of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Rogers, director of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity Center for Religion and Public Affairs and a nonresident senior fellow with The Brookings Institution, previously served as inaugural chair of President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
“I’m honored to be able to serve President Obama by forging and promoting a wide range of effective partnerships with faith-based and secular nonprofits that help people in need,” said Rogers, a member of Columbia Baptist Church, Falls Church, Va.
The White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships was first opened by President George W. Bush in 2001 and continued under President Obama. It serves to encourage partnerships between public and private entities to help meet the nation’s social-service needs.
Obama issued an executive order in 2010 addressing concerns related to the separation of church and state that were criticized during his administration’s early years. Those changes incorporated recommendations from a task force led by Rogers and comprised of religious and community leaders including BJC Executive Director Brent Walker.
Walker applauded her selection to head the faith-based office. “Melissa possesses a keen understanding of the First Amendment’s religion clauses and is sensitive to practical issues of their application,” he said. “Her leadership in the church-state field — as the BJC’s general counsel and as chair of the task force charged with reforming the office — has made her the perfect choice to fill this important position in the Obama administration,” Walker added.
A graduate of Baylor University, Rogers earned her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Before coming to Wake Forest she worked three years as the first executive director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, launched in 2001.
During her tenure as BJC general counsel, Rogers helped lead a diverse coalition that was instrumental in bringing about the enactment of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000.
Rogers has testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on religious freedom issues and served as a draftsperson for several amicus briefs in church-state cases heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 2004, National Journal recognized her as one of the church-state experts “politicians will call on when they get serious about addressing an important public-policy issue.”
While Rogers has never lived in Alabama, she does have a connection to Alabama Baptist life. Her grandparents, the late Bill and Marie Rogers were founding members of Baptist Church of the Covenant, Birmingham.
(ABP, TAB)
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