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President
Barack Obama announced Feb. 5 a panel of religious and secular leaders
with experience in social services to help his administration develop
and implement policy related to the provision of social services by
faith-based and neighborhood organizations.
Of
the 15 leaders named, three have direct ties to the Baptist Joint
Committee, including its former general counsel, a fellow co-chair of
religious liberty coalitions, and a current board member.
Melissa
Rogers is a former Baptist Joint Committee general counsel and is now
the director of the Wake Forest School of Divinity Center for Religion
and Public Affairs.
Rabbi David
Saperstein is a fellow co-chair of religious liberty coalitions and is
director and counsel of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
Saperstein presented the BJC’s 2006 Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden
Lectures on Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State.
The
Rev. Dr. William Shaw is a BJC board member, president of the National
Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Inc., and pastor of White Rock Baptist
Church in Philadelphia.
BJC Executive Director J. Brent Walker was pleased with the announcement.
“This
group represents a good example of the president’s desire to hear many
points of view,” Walker said. “I am especially glad Melissa Rogers and
others will be at the table to offer a strong defense of religious
liberty and church-state separation.”
According
to the executive order creating a revamped White House Office of
Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, the panel will work to
identify best practices and successful modes of delivering social
services; evaluate the need for improvements in the implementation and
coordination of public policies; and make recommendations to the
president for changes in policies, programs, and practices that affect
the delivery of services by such organizations.
Members
of the council serve one-year terms and may continue to serve after the
expiration of their terms until the president appoints a successor.
Also, members are be eligible for reappointment.
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