Melissa Rogers to WH Faith-Based Office

From this morning's Playbook:

WHITE HOUSE TRANSITIONS: "Melissa Rogers will serve as Special Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Rogers previously served as director of the Center for Religion and Public Affairs at Wake Forest University Divinity School and as a nonresident senior fellow in the Governance Studies program of The Brookings Institution. Prior to her time with Wake Forest University and Brookings, Rogers was the executive director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and general counsel of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. In 2008, Baylor University Press published a casebook co-authored by Rogers, 'Religious Freedom and the Supreme Court.' In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed Rogers to serve as chair of his inaugural Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. In 2011, she was named to a subgroup of the State Department's Religion and Foreign Policy Working Group. Rogers has testified before subcommittees of the U.S. Senate and House Judiciary Committees. She earned her law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Baylor University."

This is good news. Rogers, a Methodist, really understands Catholics - indeed, in some ways, she understands Catholics better than some prominent Catholic politicians! I have heard Rogers speak several times and she always focuses in on the heart of the matter, analyzes issues fairly, and brings a great reservoir of knowledge to any discussion. This is very good news.