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THREAD:
Big news. Good news.
I’m pleased that @POTUS will re-establish the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and I am thrilled that he has asked @MelissaRogers to lead it. Melissa has thought deeply about how to run this office well. 1/8 https://twitter.com/EJDionne/status/1360953022730371075
Big news. Good news.
I’m pleased that @POTUS will re-establish the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, and I am thrilled that he has asked @MelissaRogers to lead it. Melissa has thought deeply about how to run this office well. 1/8 https://twitter.com/EJDionne/status/1360953022730371075
@DemocracyFund was proud to support the report, “A Time to Heal, A Time to Build” that @MelissaRogers and @EJDionnne wrote last year. The report is Melissa's own roadmap for the work she will now undertake in service to our country. 2/8 https://www.brookings.edu/research/a-time-to-heal-a-time-to-build/
She understands the importance of the role of faith in our public life. She's an advocate for the 1st Amendment - including a robust Free Exercise Clause. She believes in religious pluralism, and religious freedom that protects all faiths and those with no faith at all. 3/8
She is clear-eyed about the challenges facing this line of work, as well as the opportunities. She often says, "even when public officials are not particularly interested in religion, religion will find a way to be interested in them." 4/8
Melissa understands that the faith partnerships office can play a key role in promoting racial justice and equity, fighting COVID, and promoting pluralism and American values. She has written, "The mission of the initiative is serving people in need." 5/8 https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/its-time-new-start-religious-issues-home-and-abroad
This move from the @WhiteHouse signals an understanding of the important role of religion in our public life, the possibilities that come with engaging faith communities, and the necessity of listening to diverse voices as we work together to meet the challenges we face. 6/8
Melissa and her team can help @POTUS deliver on his promise of unity by ensuring that Muslim Americans and others who were marginalized over the past four years have a seat at the table once again, and by reaching out to faith leaders who did not support the president. 7/8
We are eager to help @MelissaRogers and her team in whatever ways we can. I promise my own prayers for peace of mind, clarity of purpose, and a heart for serving those in most need - for Melissa, her team, and the president. 8/8
