Panel Discussion on Faith-Based Activism and Service in Public Life Features Melissa Rogers
10-10-2017
Join us for a lecture and panel discussion featuring Melissa Rogers on the campus of McCormick Theological Seminary, examining the challenges and opportunities for faith-based activism from theological, legal and practical perspectives.
Melissa Rogers, former executive director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, will deliver a lecture and participate in a panel discussion on Thursday, Oct. 26 at 6 p.m. Faith-based activism and service in American public life will be the focus of the symposium that will take place on McCormick’s campus.
Dr. Reggie Williams, associate professor ethics, will moderate the panel discussion which will explore the challenges and opportunities for faith-based activism from theological, legal, and practical perspectives.
Free and open to the public, the symposium is sponsored in partnership with the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, which has been working for more than 80 years to defend and extend religious liberty for all people.
Rogers is a nonresident senior fellow in Governance Studies at The Brookings Institution. She recently served as special assistant to the president and executive director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships during the Obama administration. Previously, Rogers served as chair of the inaugural Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
Prior to that, Rogers was director of the Center for Religion and Public Affairs at Wake Forest University Divinity School. She has also served as executive director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and general counsel of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty. Her area of expertise includes the First Amendment’s religion clauses, religion in American public life and the interplay of religion, policy and politics. Rogers co-authored a case book on religion and law for Baylor University Press, Religious Freedom and the Supreme Court (2008). She holds a J.D. from University of Pennsylvania Law School and a B.A. from Baylor University.
The symposium is sponsored by McCormick and the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, a Washington, D.C.-based group that defends religious freedom for all people and protects the institutional separation of church and state in the historic Baptist tradition.
Details on location and panelists will be released soon — return to this page in the future. If you’re planning to come, let us know — we’d love to meet you! Send an email to RSVP@BJConline.org so we know to look for you there, and we’ll also make sure you have all of the details in your inbox.
