May 19, 2021 by Rob Boston
William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and a man who lives in a perpetual state of outrage because not everyone believes in his religion, is angry again. This time, Donohue’s all worked up because Melissa Rogers, head of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, met recently with several non-theistic groups.

“It would be one thing if White House staffers in domestic policy or civil rights invited representatives of these six organizations to discuss their concerns; it is quite another when those who purport to work with people of faith do so,” groused Donohue in a column that is making the rounds on far-right sites. (For the record, the groups that attended the meeting were American Humanist Association, Secular Coalition for America, Freedom From Religion Foundation, American Atheists, Center for Inquiry and Ex-Muslims of North America.)

Donohue needs to read the full name of the office: It’s called the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. (I’ve added the emphasis to make it easy for him.) While the office absolutely does work with faith-based organizations, that’s not its entire mandate. Its goal, under the Biden administration, at least, is to work with a broad cross section of Americans, religious and secular.