Washington National Cathedral

The Sunday Forum: Critical Issues in the Light of Faith

The Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III, host

Cathedral Dean Samuel T. Lloyd III and White House Domestic Policy Advisor Melody Barnes explore the role that faith plays in public service and in Ms. Barnes’s own life and career.

Barnes describes health care reform as the number one domestic policy item for the Obama administration. Health care worries confront Americans at their kitchen tables every day. “These are the issues that grind away at people and undermine their ability to provide security and safety for their families,” Barnes points out. “It is a deeply moral issue.” She adds: how can Americans live comfortably in a country of disparities in access to health care and not seek reform?

However urgent the need for health care reform might be, the rest of the world does not stop while policy is crafted. Surprises, shocks, and bad news present constant challenges to the White House and the nation. For example, the same week that Congress prepared to vote on a major health care bill, an Army psychiatrist (who was about to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan) allegedly shot dozens of fellow soldiers at Fort Hood.

The alleged gunman’s Muslim name and faith both inflamed and complicated the public response to the tragedy. Part of the White House’s response to the shootings came from the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, which addresses public concerns that touch on all issues of faith, including painful and sensitive matters. The office was created in the administration of President George W. Bush, and was retained, with changes, by the Obama administration.

Barnes, who describes her politics as progressive, was raised in the Baptist tradition in Richmond, Virginia. Christian faith continues to guide Barnes’s life; she now belongs to the United Church of Christ. Despite what she calls a false debate of recent years, Barnes points out that “being progressive doesn’t mean that you are anti religious.” In much of American history, progressivism and religion have worked in tandem to effect social change. The United States is a constitutional democracy full of people of faith, Barnes underscores. People of faith work directly with immigrants, refugees, the poor, the hungry, and the sick. Believers bring their expertise as well as their faith to the public square.

Barnes’s own faith is most important to her when days at the White House are frenetic. Her schedule typically includes “lots and lots and lots of meetings” about a broad range of topics and concerns. She likes to travel, to go out into the community, and to get ideas from people she meets around the country.

About Melody Barnes

Melody Barnes is President Obama’s domestic policy adviser and the director of the Domestic Policy Council, which coordinates the domestic policy-making process in the White House. Before joining the White House, Barnes served as the senior domestic policy advisor to President Obama’s campaign. Prior to joining the campaign, she was the executive vice president for policy at the Center for American Progress. From 1995 to 2003, she served as chief counsel to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee. In those capacities, and as director of legislative affairs for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and assistant counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, she worked extensively on civil rights and voting rights, women’s health, religious liberties, and commercial law.