{"id":168,"date":"2010-06-16T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-16T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beliefbeat\/2010\/06\/white-house-picks-baptist-pastor-for-international-religious-freedom-ambassadorship.html"},"modified":"2010-06-16T15:00:00","modified_gmt":"2010-06-16T15:00:00","slug":"white-house-picks-baptist-pastor-for-international-religious-freedom-ambassadorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/06\/white-house-picks-baptist-pastor-for-international-religious-freedom-ambassadorship.html","title":{"rendered":"White House Picks Baptist Pastor for International Religious Freedom Ambassadorship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>President Obama <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/the-press-office\/president-obama-announces-more-key-administration-posts-61510\">has picked the Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook<\/a>, a Baptist pastor from the Bronx &#8212; she&#8217;s previously been described by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2002\/07\/03\/nyregion\/public-lives-preaching-everywhere-even-in-her-dreams.html\">The New York Times as &#8220;Billy Graham and Oprah rolled into one<\/a>&#8221; &#8212;&nbsp;as his nominee to fill the position of&nbsp;Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom. <\/p>\n<p>He <a href=\"http:\/\/religion.blogs.cnn.com\/2010\/06\/16\/obama-names-religious-freedom-ambassador\/\">also named two other appointees <\/a>to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, established in 1998: Philadelphia-based Baptist pastor William Shaw to his first term, and current member Felice Gaer to another term.<\/p>\n<p>For more information:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/religionclause.blogspot.com\/2010\/06\/president-announces-religious-freedom.html\">President Announces Religious Freedom Appointees<\/a> (Religion Clause)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.christianitytoday.com\/ctpolitics\/2010\/06\/suzan_johnson_c.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed:+christianitytoday\/ctpolitics+(Christianity+Today+Politics+Blog)\">Obama Nominates Cook for Religious Freedom Ambassador <\/a>(Christianity Today)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.spiritual-politics.org\/2010\/06\/this_is_the_religion_ambassador.html\">This is the Religion Ambassador? <\/a>(Spiritual Politics)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.politicsdaily.com\/2010\/06\/16\/obamas-new-religious-freedom-ambassador-all-pastor-enough-p\/\">Obama&#8217;s New Religious Freedom Ambassador: All Pastor &#8212; Enough Politician?<\/a> (Politics Daily)<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/newsweek.washingtonpost.com\/onfaith\/undergod\/2010\/06\/obama_names_cook_religious_freedom_ambassador.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&amp;utm_medium=twitter\">Under God: Obama names Cook religious freedom ambassador <\/a>(On Faith)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Check back for updates, and share your thoughts in the Comments section below.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">*<a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=beliefnet\/beliefbeat\">Click here to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><strong>subscribe to Belief Beat<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/strong><\/a>and<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/beliefbeat\">click here to<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><strong>follow Belief Beat on Twitter<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Obama has picked the Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook, a Baptist pastor from the Bronx &#8212; she&#8217;s previously been described by The New York Times as &#8220;Billy Graham and Oprah rolled into one&#8221; &#8212;&nbsp;as his nominee to fill the position of&nbsp;Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom. He also named two other appointees to the U.S. Commission&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>White House Picks Baptist Pastor for International Religious Freedom Ambassadorship - Belief Beat<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/06\/white-house-picks-baptist-pastor-for-international-religious-freedom-ambassadorship.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"White House Picks Baptist Pastor for International Religious Freedom Ambassadorship - Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Obama has picked the Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook, a Baptist pastor from the Bronx &#8212; she&#8217;s previously been described by The New York Times as &#8220;Billy Graham and Oprah rolled into one&#8221; &#8212;&nbsp;as his nominee to fill the position of&nbsp;Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom. He also named two other appointees to the U.S. Commission&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/06\/white-house-picks-baptist-pastor-for-international-religious-freedom-ambassadorship.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Belief Beat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-16T15:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nicole Neroulias\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"White House Picks Baptist Pastor for International Religious Freedom Ambassadorship - Belief Beat","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beliefbeat\/2010\/06\/white-house-picks-baptist-pastor-for-international-religious-freedom-ambassadorship.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"White House Picks Baptist Pastor for International Religious Freedom Ambassadorship - Belief Beat","og_description":"President Obama has picked the Rev. Suzan Johnson Cook, a Baptist pastor from the Bronx &#8212; she&#8217;s previously been described by The New York Times as &#8220;Billy Graham and Oprah rolled into one&#8221; &#8212;&nbsp;as his nominee to fill the position of&nbsp;Ambassador-At-Large for International Religious Freedom. 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