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Author stresses basic moral issues

National Council of Churches official the Rev. Bob Edgar, who will speak Tuesday at a Pass-A-Grille church, writes in his book that peace, the environment and poverty are the main moral issues today.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published November 22, 2006

About Bob Edgar

The Rev. Bob Edgar is general secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ USA, an organization of 35 Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, historically African-American faith groups with about 45-million members.

An ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, Edgar was a six-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives. A Democrat, he served in Congress from 1974 to 1987. He was a member of the Select Committee on Assassinations that investigated the deaths of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and President John F. Kennedy.

An excerpt from Bob Edgar's book

"The Bible mentions abortion not once, homosexuality only twice, and poverty or peace more than two thousand times. Yet somehow abortion and homosexuality have become the litmus tests of faith in public life today. Those with different ideas about them, or even those who simply believe religion is about far more, are routinely dismissed as un-Christian, unfaithful, even un-American. The politics of faith have been co-opted in the service of a political agenda defined by fascination with war, indifference toward poverty, and exploitation of God's creation for the benefit of a relative few."

It is time for Middle Church -- an umbrella term I use to refer to mainstream people of all faiths -- to stand up to the far religious right and to embrace Christianity no less sincerely. ...We in Middle Church, Middle Synagogue, and Middle Mosque are not secularists who wish to banish God from the public square. We are people of faith whose traditions lead us to work for peace and care for the poor."

The Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ USA, will visit the Tampa Bay area next week on a promotional tour for his book, Middle Church: Reclaiming the Moral Values of the Faithful Majority from the Religious Right.

In his book, Edgar urges moderate Christians, Jews and Muslims to reclaim the moral high ground from the radical religious right. Moral issues such as peace, the environment and poverty should take precedence over discussions about homosexuality, abortion, civil marriage and stem cell research, he says. It's not that the latter issues aren't important, Edgar says, it's that they aren't the main moral issues of our time.

Edgar discussed his book and other topics during a telephone interview this week.

How would you summarize your book's message?

What we're trying to do is remind faithful people, Christians, Jews and Muslims, of the need to take back the moral agenda of nonviolence and peacemaking, ending the poverty that kills, and third, to recommit ourselves to stewardship of the planet.

Around what common issues can moderate and conservative Christians unite?

I'm not sure the far religious right wants to build bridges and I think they went a step too far over the last few years. They've lost ground, some by their arrogance and some by the incidences of people who have held moral values publicly, but privately have fallen off their pedestals. ... The nation is neither far right nor far left. There's more of us that are in the middle."

Do you risk being intolerant when you appear to dismiss the religious right's objections to issues such as homosexuality, abortion and stem cell research?

No, I don't dismiss any of that. We don't know enough of God's wishes on any of that. I simply say they are not the issues that Jesus talked about and they're not the issues talked about in the basic Biblical text. ... Some of our far religious right would rather pontificate and be judgmental than following the example of Christ and loving those who are different.

Did the results of the recent midterm elections validate the premise of your book?

Yes. Middle church and middle Americans are neither far right nor far left and they are neither strongly Democratic nor strongly Republican, but have as their core values caring first for their families and caring for their communities.

Does the National Council of Churches have a political agenda?

No. We have a gospel agenda and it's a commitment to the words and teachings of Christ. We believe in the separation of church and state, but not the separation of people of faith and institutions from government. We want our public figures to be faithful people and we want to be faithful to the gospel.

You said you were inspired to political action after you heard the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preach in February 1968, weeks before he was shot. What was your reaction to the recent ground breaking for the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial on the National Mall?

I was delighted. It took far too long to honor the achievement of Dr. Martin Luther King. He changed history. He empowered a generation of people to think differently about race and poverty.

[Last modified November 21, 2006, 20:26:50]