Let Justice Roll

Meet Him In the Middle; Former Rep. Edgar's Book Reflects on Faith and Politics

By Tom Gottlieb
Roll Call, 9/12/06
Correction Appended

Former Rep. Bob Edgar (D-Pa.) likes to think of himself as a real-life Forrest Gump.

It's not that he has a Southern drawl (he speaks in a baritone, yet soft voice with nary a hint of an accent). It's not his intellect (he's plenty smart, having served six terms in Congress and helped both Claremont School of Theology and the National Council of Churches out of near-bankruptcy).

The analogy instead comes from his proximity to events and people that have shaped the world we live in. He met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a mere 12 days before his assassination. He was a member of the House Committee on Assassinations, investigating the deaths of both King and President John F. Kennedy. He worked with then-President Jimmy Carter on a host of topics that continue to haunt America today, including peace in the Middle East and gasoline issues. He met with then-Egyptian President Anwar Sadat right before the Camp David Accords.

And, much like Gump, the former Pennsylvania Representative has assembled his life's experiences into a cohesive statement - not in an autobiographical series of vignettes, but a book, titled "Middle Church: Reclaiming the Moral Values of the Faithful Majority from the Religious Right."

"I'm a hyperactive adult who has done a lot of activism in his life," Edgar said when asked about his first book. "I'm like a television set with someone constantly changing the channel. I've hardly had any time to sit and reflect."

But sit and reflect he finally has done with "Middle Church." Not only is it a sometimes-scathing commentary on the state of faith in American politics, but it also aims to serve as a road map to regaining America's moral authority from the religious right, a group Edgar said has set the agenda for the rest of the country's faiths.

He cites the Episcopalian Church, which met in New York in 2004 to discuss the church's stance on homosexuality so as not to appear as a divided front. Edgar particularly was disturbed by this conference, as it was taking place during the Abu Ghraib scandal and yet maintained its focus on its stance on homosexuality.

"I've discovered that in all of the Abrahamic traditions, and all of the religious traditions I know, love of neighbor is an essential tenant," Edgar said. "So let's start doing it, let's start caring about it. ... We're going to make ourselves into an unlivable world if we think violence is the answer."

Edgar admits religion isn't perfect, as it is the cause for many of the violent conflicts in the world, both past and present (his examples: the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Salem witch trials, modern-day Israel). But he believes religion is a tool that can change the world around us - if used properly, of course.

The book argues that several of today's hot-button political topics - abortion, gay marriage and intelligent design, to name a few - have been misrepresented by the religious right as the defining faith-based issues. Edgar cites the Bible as not once mentioning abortion or intelligent design and only twice referencing homosexuality in the Old Testament.

Meanwhile, issues such as poverty, care for one another and care for the Earth merit numerous Biblical references - more than 2,000, in fact. And it's these areas where Edgar feels the "middle church, middle synagogue and middle mosque" can be most effective.

"I was offended after the last presidential election that the media told us homosexuality and abortion were the moral issues of our times," Edgar said. "I think Jesus would be pretty upset that this is the case here today."

That outlook has become cemented in the American public's collective mind, Edgar said, because the radical religious right has been organized for 40 years and had time to hammer its message.

So Edgar has his own proposal, one which starts with saving the environment and lifting up the poor through various means, such as improving health care and increasing the minimum wage.

And he isn't sitting on his hands, either. Edgar is a sponsor of the Let Justice Roll Living Wage Campaign, which has helped secure minimum-wage hikes in several states, including Arkansas, Michigan and North Carolina.

To some, it might seem unusual for a clergyman to take up the cause of minimum-wage raises. But to Edgar, it's just the latest in a series of issues the church has a responsibility to help improve.

"The church took up the cause of slavery; the church took up the cause of ending child labor practices; the church took up the problem of segregation and racism," Edgar said. "I believe in the separation of church and state, but not of people of faith and the institutions of government."

Edgar also believes that by alleviating poverty around the world, the U.S. can help itself on another front, one that has preoccupied American hearts and minds since Sept. 11, 2001 - terrorism.

"If we address poverty, we take away the fertile ground terrorists use to recruit, the culture where people are hopeless," Edgar said.

Despite what might sound like firmly leftist tendencies, Edgar said his ideal Election Day scenario is not the Democrats winning back the Senate and the House.

"My hope is that we win back the ideology of caring for one another, of working on behalf of the poor and justice issues and getting more common sense back into the political and faith communities," Edgar said.

But how, exactly, do those in the middle church, the middle synagogue and the middle mosque - whom Edgar describes as "genetically nice, but quiet" - go about winning back such an ideology?

The answer, Edgar says, is simple.

"We are the leaders we've been waiting for," Edgar said. "Don't wait for the president, don't wait for the U.N. secretary general, don't wait for some magic politician.

"If you look at the Old Testament or the New Testament, at the disciples and apostles and prophets, you wouldn't have them run anything in this country. God doesn't pick the brightest or the best. ... So let's get to it."

CORRECTION-DATE: September 13, 2006

CORRECTION: The Sept. 12 article "Meet Him in the Middle" incorrectly reported the Episcopalian Church as having met in New York in 2004. The actual meeting referred to by Bob Edgar was a general conference of the United Methodist Church in Pittsburgh.

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