Bob Edgar: Blessed Is the Middle Way

By Donna Freitas -- Publishers Weekly, 6/28/2006

“I already received the most important review of my book, so whatever happens from now on, everything will be OK,” said Bob Edgar, a former six-term Democratic Representative to the U.S. Congress and now the general secretary of the National Council of Churches. His middle son had just finished reading Dad’s new book, Middle Church: Reclaiming the Moral Values of the Faithful Majority from the Religious Right (Simon & Schuster, Sept.: starred review below), and his assessment couldn’t have been a better belated Father’s Day present.

“’It made me proud to be your son’,” Edgar said, reading aloud from a letter with pride evident in his own voice.

Edgar is an evangelical Christian, but decidedly not a member of the religious right. His book is an appeal not only to Christians who make up the “middle church”—a vast swath of the faithful who are neither extreme left nor extreme right—but also to those who form what he calls the “middle synagogue” and “middle mosque.” Together, Christians, Muslims and Jews have a responsibility to care about key issues—peace, poverty, and being good stewards to the earth. Edgar passionately argues that these are most important to the God these three traditions share, and the real moral issues of our time.

As opposed to which other moral issues? Against the early advice of his editor, Edgar “decided not to put abortion, civil marriage and homosexuality up front,” he said. He does address these hot button topics, but not until the end of the book. “Everyone is allowing the far religious right to set the agenda,” said Edgar. “My belief is that mainline churches are going to get smaller if they continue to listen to the right’s agenda, rather than God’s agenda.”

In his conclusions, Edgar also offers alternative beatitudes for our time, including “blessed are those who read the whole Bible.”

When asked which new beatitude he would put at the top of his list, Edgar responded with confidence: Blessed are those who have courage and take risks. “My model is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He and his colleagues stepped up and said we need to move in a new direction. Lots of preachers lost their jobs by supporting the civil rights movement. I want to see that kind of passion again.”

The last new beatitude is important to him too: “Blessed are those with a sense of humor and a sense of hope.” Edgar explained, “These are pretty dark times for people filled with anxiety of war and global change. We need to be the hope-givers of this fragile planet.”