04/30/2004: "Edgar talks politics with UMs"

More comfortable as a politician than a spiritual leader, National Council of Churches president Bob Edgar had breakfast with supporters of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society this morning. Edgar, a UM minister, has a high opinion of himself and his fellow prophets, according to Mark Tooley of the IRD:

Edgar continued this theme when he admitted that the majority of the United Methodist Church is not behind the liberal political agenda of the GBCS.�Apparently equating himself and the GBCS with the Old Testament prophets, he asserted that "we [are] the remnant minority" of today.�Edgar said that he was very encouraged to see that those bold,�prophets of yesteryear never took a poll or sought a broad consensus before speaking out.�He failed to note that the Old Testament prophets never claimed to represent the masses who disagreed with them, nor did they receive offerings from the people and then use those offerings for causes that the people did not approve.

I wonder what it says about the mainline when its leaders talk about themselves as a "remnant minority." Could it be that they're out of touch with the people who pay the bills and do the actual work of ministry (as opposed to making pronouncenments no one listens to)? Edgar goes on to make clear what really matters to him:

Citing the political mobilization of many "evangelical" Christians towards the Republican Party, Edgar wished that "the progressives in church" could do likewise.�Lamenting alleged centrism within the Democratic Party, he claimed that there is really only one political party in America today: "big Rs, medium-sized Rs and small Rs."�(By "Rs" he meant Republicans.)

Once a party hack, always a hack, I guess. Except that for Edgar, the "Ds" have a long way to go before they can be considered anything other than dim echoes of Republicans. That's an interesting observation, considering the Democratic Party is in the process of nominating the man with the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate. I guess Edgar would be happier if the Democratic Party looked a little more like, oh, say, the Workers World Party. And speaking of politics, he made an intriguing revelation about the anonymous person who bailed the NCC out of its financial crisis last year:

[Edgar] also admitted that the recent $7.4 million gift that saved the NCC from financial difficulties was from an anonymous donor he refused to identify who was not a member of any of the NCC�s denominations.�According to Edgar, the donor was eager to support the NCC's political lobbying rather than any Christian evangelism or discipleship work among its churches.

Next time the NCC gets in financial straits, I guess it knows who to go to for help: Terry McAuliffe (Democratic National Committee chairman).�

Replies: 2 Comments

on Wednesday, May 5th, David Gustafson said

I happened to meet Rev. Edgar 5 or 6 weeks ago, when we sat beside each other at an elementary school orchestra concert in which his grandson and my son performed. He was very friendly and was quick to introduce himself as the head of the NCC, and a former Congressman. (He gave me his business card, which is about twice the size of anormal card.) He volunteered the fact that I might have seen him on TV in the controversy about the Cuban boy, Elian Gonzales, and he offered a description of the work of the NCC that featured environmental issues and other social causes. I asked him whether all of that ever seemed to him to be rather "remote from the Gospel per se"; he replied no, that when you understand that God is the God of all truth and all goodness yada yada.

on Wednesday, May 5th, Athanasius said

David: Thanks for dropping by, and for the comment. Bob sounds like a nice, misguided kind of guy. If he wanted to transform the NCC into a religious lobbying agency, that would be fine with me. That way, the pretense would be dropped, and all of the member denominations would have a much clearer idea of what they are funding.