The Christian Century

Churches can and should affirm the moral significance of marriage without denigrating those who are not married. So we have argued before in this space, noting at the same time that such affirmations must be sensitive to the diverse experiences of the people in the pews.

When Robert Edgar of the National Council of Churches suddenly told the NCC’s General Assembly that he was removing his name from an evangelical-mainline-Catholic statement on marriage, it appeared he knocked a leg off the much-discussed wider ecumenical table he was in the process of building.

Bob Edgar, the former member of Congress who led the National Council of Churches for seven years, has been selected as president and CEO of Common Cause, a national advocacy group addressing campaign finance reform, government accountability, election reform and related issues.

Bob Edgar said he was hired seven years ago as the top executive of the financially bleeding National Council of Churches to do three things: Raise money, raise money and raise money.

Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, will not seek a third four-year term as the top administrator of the ecumenical organization. Edgar’s current term ends December 31, 2007. A third term would have been unprecedented in the NCC’s history.

Bob Edgar, who steered the National Council of Churches out of financial disarray after becoming general secretary in January of 2000, has been known as a United Methodist minister who could beat the odds.