Edgar urges move to key 'middle' values: Follow Jesus' lead in working for peace and justice
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.
Edgar began his string of six congressional terms in 1974 as the first Democrat in 120 years to be elected in a heavily Republican district in Pennsylvania. And in the decade prior to his NCC job, he revived the sagging fortunes of the Claremont School of Theology as president of that California seminary.