Combat fear, fundamentalism and Fox News, says church leader
-25/06/06
Dr Bob Edgar, g
Combat fear, fundamentalism and Fox News, says church leader
-25/06/06
Dr Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, told more than 400 moderate Baptists from across the South last week that truly living out the message of Jesus in a world that needs peace, justice and hope was the biblical mandate that should form the core of a contemporary Christian agenda.
He was speaking at a lunch during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowshipís general assembly at the Georgia World Congress Centre ñ an event to honour the 15th anniversary of the Baptist Centre for Ethics, a pioneering agency which sponsors the popular EthicsDaily.com website and publishes curriculum materials on ethical and moral issues.
Dr Edgar told the assembled pastors that God calls all Christians to learn how to walk together ìin the footsteps of Jesus,î actively leading todayís world to affirm values that Jesus taught and practiced, while addressing the challenges of ìfear, fundamentalism, and Fox Newsî.
Stressing the need for pro-activity he declared boldly that it is no good expecting someone else to do it for us: ìWe are the leaders we have been waiting for.î
An ordained Methodist minister, Dr Edgar is a former seminary president and served six terms in Congress from Pennsylvania prior to becoming the National Council of Churches general secretary.
Acknowledging that Baptists sometimes have had trouble with the NCCUSA, Bob Edgar pointed to the Councilís membership that includes more than 15 million Baptists in six different Baptist conventions.
ìWhat we all have in common, whether inside the Council or not, is the spiritual leadership of Jesus Christ,î the ecumenical leader said.
He continued: ìStudying the Scriptures, I find there are five directions God is calling us to walk together with Jesusî.
First, Edgar highlighted peace. ìWe must engage in a relentless pursuit of peace, seeking reconciliation within families, communities, nations and the world of nations, reaching across boundaries that divide, building bridges instead of walls,î he said. ìWhether in Sudan or in Iraq or in a neighborhood gripped by crime or violence, Jesus would have us be peace-makers, not just peace-lovers.î
Second, poverty. ìWe are challenged by the life of Jesus, who gave himself for the poor and outcast, the despised and rejected,î Edgar declared. ìWe must take concrete actions that reduce poverty in our own time and place, anchored in Jesusí passionate concern for ëthe least of these.í This challenge must not be confined to personal generosity, but community action, and national policy – going to the root of the problem, finding solutions that work and that last.î
Third, planet earth. ìThe biblical Christian is also called by the Scriptures to exercise reverential stewardship of this God-given planet, rooted in humankindís earliest encounters with the Creator, beginning in Eden. We must fight the efforts of many to pillage and pollute, to waste and destroy the natural environment on which life itself depends. The wise management of the finite resources of the earth is a God-given mandate that the church is accountable to fulfill.î
Fourth, peopleís rights. ìThe person who would be Jesusí disciple will be found standing in strong defence of peopleís rights, believing that such dehumanizing acts as racial or gender discrimination, torture, and invasion of privacy are an affront to the will of God for his creation. The church should be the first line of protection for the disadvantaged, the powerless, and the overlooked.î
Fifth, pluralism. ìWe who would claim the name of Christ must express his hospitality in the face of the whirlwind of cultures, languages and races that our world presents us in the form of accelerating pluralism in every community where we serve,î Edgar explained.
He continued: ìJesus remarkably found kinship with those his own religious hierarchy condemned, those his culture rejected, and those his own heritage devalued. Jesus saw only Godís priceless creative will and boundless love when he looked into the faces of the Samaritan, the stranger, the Other. A God who finds joy in populating the world with such extravagant diversity certainly must find grief in our rejection of this banquet feast.î
Dr Edgar also shared with the Baptist leaders his experiences in pre-war Baghdad, where he worshipped with Iraqi Christians as part of a religious delegation seeking a peaceful settlement without war.
In a personal vein he told of a youthful life-changing exposure to Martin Luther King Jr, and of later being honoured to serve on the Select Committee on Assassinations as a Congressman, probing the deaths of Dr King and President John F. Kennedy.
Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of Churches has been a leading force for ecumenical cooperation among Christians in the United States. The NCCUSAís 35 member faith groups come from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, African American and Peace Church traditions and include more than 100,000 local congregations with 45 million members.
The Council sponsors the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible and the FaithfulAmerica.org advocacy website. Its member communions underwrite humanitarian work through Church World Service, a sister agency.
[With grateful acknowledgments to Bob Allen of the Baptist Centre for Ethics]
Combat fear, fundamentalism and Fox News, says church leader
-25/06/06
Dr Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches USA, told more than 400 moderate Baptists from across the South last week that truly living out the message of Jesus in a world that needs peace, justice and hope was the biblical mandate that should form the core of a contemporary Christian agenda.
He was speaking at a lunch during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowshipís general assembly at the Georgia World Congress Centre ñ an event to honour the 15th anniversary of the Baptist Centre for Ethics, a pioneering agency which sponsors the popular EthicsDaily.com website and publishes curriculum materials on ethical and moral issues.
Dr Edgar told the assembled pastors that God calls all Christians to learn how to walk together ìin the footsteps of Jesus,î actively leading todayís world to affirm values that Jesus taught and practiced, while addressing the challenges of ìfear, fundamentalism, and Fox Newsî.
Stressing the need for pro-activity he declared boldly that it is no good expecting someone else to do it for us: ìWe are the leaders we have been waiting for.î
An ordained Methodist minister, Dr Edgar is a former seminary president and served six terms in Congress from Pennsylvania prior to becoming the National Council of Churches general secretary.
Acknowledging that Baptists sometimes have had trouble with the NCCUSA, Bob Edgar pointed to the Councilís membership that includes more than 15 million Baptists in six different Baptist conventions.
ìWhat we all have in common, whether inside the Council or not, is the spiritual leadership of Jesus Christ,î the ecumenical leader said.
He continued: ìStudying the Scriptures, I find there are five directions God is calling us to walk together with Jesusî.
First, Edgar highlighted peace. ìWe must engage in a relentless pursuit of peace, seeking reconciliation within families, communities, nations and the world of nations, reaching across boundaries that divide, building bridges instead of walls,î he said. ìWhether in Sudan or in Iraq or in a neighborhood gripped by crime or violence, Jesus would have us be peace-makers, not just peace-lovers.î
Second, poverty. ìWe are challenged by the life of Jesus, who gave himself for the poor and outcast, the despised and rejected,î Edgar declared. ìWe must take concrete actions that reduce poverty in our own time and place, anchored in Jesusí passionate concern for ëthe least of these.í This challenge must not be confined to personal generosity, but community action, and national policy – going to the root of the problem, finding solutions that work and that last.î
Third, planet earth. ìThe biblical Christian is also called by the Scriptures to exercise reverential stewardship of this God-given planet, rooted in humankindís earliest encounters with the Creator, beginning in Eden. We must fight the efforts of many to pillage and pollute, to waste and destroy the natural environment on which life itself depends. The wise management of the finite resources of the earth is a God-given mandate that the church is accountable to fulfill.î
Fourth, peopleís rights. ìThe person who would be Jesusí disciple will be found standing in strong defence of peopleís rights, believing that such dehumanizing acts as racial or gender discrimination, torture, and invasion of privacy are an affront to the will of God for his creation. The church should be the first line of protection for the disadvantaged, the powerless, and the overlooked.î
Fifth, pluralism. ìWe who would claim the name of Christ must express his hospitality in the face of the whirlwind of cultures, languages and races that our world presents us in the form of accelerating pluralism in every community where we serve,î Edgar explained.
He continued: ìJesus remarkably found kinship with those his own religious hierarchy condemned, those his culture rejected, and those his own heritage devalued. Jesus saw only Godís priceless creative will and boundless love when he looked into the faces of the Samaritan, the stranger, the Other. A God who finds joy in populating the world with such extravagant diversity certainly must find grief in our rejection of this banquet feast.î
Dr Edgar also shared with the Baptist leaders his experiences in pre-war Baghdad, where he worshipped with Iraqi Christians as part of a religious delegation seeking a peaceful settlement without war.
In a personal vein he told of a youthful life-changing exposure to Martin Luther King Jr, and of later being honoured to serve on the Select Committee on Assassinations as a Congressman, probing the deaths of Dr King and President John F. Kennedy.
Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of Churches has been a leading force for ecumenical cooperation among Christians in the United States. The NCCUSAís 35 member faith groups come from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, African American and Peace Church traditions and include more than 100,000 local congregations with 45 million members.
The Council sponsors the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible and the FaithfulAmerica.org advocacy website. Its member communions underwrite humanitarian work through Church World Service, a sister agency.
[With grateful acknowledgments to Bob Allen of the Baptist Centre for Ethics]