Rev. Edgar Defends NCC’s Advocacy and Activism
''There are those who try to dilute our witness ...by suggesting the NCC is a partican, left-leaning organization. But...it is the Prince of Peace who each day of his life showed his bias for the poor.''
The Rev. Dr. Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, said the NCC’s advocacy on the Iraq war, the environment, and poverty are efforts led by Christ rather than partisan politics, during the Progressive National Baptist Convention’s 44th Annual Session.
“There are those who try to dilute our witness and mislead our friends by suggesting that the National Council of Churches is a partisan, left-leaning organization,” Rev. Edgar told the Baptists in Detroit last week. “But you know who it is that calls us to pursue peace, fight poverty and injustice, and care for the earth. It is the Prince of Peace who each day of his life showed his bias for the poor and prayed to the Creator who gave us this beautiful world,” he said.
Conservative evangelicals have long criticized the NCC as being a left-leaning, politically charged organization. That conservative-liberal divide grew wider last month as one of the most conservative NCC members left the council, citing a “liberal political agenda” and a lack of “witnessing the gospel” as the main reasons.
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“Unfortunately, the NCC USA started to adopt an agenda and positioning that appeared to depart from the primary purpose of spreading and witnessing the gospel of Jesus Christ,” Father George Kevorkian, spokesperson for the Antiochian Orthodox Church explained.
Rev. Edgar did not directly respond to the Orthodox Church’s leave, but in an interview with the NCC media on Aug. 9, he said the Council’s advocacy on the environment, poverty and the war, is in-line with witnessing the Gospel.
The NCC is known for its avid opposition to the war in Iraq and support for environmental protection policies.
“These are not liberal or conservative issues but issues for which God has called us as Christian believers to take responsibility,” Edgar said.
