NCC's Bob Edgar to lead Common Cause

NEW YORK (UMNS) - The Rev. Bob Edgar, a United Methodist pastor, former congressman and current chief executive of the National Council of Churches, will soon lead Common Cause, a national advocacy group.

His election as president and chief executive of Common Cause was made public May 22 by that organization. He succeeds Chellie Pingree. Edgar's departure date from the NCC has not been announced.

Edgar, 63, who has led the NCC since 2000, told the ecumenical group's governing board last October that he would not seek a third four-year term. The search for a new chief executive is under way.

He brought the council, which now has several million dollars in reserve, through a financial crisis and initiated a major campaign against poverty. Before joining the NCC, Edgar was president of Claremont (Calif.) School of Theology from 1990 to 2000 and earlier had served six terms as a congressman from Pennsylvania.

In the news release from Common Cause, Edgar said he looked forward to carrying on that organization's tradition "as a people's lobby both in Washington, D.C., and in the states." The 35-year-old nonpartisan group has more than 300,000 members and supporters.

Edgar's recent book, Middle Church: Reclaiming the Moral Values of the Faithful Majority from the Religious Right, pointed to "the many millions of faithful people who do not always connect their spiritual values with political issues and whose voices are, as a result, often drowned out by the far religious right."

"This faithful majority must have the courage to confront their government when it makes bad decisions and have enough confidence in their own judgment not to believe unquestioningly the 'expert' political leaders, who most Americans assume know more than they do," he wrote in the preface.