Middle Church: Reclaiming the Moral Values of the Faithful Majority from the Religious Right

Bob Edgar's book "Middle Church" is a strong challenge to "middle of the road" Christians, Jews and Muslims in America urging them to wake up and wrest national attention away from a Christian Coalition agenda that focuses on hot-button issues like homosexuality and abortion in favor of more Biblically relevant issues of Peace, Poverty, and Planet Earth. The religious right, he says is "a version of faith so at odds with mine, so contrary to the central teachings of Christianity, Judaism and Islam that it condones poverty, condemns peace and contributes to the despoiling of God's creation." He calls on the "middle church:" people of faith who are centrists, somewhat deferential and largely silent, to return to the central message of Jesus' ministry—the imperative to love one's neighbor—and judge public policy by that measuring stick.

Distinguishing himself from the leaders of the Religious Right, Edgar, a former six-term Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, writes of his faith: "As for me, my faith shaped how I viewed political issues, but I no more believe that God endorses my political agenda than I think he would vote for anyone else's. I've never believed that people should agree with me because of my vocation. And, given the recent political history, I can't help but recall with a smile that, during my first campaign for Congress, the Republicans began a telephone attack campaign against me. "Did you know," they would ask in hushed and sinister tones, "that Bob Edgar is a minister?" Evidently, they saw it as an insult. The voters, fortunately, decided it was an asset."

Its not only a must-read, but one that should be distributed to friends. Click here for Amazon.com

Check out also, Bob's Middle Church website: http://www.middlechurch.net/