Protestant Reform leaders express outrage; vow to seek support for marriage The Association for Church Renewal Monday, November 20, 2000 Robert Edgar WASHINGTON – Robert Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, has announced that he would withdraw his signature from The Christian Declaration on Marriage. The declaration had been released on November 14. Along with Edgar, the signatories included representatives of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals and the Southern Baptist Convention. Edgar's renunciation of the marriage declaration brought a quick response from the Association for Church Renewal, comprised of leaders of reform groups in mainline Protestant denominations. ACR leaders have endorsed the marriage declaration and pledged to promote it within their own denominations. Edgar apologized to the NCC General Assembly for signing the declaration. He said he is taking his name off the declaration – which defines marriage as between one man and one woman – because he personally favors "gay marriages." The main point of the declaration is to commit churches to offering practical assistance to couples in building and sustaining strong marriages. It says nothing directly about homosexuality. Eileen Lindner, director of research and development for the NCC, participated in the committee that drafted the pro-marriage statement. According to Mike McManus, president of Marriage Savers and a consultant to the drafters, Lindner told the drafting committee at an early meeting that all but one of the NCC's 35 member churches define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. She assured the ecumenical drafting committee that the statement's definition of marriage was not a problem for the NCC. "Edgar's action compels us to redouble our efforts to solicit support for the Christian Declaration on Marriage in our denominations," said Diane Knippers, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy. "I'm convinced that thousands of Episcopalians, United Methodists, Presbyterians, not to mention leaders of Orthodox bodies, will be eager to join this new ecumenical campaign to rebuild a marriage culture in American society." Parker Williamson, executive editor of The Presbyterian Layman, said: "Knowing the proclivity of NCC staff members to sanctify sex outside of marriage, I was amazed that Mr. Edgar signed the declaration in the first place. Now, having heard from his constituency, he has gone back on his word. There can no longer be any question where the NCC stands on society's most basic union, instituted by God and blessed by our Lord Jesus Christ. Mr. Edgar and his associates have alienated themselves from the Christian tradition." The Rev. David Runnion-Bareford, executive director of Biblical Witness Fellowship (United Church of Christ), commented: "The fact that Bob Edgar, under pressure from the militant advocates of sexual license, has reneged on his commitment to this historic ecumenical document on marriage is a tragedy. He has called into question the capability of the National Council of Churches to be a believable participant in the new ecumenical paradigm of Evangelicals, Catholics, Orthodox, and other mainstream Christians." The Rev. James V. Heidinger II, president of the United Methodist Good News, said: "Edgar's action clarifies for us all just where the NCC and its leadership stand. They are totally outside the Christian Church's foundational teaching about marriage. It is little wonder the NCC is struggling to survive. The entire Protestant world should take note that the ecumenical agency that boasts of representing so many different Christian communions cannot affirm the basic teaching on marriage embraced by its own member communions." Heidinger noted: "Mr. Edgar, a United Methodist, departs from his own church's understanding of marriage, which affirms marriage as a covenant 'between a man and a woman.' His position is utterly indefensible." "The general secretary now repudiates a statement on marriage that expresses the whole of the biblical message and the historical stand of the entire Christian Church, which only yesterday he affirmed," said Terry Schlossberg, executive director of Presbyterians Pro-Life. "On which day was he expressing conviction and on which was he bowing to political pressures? No matter. Today he gave millions of Presbyterians one more reason not to support the NCC." James M. Kushiner, executive director, Fellowship of St. James, observed: "It is clear from Edgar's refusal to uphold traditional Christian morality that the NCC is irretrievably captive to the spirit of the age and not the Spirit of Christ. That Roman Catholics and Evangelicals and Southern Baptists cooperated at all in issuing this statement is remarkable in itself and a promising sign of an emerging new ecumenical movement in the 21st century. That the NCC remains stuck in 1960s sexual radicalism only means that its demise as a viable Christian institution serving Christian unity is all the more certain." Roland Wells, vice president of the Great Commission Network of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said, "It amazes me that mainline Protestantism has apostasized to the point that it must un-affirm marriage. It's time for mainline church members to wake up." Knippers, who also serves on the Executive Committee of the National Association of Evangelicals, said, "Edgar's withdrawing from this is an outrage." She continued: "He has placed himself on the radical fringe of the church. He is ecumenically irrelevant. He says he wants to reach out to Evangelicals and Catholics, but he has not played fair. He has not been honest or fair to the Evangelicals and Catholics who have been in this process."

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