Rev. Bob Edgar and the Council of Churches, I Applaud You!

Since I gripe enough about some of the abuses by organized religion, it's only fair that I also post when I find a voice from organized religion going out of his or her way to inject some sanity into the mix. Tonight, my applause is for Rev. Bob Edgar of the Council of Churches who made news today because he told Bill Frist to stop mixing religion and politics with regard to the so-called "nuclear option" to remove the filibuster option in the Senate.

Appearing on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann tonight, Rev. Edgar said what needed to be said, that we must respect the pluralism of America and that it was reprehensible to try to frame the debate on the filibuster - as Frist and DeLay and Santorum and so many other GOPers have - as "an attack against faith". [In fact, I would say Frist's "nuclear option" is an attack against anyone's faith that differs from Frist and DeLay's - and I don't know too many people who find these men especially moral or faithful.]

Edgar went on to call Frist's so-called "Justice Sunday" by the more appropriate "Just Us Sunday", meaning that Mr. Frist and company want everything interpreted through their own religion and their own beliefs without respect to the differences others may strongly believe.

Good for Mr. Edgar. Good for the Council on Churches. And it's damned good for America. We need more people like this, because I think by and large, Americans do overall respect this country's pluralism. Polls show Americans feel the filibuster is a much-needed check-and-balance and recognize that some vocal parts of the GOP - who were happy to use the filibuster for their own sake - are trying to wrest away what little dissent from the hard right still exists. The Bush Administration is an arrogant runaway train on so very much, and with no balance on Capitol Hill, everything is terribly lop-sided.

This isn't just a matter of the Democrats needing the filibuster. America needs the filibuster.