#otis moss

Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Portrait of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. By Betsy G. Reyneau, NARA ID559202.

MLK at March on Washington, 8/28/1963, NARA ID 542014.

MLK and other Civil Rights leaders at the Lincoln Memorial, March on Washington, 8/28/1963, NARA ID 542063.

By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs

Today’s threats to US democracy eerily echo the moral chasm Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. described in his stirring sermon at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Cincinnati (6/11/1967). This parallel underscores the inscription on the “Future” statue in front of the National Archives Building in DC, “What is past is prologue.” Excerpts from King’s sermon, online here: 

It is...midnight in our world, and the darkness is so deep that we can hardly see which way to turn.

It is midnight within the social order...

This midnight in man’s external collective is paralleled by midnight in his internal individual life. It is midnight within the psychological order. Everywhere paralyzing fears harrow people by day and haunt them by night. Deep clouds of anxiety and depression are suspended in our mental skies. 

It is also midnight within the moral order. At midnight colors lose their distinctiveness and become a sullen shade of grey. Moral principles have lost their distinctiveness. 

King closes his sermon with faith in a better future: “Our eternal message of hope is that dawn will come... Disappointment, sorrow, and despair are born at midnight, but morning follows.”

“Future” statue, with quote from Shakespeare’s Tempest, by Robert Aiken, 2015. (Photo by Jeff Reed, National Archives).

Huge thanks to Reverend Otis Moss (and fellow SHHS alum), who delivered the moving Midnight in America sermon for Central Synagogue’s incredible Martin Luther King Jr. Shabbat service, 1/15/2021. Shoutout to my fellow HUJ alum, now at Central, Rabbi Moe Salth. 

See also:

Virtual January (2021) Programs Explore African American History

The “Bending toward Justice” section of “Records of Rights” online exhibit showcases the drive for civil rights for African Americans 

National Archives’ African American History web page

African American History research at the National Archives

The National Archives’ larger-than-life statues, Pieces of History post by NARA Historian Jessie Kratz

Official Program for the March on Washington

The March (from the National Archives YouTube Channel)

Records on African Americans at the National Archives

Good Friday Kind of Grief

Good Friday is not a happy day. It’s a day to stand at the abyss of hopelessness and to turn what Otis Moss III and his father Otis Moss, Jr. call “pathetic grief” into “prophetic grief” that lifts up others. Good Friday is a day for heart-felt reflection. A day to stop talking. A day to listen carefully to the Gospel readings and…

Fall, 2011, Reverend Otis Moss III of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago spoke about the coltan issue in the Congo and the United States. 

Moss to African-American Clergy: Don’t Abandon Obama Over Same-Sex Marriage

by Otis Moss III May 15, 2012 4:45 AM EDT

In an open letter, the Rev. Otis Moss III urges African-Americans not to stay home in November or pull support for Obama because of his support for gay marriage—because the Constitution protects everyone and the civil-rights struggle demands they vote.

Reaction from African-Americans to President Obama’s support for same-sex marriage continues to be mixed, with some black ministers across the country openly criticizing the president this past Sunday, and threatening to vote Republican, or not all, in November.

AP Photo; Getty Images

But from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, the Rev. Otis Moss III challenged that stance. He read an open letter to his congregation on same-sex marriage, and what the Bible teaches about Christian love. His letter targeted those in the black clergy and community who’ve decided this one issue alone will determine their support the second time around for the nation’s first African-American president. 

ere is Moss’s letter:

My Brother:

Tell your brethren who are part of your ministerial coalition to “live their faith and not legislate their faith” for the Constitution is designed to protect the rights of all. We must learn to be more than a one-issue community and seek the beloved community where we may not all agree, but we all recognize the fingerprint of the Divine upon all of humanity.

There is no doubt people who are same-gender-loving who occupy prominent places in the body of Christ. For the clergy to hide from true dialogue with quick dismissive claims devised from poor biblical scholarship is as sinful as unthoughtful acceptance of a theological position. When we make biblical claims without sound interpretation we run the risk of adopting a doctrinal position of deep conviction but devoid of love. Deep faith may resonate in our position, but it is the ethic of love that forces us to prayerfully reexamine our position.

The question I believe we should pose to our congregations is, “Should all Americans have the same civil rights?” This is a radically different question than the one you raised with the ministers, “Does the church have the right to perform or not perform certain religious rites.” There is difference between rights and rites. We should never misconstrue rights designed to protect diverse individuals in a pluralistic society versus religious rites designed by faith communities to communicate a theological or doctrinal perspective. These two questions are answered in two fundamentally different arenas. One is answered in the arena of civic debate where the Constitution is the document of authority. The other is answered in the realm of ecclesiastical councils where theology, conscience and biblical mandates are the guiding ethos. I do not believe ecclesiastical councils are equipped to shape civic legislation nor are civic representatives equipped to shape religious rituals and doctrine.

The institution of marriage is not under attack as a result of the President’s words. Marriage was under attack years ago by men who viewed women as property and children as trophies of sexual prowess. Marriage is under attack by low wages, high incarceration, unfair tax policy, unemployment, and lack of education. Marriage is under attack by clergy who proclaim monogamy yet think nothing of stepping outside the bonds of marriage to have multiple affairs with “preaching groupies.” Same-gender couples did not cause the high divorce rate, but our adolescent views of relationships and our inability as a community to come to grips with the ethic of love and commitment did. We still confuse sex with love and romance with commitment.

My father, who is a veteran of the civil rights movement and retired pastor, eloquently stated the critical nature of this election when speaking to ministers this past week who claim they will pull support from the President as a result of his position. He stated, “Our Ancestors prayed for 389 years to place a person of color in the White House. They led over 200 slave revolts, fought in 11 wars, one being a civil war where over 600,000 people died. Our mothers fought and were killed for women’s suffrage, our grandparents were lynched for the civil rights bill of 1964 and the voting rights act of 1965…my father never had the opportunity to vote and I believe it is my sacred duty to pull the lever for every member of my family who was denied the right to vote. I will not allow narrow-minded ministers or regressive politicians the satisfaction of keeping me from my sacred right to vote to shape the future for my grandchildren.”

“The institution of marriage is not under attack as a result of the President’s words.”

Gay and lesbian citizens did not cause the economic crash, foreclosures, and attack upon health care. Poor underfunded schools were not created because people desire equal protection under the law. We have much work to do as a community, and to claim the President of the United States must hold your theological position is absurd. He is President of the United States of America not the President of the Baptist convention or Bishop of the Sanctified or Holiness Church. He is called to protect the rights of Jew and Gentile, male and female, young and old, Gay and straight, black and white, Atheist and Agnostic. It should be noted the President offered no legislation, or executive order, or present an argument before the Supreme Court.  He simply stated his personal conviction.

If we dare steal away from the noise of this debate, we will realize as a church we are called to “Do justice, live mercy and walk humbly with God.”  Gay people have never been the enemy; and when we use rhetoric to suggest they are the source of our problems we lie on God and cause tears to flow from the eyes of Christ.

I am not asking you to change your position, but I am stating we must stay in dialogue and not allow our own personal emotional prejudices or doctrines to prevent us from seeing the possibilities of a beloved community.

November is fast approaching, and the spirits of Ella Baker, Septima Clarke, Fannie Lou Hammer, Rosa Parks, A. Phillip Randolph, James Orange, Medgar Evers and Martin Luther, King Jr. stand in the balcony of heaven raising the question, “Will you do justice, live mercy and walk humbly with our God?” Emmitt Till and the four little girls who were assassinated in Alabama during worship did not die for a Sunday sermonic sound bite to show disdain for one group of God’s people. They were killed by an evil act enacted by men who believed in doctrine over love. We serve in ministry this day because of a man who believed in love over doctrine and died on a hill called Calvary in a dusty Palestinian community 2,000 years ago. Do not let the rhetoric of this debate keep you from the polls, my friend.

Asking you to imagine a beloved community, your brother and friend,