Faith & Religion Pastor Otis Moss III on Dancing in Darkness

Danielle Sanders CNW Managing Editor

Drawing on the teachings of Dr. King, Howard Thurman, sacred scripture, southern wisdom, global spiritual traditions, Black culture, and his own personal experiences, Dr. Moss’s new book “Dancing in the Darkness: Spiritual Lessons for Thriving in Turbulent Times” instructs us on how to practice spiritual resistance by combining justice and love.

CNW spoke with Pastor Otis Moss III about his inspiration and why he felt the time was now to share this message of healing and hope.

CNW: Why is the message in “Dancing in Darkness” important for readers today?

Pastor Moss: There’s been a spiritual itch that I think is prevalent across the nation. People are attempting to scratch this itch with things that do not fill their spirits such as social media, money, etc., but they still find themselves spiritually anemic. It’s the values of love, justice, compassion, and reciprocity in addition to learning how to deal with yourself that’s how you change society. That’s how you change policy but if we continue to operate as an anemic people spiritually, we will continue to have a policy that mimics our current situation. We have to be rooted in the values that are eternal.

CNW: Social Justice has always been the foundation of many Black churches. Why do you think that is?

Pastor Moss: I’ll say this. There are black churches, and then their churches with black people, right? The black church tradition, is the tradition of liberation and transformation, merging love and justice for us to flourish as full human beings, but at the same time, it draws from people of African descent. We are people of African descent, and we can witness our people in this book [the bible] historically and sociologically. It’s important that we claim this tradition because there’s another tradition out there, the more evangelical tradition, that does not recognize our full humanity.

CNW: What called you to write this book and what was the inspiration behind it?

Pastor Moss: My daughter inspired the title of this book. In 2008, I was recently the new pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ, Rev. Wright had retired. At the same time, Barack Obama was running for President. Our community found ourselves in a firestorm of controversy. Our church was on Fox News and media outlets were outside of our church every Sunday. There were attacks on Rev. Wright and death threats. We had to have bomb-sniffing dogs search the church at every service to make sure the space was safe. It was a year of great anxiety and I hardly slept.

One evening my wife and I were trying to sleep, and we heard a noise. My wife tapped me and said, “you need to go check it out”. So, I grab my bat and prepared myself for a confrontation in my home. I hear the noise again coming from my daughter’s bedroom. She was around five at the time. I open the door and she’s in the middle of the bedroom, dancing, spinning around in her pigtails. It was 3 am and that’s when the Spirit stopped me and said, look at your daugh- ter. She’s dancing in the darkness. The darkness is around her, but it’s not in her. That’s when I ran to my study scrapped the sermon I was going to preach in a couple of hours and started writing until the sun came up. I spoke to the congregation and said, that God has called us to dance in the darkness. And as scripture says, God will turn your mourning into dancing. But if we keep dancing, joy will come in the morning and if it is dark, when we are dancing, it is not that the sun has forsaken us. It’s simply that the Earth has turned and if we keep dancing long enough, we will see the sunrise again. And at this moment in our democracy, it may be midnight. But we’ve got to learn to reclaim the dance of our ancestors. When we dance in this darkness, eventually, as the Earth and the days go by, joy comes in the morning with the rising sun and we will see the breaking of dawn. CNW: In the book, you talk about managing spiritual resilience with spiritual resistance. How can we do that when so much is happening in the world?

Pastor Moss: I think there are spiritual practices that we have to reengage in. Everything from pausing, to silence, to prayer to self-care. In addition, engaging in community work is a part of spiritual resistance and resilience.

CNW: You speak about redirecting your rage? How do you get young people in particular to the place where they understand how to redirect the anger and pain they feel into something healthier?

Pastor Moss: It begins with story and practice, we have to begin to tell stories of anger and rage, and help them understand how you can redirect it. That’s what the book attempts to do. You have to help them and share the story. You should be angry, you should be in pain, but now let’s take that pain and turn it into power and purpose. How do we do that? Let’s get into a peace circle and begin to talk about our trauma. Let’s begin to organize collectively. What are the policy things that can be put forth in the city of Chicago? Why do we invest in police, but not in violence interrupters? Why do we talk about public safety and not talk about public health? Do you want real long-term power or do you want the short-term feeling of vengeance? There’s an enemy that wants you enraged and not focused on change and transformation in your neighborhood.

CNW: How do we reach back into our own communities and bring people back to a place of spiritual roundedness?

Pastor Moss: There is a real movement in corporate circles, to tell our children, the institution, the values, the history, and the heritage that you come from, are not necessary. You need clout. You need money. So, you have young people who are chasing money without hard work. Gandhi said one of the social sins is wealth without work. He said it’s dangerous when people have money but don’t have an understanding of the work and the compassion and the connection with a wider community. So we really have to push back against a culture and a society that is forcing materialism as a new idol. When you have other values that say that I’m fearfully and wonderfully made, I’m made in the image of the creator, I have the spark of the divine and there’s nothing wrong with me just the way I am. I am beautiful and diverse in the design of who I am, it gives you the ability to say there are some things I don’t need. There are some endorsements I don’t want. There are some people I do not want to hang out with. There are some places I do not want to go. It’s all a part of growth.

CNW: You say there can be “No love without justice” and “no justice without love”. Why are the two mutually inclusive?

Pastor Moss: Love without justice, is sentimentality. It’s an idea that takes no action. Justice without love becomes a legalism. Love and Justice belong together and when they are joined together, then the idea of liberation and transformation is produced. It’s an equation. Love + Justice= Change.