Moss told delegates during a meeting in Denver marking the 100th anniversary of the U.S. National Council of Churches that he marveled at the election of the first non-white as a U.S. president.
Using biblical analogies, Moss said although Obama’s election marked a “post-wilderness” moment for African Americans, it was not yet a “Promised Land” movement. He cautioned that talk of the end of racism in the United States was premature, even dangerous.
“We’re living in an ‘in-between moment’,” Moss said in his address to the November 11-13 NCC general assembly.
Moss succeeded Jeremiah Wright as pastor of Trinity church. Obama had to respond to criticism during the 2008 presidential that comments Wright once made on U.S. domestic and foreign policy had been unpatriotic. Obama eventually resigned from Trinity church
The NCC traces its roots to the foundation in 1908 of the Federal Council of Churches in America. The newly-named NCC was formed in 1950.
“For 100 years, we have gathered, by God’s grace, not to celebrate our achievements but to give thanks for what God has done, is doing, and will do to tear down the dividing walls of hostility that separate even the followers of Christ,” Michael Kinnamon, the council’s general secretary, said in a November 11 address.
Though criticized by some U.S. Christian groups for its affirmation of liberal social stances and battered a decade ago by severe financial problems, the NCC celebrated at it meeting a century of its history as one of the largest ecumenical bodies in the United States.
Gary Dorrien, who teaches social ethics at New York’s Union Theological Seminary, told delegates representing the NCC’s 35 denominations, that a key way for the U.S. Church to remain relevant is to champion the cause of social justice during a time of economic uncertainty. That, he said, has roots in the Social Gospel movement of 100 years ago.
“[That movement] created the ecumenical and social justice ministries that remain the heart of American Christianity,” Dorrien said. “And it expounded a vision of economic democracy that is as relevant and necessary today as it was a century ago.”
The November 4 election of Obama as the 44th president of the United States was hailed by many NCC delegates and assembly speakers.
