Transcripts For CSPAN2 Rev. 20240705

With these girls and shes the third person whose name. Sarah good, they deny all intimacy with witchcraft but through the book we offer an extra ordinary kaleidoscopic colorful confession and of course as soon as someone has confessed witchcraft then the witchcraft trial is set in place and fingers to point left and right. Watch the full Program Online booktv. Org. Just search in depth or stacy schiff. We want to take this moment to welcome everyone to Trinity United Church of christ in chicago illinois, we are a church that believes we are called to be a part of this community, ever seeking the communities hard and we are unapologetically christian but there is any contradiction between routing yourself in your culture also celebrating the christ of who we serve so we are delighted you are here for our book notes. We had a local worship experience, to Worship Services with magnificent creature, not other than reverend doctor Rafael Warnock who is the first gafricanamerican senator from the state of georgia. He has two publications, one being a way out of no way is a memoir. Experience from so all the way to the senate. A wonderful Childrens Book, he read to a small children immediately following worship yesterday. We reported that reading we hope that these young people will be say first African American center from georgia to read a Childrens Book to their book is a wonderful story that share the experience of doctor warnock as a child all the way up to being sworn in as senator. And get ready, put your shoes on put your shoes on west and mark put your shoes on and ulget ready and its so useful art, wonderful story so we are delighted you are with us. We are going to have a word of prayer and begin our conversation. We do this series talking to others having conversation their work and it has exploded at trinity where we thought we would have a few book nerds watch that sometimes we get more of people watch live conversation so lets have a word of prayer and to begin our conversation. Gracious and most merciful god, we are grateful for this moment and grateful for this time in history. May you empower us that we need to link love and justice together in all of the work we do. May your spirit rest, may it by. But we may continue to walk the path that has been late for us. We thank you, we love you and we magnify your name. The people of god will love god collectively say. Doctor warnock. Hello Trinity United Church of christ is great to be here with my friend otis moss the third. Your pastor someone ive known since we were teenagers. At Morehouse College is great to be back here. Welcome to wanting us all live i am excited to be here to talk about doctor moss latest book, dancing in the darkness. Dancing in the darkness. Coalescence for writing through Turbulent Times. Theres a lot even in the. Dancing in the darkness, irritable lessons for writing Turbulent Times i think that is something, those are lessons all of us use at the time like this. Im going to start with the most basic question. What motivated you . What drove you to write this particular book and frame it in this particular way smr you preach every sunday. You also write to us of the inspiration behind dancing in the dark. I appreciate you answering asking that question. I realized it was truly a spiritual edge our country that people are attempting to scratch in a variety of ways. Some through social media, understanding i have enough funds, the market will be able to scratch that itch but we find we are spiritually anemic and there is a necessity for us to go back to the values that enrich us, that allow us to flourish as human beings and the two main values flowing in the book that on the book are the values of love and justice doctor Martin Luther king jr. And our Third Service gauges for talking about those values. So youre driven by that but tell me a little bit more about what is it that youre seeing as a pastor on the ground . What are the things that you carry in your bones as you engage people everyday people as they make their way through their everyday struggles. How does that inspire you as a preacher . The experience of trying to make sense of our trauma. The experience of trying to make sense of the sun going down in many ways for some this democracy. You are trying to make sense of what was happening in this world and weve been reaching for that which is physical in order to scratch this itch. However, doctor king. Theres so much within the black Spiritual Mission that speaks about how we deal with these issues. We go to Morehouse College morehouse i see another runner is the audience. We were always to light a candle. Talk about a candle in the dark every morehouse was told that when you come into the chapel god laces crown of all our heads we will spend the rest of our lives growing all to where i hope that the book teaches people to stretch not that will wear the crown these you will be after ingesting some of the values that you do the kind of work laser where you are calling people to stretch you are you are laying. Youre on the alternate you something really interesting should know. I do a lot of work on the culture committee. Im proud of being on that committee, is one of the largest business deals in georgia. And weve done many things from helping Georgia Farmers to get their crops to market when youre dealing with trade barriers. We did six billion dollars of debt relief for farmers. We are on the margin. Its one of the reasons i tolerate politics. Im an elected official, but i am not in love with politics. Im in love with change. And i tolerate politics because every now and then your evil to do Something Like raise 6 billion of debt relief for farmers. And much of this is a long time coming. Every five years you do something called the farm bill which links the concerns of farmers and agribusiness also Food Security and nutrition. Programs like tanff, those grants need use to get people security, they are part of the farm will gets read on every five years or im on the committee tei must say what youre referring to in my sermon i was referring to the fact that when i was capital in 2070 arrested intentionally in the tradition of Howard Thurman and Martin Lutherking jr. , i arrested protesting what they were getting seready to do farm bill to cut nutrition. This year, six years later i get to write the farm bill. [applause] so im struck by this idea that you put forward dancing in the dark. Illo dancing. Theres no question theres darkness. You talk and you can elaborate that if you care to we all have a sense of the darkness. Of course dour thurman talks about the luminous darkness. But you didnt say negotiate the darkness. You didnt say how to grow your way through the darkness. You know, how not to be afraid of the dark. Ive got to little kids that you said dancing in the darkness. Whats the state in that metaphor literally dancing in the darkness . To first bring you to how that idea came about, it starts in 2000. Our church was going through a challenging moment when an individual by the name of senator Barack Obamawas running for president. I had just become pastor at trinity and i remember in being at valleys at hyde park and i was on the treadmill marlon, i was sitting doing my warm down and someone asked me on the shoulder and says it atyour church . Sean the going off about trinity i said got to go. So there began walking through the gauntlet. 40 news outlets showed up to p our church every single sunday. Putting microphones in peoples faces, looking for some type of quote because they had watched a portion of my predecessors sermon and was a very good sermon by the way i, absolutely. They were trying to use that sound because many people have never been in a black church and dont know anything about the black Church Tradition or prosthetic preaching so that started the gauntlet and then from the gauntlet because of the news footage and the attention, we then started getting threats. And some people here remember that we had to have on sniffing dogs show up every singles sunday to make sure that these e sanctuary is safe. His letter my mind was always wrestling and every time i ran up to someone i was running just working out. Wondering if i saw him one coming my way is this it, is this the person fromthe letter . One night i didnt sleep very much for a year. We heard something in the house and monica tapped me and said youve got to check out and said let me do that so i got up and i grabbed my rod and my staff that comforts me. [applause] and that rod and staff was made in louisville, it was a Louisville Slugger and i was Walking Around the house looking for where was this noise coming from and then i heard the noise again the noise was coming from my daughters bedroom. I go into the bedroom and michaela is in the middle of and shes dancing, spinning around saying that, im dancing. Its 3 am have to preach trinity in our low register dad talk, baby, you need to go to bed and she says daddy, im dancing. Then the spirit said stop. Look at her. Shes dancing in the darkness , the darkness is around her but its not in her t. When are you going to learn how to dance and at that moment i trashed my sermon i was supposed to preach and i start writing notes and i stepped in sunday and i talk about the fact that we must learn how to dance in the dark and when we reclaim our dance, the dance of compassion, the dance of justice then we can transform in words web dubois, weve learned how to dance in the darkness of a country that many times marginalizes us, did not see us or set we were only 3 5 of a human being but Sojourner Truth says tie element and Frederick Douglass talks about july4th, thats dancing. These are all of the dance partners our ancestors that we must learn how to navigate these moments that we think are dark. The beautiful thing about darkness is not that the sun has forsaken you, it just means the earth has turned and if you keep dancing, eventually your morning will become dancing but your joy will, in the morning. Because the sun hasnt left, its still there, its just the earth decided to turn in a differentdirection. This is why i listen every sunday. Powerful. Dancing in the darkness. And that darkness you were literally living through it in the moment. And you were inspired by your daughter. And you describe something going on in the country at the time and your church at the center of it but then layered on top of that are the episodes of trauma that we all know individually. So the church is going through what its going through but you still have members who are dealing with whatever theyre dealing with andtheir everyday lives. The person who is trying to understand how to reconcile with their child or the reverse. All of these concerns and the spirituality that speaks to both. Both the individual and the social. That deals with the slavery of sin and the sin of slavery. I think that has been part of the genius of the black church experience at its best, not that we always do that but the evangelical and liberationist tendencies, i see both of those things standing up in your work work which is itself a dance to a kind of personal piety and the fight for justice. The struggle and the song as i was trying to talk about. And its a particular kind of dance, when you say west and mark you talk about living in post ousoul world in some of your other publications. And you are somebody in your preaching and your writing often engages the arts and music. You understand that docile and jazz and the blues and the spiritual all come from the same route, the english rumination and subjugation of people speaking to god in their own voice so the dance you will is syncopated. And you say its jazz like its on the beat rather than the downbeat. Is the beautiful thing about our tradition, the beautiful thing about black spirituality is that we embrace the x essential that we be steamy on. Also we are blues and gospel the same time the beautiful thing about people who may i just listened gospel music gospel music is structured on this scale, this african scale so you can have gospel music unless you know lose cords you can have resurrection. Youve got to sanctify first. Can have gospel music unless you have lose cords. In order to sing gospel got to know both lose cords so in other words you got to know that anguish and the pain in order to get to the celebration of resurrection. In our modern society we want to cast aside the blue notes and only want to do resurrection and celebration. Im talking about prosperity ipreaching. Prosperity preaching is problematic because it is not christianity is capitalism with ntecclesiastical darts. And we had witnessed so much of this market centeredness but our tradition is a jazz tradition. Hes doing research on went and marsalis and the blues but jazz teaches america about democracy before america what democracy was all about and the fact that jazz is born in new orleans, first ofall. The space where you have Indigenous People in america along with spanish, along with french people of african descent and a good portion of black people in new orleans were free blacks from haiti so they understood this idea of freedom and then they come and sat at new orleans with that. So the square was the space where on sunday because there were so many people, sunday you had off you can see all these different rhythms of these different rhythms come together and jazz does something no other music have done in history. It takes whats not supposed to play together and play together so you have a saxophone for the marching band but then it plays for the piano which is european classical and the piano plays with a trap drum set instead of using a single opeuropean market rent uses polymorphisms r. Then you have the base that youre supposed to play with although but somebody says let me play with my fingers and everybody has the right to solo. In other words i ran my own cultural narrative to the table, my own experience to the table and i can solo but the saxophone never tell us the piano you have to sound like me the piano tells the drama you have to send me the base doesnt tell the piano you have to sound like me. Everybody gets a chance to sing their songs in a unique way and when america learns how to operate with a jazz democratic epic, thats when in the words of john poultry you will see a love supreme. [applause] get the book dancing in the darkness. Spiritual lessons for writing through Turbulent Times. This dancing and this music you talk about is also improvisational. Each of the instruments, they each play in their own way, but they dont go off anywhere. They are variations on a theme. So theres a theme and the improvisation are variations on the theme and theyre the kind of style and friendly rivalry mesometimes going on. And good jazz musician like a good preacher they might have a manuscript theyre going to sing each time what the spirit is going to bring. How are we doing around the question of improvisation in this moment, the church in particular . Church is struggling with improvisation is looking to be a 70 by people who do not necessarily care for the folks in church. The 70 as a director says way just like me when we to that jazznarrative , we begin to look inwardly. We began to draw from our traditions. I would use the example that Prosperity Ministry in these heframings of its about the dollar and thats how you will beset free. Thats kind of symphonic in the way a director is playing or to say that ministry must be solely individualistic, well talk about stuff that goes on at work, we want to talk about me myself and i phrase i am blessed and highly favored. The idea that blessing within the framework, blessing within the black church was you really cant be blessed until other people are blessed in the process but theres a conductivity to the idea of blessing. But our country is struggling with this. On multiple levels. So when we add to the curriculum black history, the conductors say you cant do that because that is something that is not necessarily patriotic. As some states have said you cant have add African American history. Which is amazing you have 80 italian history, 80 japanese story, 80 french history but there is no educational out to the labor and genius that help build this country. Thatsproblematic. Anybody whos saying that the education. Absolutely. [applause] but this idea of. Improvisation im stuck with it because were still going through apandemic. The church is being forced to rethink how is prevents those familiarthemes. Talk about love and justice in the book. You insist that we have to have themboth. You cant have one without the other. The first is linking rob and justice which are two important values that we need not only personally but also the civicarena. If we would make our policies rooted in love and justice we would have different policies in america we have the sentimental love love without justice is sentimentality. Justice not love because the brutality will you marry love and justice and walk down the eventually children. When they get together imagine when we think through policies based on law and justice. Thats what the portables campaign was about. Thats the kid of ebenezer, linking love and justice. You can be and that is what the ministry of jesuswas about. Meeting i read emu. This idea of redemption over retribution. We have a retribution system when it comes to incarceration, not redemptions, not. We of your punishment vengeance system, law and justice late together raises the question what will our society be and what do we were children . What are the spiritual dragons we need to slay in this moment . You talk about that. Cynicism. The idea that i have no power, that im not able to change what is going on in the world. This chapter on slaying dragons and another chapter the ideal holy reworking your origin stories about the facts that youve got to know your origin stories i like and it but the reason we love heroes, the reason we love the stories whether its marble , whether youre reading about storm or luke page or whatever it maybe we love these heroes but no youre okay the hero a shero until they know their origin story is on which theyre going to flow and the way in which we slay our dragons is me, to embrace who we are as you said this morning we must know who we are. We must know god is and what god has done as you said in your sermon this morning the same goes for us individually. When you know you are and you may decision to give you a more personal example. I told the story many times about the suicide of my sister. My sister daphne shes it really a person and she was a graduate of stone cant university. She taught students who had learning differences were challenged in their. She introduced me to soar on your James Baldwin and those are my childrens worries. She would read those stories to me for years i was afraid of that story. I didnt want to share that story nor i say anything i say my sister had a terminal was or something of that nature. But the moment i only worked my origin story, i realized i had a brilliant wonderful easter who had a mental illness, who had given me an incredible gift and could speak about it im not there was a community of people who have the same experience and me were in power in sharing that story together. America has a problem sharing the truth of history. The moment we can share the truth of our history is the moment we rework our origin story and we can see Something Better in the future as long as we hide in shame you cant teach black history, cant teach indigenous history. And we will continue down the same path that is destructive in this nation. [applause] im deeply moved by the way in which you link your own story and pain connected to daphne and what she provided. A beautiful soul who had a sickness. And its something i talk about a lot and try to push forward as apastor. You know, ive counseled members of my church and one member came to me and she was wrestling with depression and said im praying about it pastor. We can pray but i also need you to come with me and were going to pray with the doctors. Because if you had a heart condition, or you know, or Something Else, we would pray and we would say go to the doctor. We would treat the heart or the liver or whatever it is like an organ. Well, the brain is an organ. The brain is an organ. Sometimes in counseling sometimes the medication is important. A chemicalimbalance is a chemical imbalance. Doesnt matter which is. And then theres the spirituality undergirding that im moved by the way in which your connecting that piece to individual piece to this larger American Family story. And you are you write all families and we know this is pastors, all families have a complicated story. Yours to. Right . And the story is always more complicated than the picture we present coming out on sunday morning rsexactly 20 minutes after worship starts so people can see your beautiful family and everything is intact. The children look so perfect and well behaved and we know the truth because they are in our sunday school and our childrens church. We know all about your little angels. And if you really want to know the real family story, youve got to go to the family reunion. And you will get some of it. But not in the first 15 minutes or even in the first hour. Youve got to wait sometimes till a few people have had communion. And then youll get some piece of the family story but at the end of the day, after somebody got cost outor whatever , what do we do . Hug each other, i love my s family. Ill see you all next year you dont get to your family your family is your family, they are, but they are still your family so family story is like the rest of our family story. Its complicated, but we are always got. And i mean that. I mean that for every one that says that to me, we are always got. And i mean that in a larger scale beyond just our country, we are always got. And is the draft spirituality that doesnt help us deal with that, then what in the world are we doing . Part of what weve got to do is consecrate the chaos. Consecrate the chaos. Thats very provocative. I really love that chapter. We are looking at the idea that spiritually, we will all experience chaos. You cannot get rid of it. It is going to happen. For those who operate out of a more scientific and secular framework chaos is a part of the cosmos. You cannot get rid of chaos. But you can consecrate. You can name it and you can employ it for your particular benefit so how do we consecrate chaos . Anyone who sails knows how to deal chaos. Im not time with the motorboats andt the folks got yachts. Talking the people who sail. Other words they have to harness the wind and deal with the waves and the undertow at the same time. They have to build a boat that has a writer and a keel to balance. They also have to have a sale that catches the wind. They cannot control it which way the winds go they can move the sale to catch the wind. Heres the beautiful thing about peoples sale. They can never sail in a straight line. They have to left and right left and right to get to their destination. One other thing black people have done is we have a bill to the spiritual sales and boats. Whether you can but abolition or the jim crow. Matter. K lives they built a digital sale in order to deal the chaos that was happening in our community in order to consecrated and to educate people at a higher level. We have to teach this generation that chaos is going to come. We cannot lie and say it name it and claim it in the chaos will disappear. Chaos is going to be apart. The question is how will we engage it . And we have the power. I keep thinking about love stories. I love Frederick Douglass. Frederick is a man. That is a bad brother. Monicads says she loves heat so hampson set up it back that i wouldve looked at rodrick he is handsome, he is handsome. Hes most photographed human being in the 19th century. He understood thewe technology. Frederick douglass is fascinating to me. Here he is and that chaos of enslavement. He was told you cannot read. You are not supposed to read. He was living in baltimore he used to keep pieces of the bread in his back pocket. And he would come up on an irish young man someone who was 10 or 12 is that i will give me some bread if you tell me that word. And so he taught himself how to read by passing outbred. In a nether experience of this chaos with Frederick Douglass is when he is beaten by an overseer. He runs away pretty runs into the woods. He encounters a prophet priest medicine man he then tells him to know your child of god . Im going to givee it roots whee this on the left side you go back and tell the overseer you are a child of god. He went back and told him he beat him for two hours and i am a child of god do not ever beat me again. Which was an incredible thing for this enslaved african to say i am a human being. And he continues on with these moments. Every time there was a moment of chaos he says i am going to employ it for my good. There is something that explodes nationally im going to use it to communicate the suffering of my people. And douglas was a genius at dealing with issues of chaos in the black struggle. Over and over again chaotic moments and yet we come up with creative times to be able to demonstrate how we can operate at a different level in this nation. That is what the black traditionally black black church at its best that black spirituality. There is stuff that is in us that we can share with the world if weli are willing drink from these reservoirs. Beautifulou. Going back to earlier metaphor in his heart right shaking his head we have preacher right here who sails. Affectct so oh and a straight le tag left or tag it right. You had to tag left in order to overcome gridlock. We talk about your origin stories and remembering that in thesh book. Shout out to auburn avenue. In Atlanta Georgia about auburng avenue. X you are the child of the beauty in the power auburn avenue. That before you only doctor king and daddy can but williams. Jon wesley dobbs. Alonzo herndon. These names may not mean anything. In the auburn the power of auburn imagine with me. Doctor king h12 steps out of his house steps out of his home and on one side of his home on the side of the street with his home is a middleclass home, doctors, lawyers, business owners. But on the other side gunshot homes. Shotgun houses on the others side. You have people who are domestics. People who are struggling. He turns and begins to walk to Ebenezer Baptist church. Before he gets to ebenezer but on sweet auburn he has to pass by brooks funeral home. Which was owned by a black woman. The only funeral phone owned by a black woman in the state of georgia at the time. He was seen someone break in the ceiling of patriarchy before he got to church. Then he has to pass by or go bite me be the atlanta daily world which was the only daily black newspaper that lifted up lynching but also lifted upp the power hcb use. Passed b w erd that is word radio. A black Radio Station that was lifting up not only black churches but was giving the news that was happening across the city. He passing by the atlanta Life Insurance company. With Alonzo Herndon. This Insurance Company was the Insurance Company that the funding that Alonzo Herndon is bailing people out of jail during the freedom movement. That he passes by the ame church. But to bethel were was one time pastored. Before james cone said black theology but he said god is black before anybody else was even saying. If a black theological framework. He would pass by alexander Life Insurance company which was the company that ended up ensuring cars in montgomery. When they had the montgomery bus boycott. They are doing carpooling. The city of montgomerys ever going to stop this black folk from even driving together in the whole black people over and say you have more than one person in your car you are trying to act like a taxi service and will take you in. Our rescue and placed him in jail. It was alexander Insurance Company morehouse graduate who ends up ensuring all of the station wagons in montgomery along with church buses. He could not get insurance in the United States. He had to fly to england to the lloyds of london to get insurance to ensure all of these. So it black folk had uber before there is over and montgomery, alabama. [applause] and then he would pass by Baptist Church Williams Holmes was pastor. He was 6foot 5 inches graduate of morehouse also had a booming voicede. And Williams Holmes borders would many times close his message of poetry. The poem you have all already heard because reverend jackson mixed the poem is called i am somebody. I am somebody and Langston Hughes im a great poet for an aviator in betsy strong. Im am a musician in duke ellington. I am somebody but i am an activist ida b a wells. At 12 years old can you imagine doctor king in the balcony before he even goes to his own church. It was also play jesus. The passion play. A deep voice he already had ther framing. Then he goes to his own church to hear his father preach. Then decides to get on a trolley that would take into morehousese collegey. He had get in the back of the trial because of segregation. My father says it this way. He says his body went in the back but his mind was in the front. Because he had so much as some buddy this in his spiritual. He arrives on the campus of Morehouse College a person by the name of thought after benjamin becomes his mentor. Before you get to boston enclosure, you gotta stop byn auburn avenue and see all of this quote somebody in us. Because his origin story was reworked from the origin story of White Supremacy to the idea of blackd resiliency. That was the brilliance of what auburn avenue was given to generation after generation. And you are the son of that tradition. Being a senator, the first africanamerican senator from the state of georgia because of the work of this great people on auburn avenue. [applause] thank you. I feel like dancing. [laughter] in the darkness. Lets hear from my friends, brother, author, filmmaker the reverend doctor period lets give it up for our senator is none other reverend doctor Raphael Warnock. Out we have some questionsli i believed coming from the audience or fromr online. Blood and oil. Questions come from kelly. Kelly asks most people find beer in darkness. If i do power in darkness. How did you develop the confidence to navigate what you cannot see . Thats a wonderful question kelly. Growing up in my family i learned from my mother and from my father the power of darkness. Meaning something that would naturally happen. Recently ared able to see in ts moment is site is based on electromagnetic waves. We consider to be the lights. Whats fascinating is human beings we have a limited site. There are other creatures god is created that are able to see in the dark. This is what helped me when i was a child. One time i was scared of the darkad. There was in the light is in the dark two. It is true. So all the stuff i see in the light is in the darkso also. And i held onto that idea that he shared with me years ago. But the thing is we develop our power in the dark. We were formed in darkness. We have to spend nine months in the dark before we can come into the light. Ive decided to consecrate the darkness and bring something out of it. It is inomhe those moments whene are quiet and silent and recognize we have to depend on Something Else than our sites. Anyone can handle when you can see it. But when you are in a moment when you cannot see it, cannot cure it, you just have to trust is when you deepen your faith. That is what the call is for us. Is the hold onto such values. Hold onto spiritual ideas that deepen our faith even though we cannot see it. Even though we cannot know when its going to happen. I believe that is something we all must learn. To be able to handle the darkness. But thank you. The next question is from ari. How do you build a movement of love, kindness, and unity at a time when people at the highest levels of power are trying to sell haynes . That is great. Truly important to recognize pastor warnock did such a beautiful job today when he talked about green valley being exalted. Every mountain running club. Said thats good news for that good for some people. People who are high up do not like to come down. We have to realize the real power is not with those who think they have power. The real power is rooted in the people. Justice and compassion and reciprocity. When history is written we will not lift up those who had a whole lot of stocks and bonds. Who will lift up the names of those who deep in their heart held on the particular values. Held onto these ideals. Those are the ones. [inaudible] has a way of doing things. The moment we recognize how much power we have comic transformation comes. I love the way Nelson Mandela said it. The moment you realize how powerfulul you are is when systs begin to shape. Thank you. You next this is for senator warnock. She is asking, for those who feel that church and state should be separated or struggle with the politics, being a senator how do you find peace in the two callings . I am a strong proponent of the separation of church and state that is a part of our democratic system i dont just tolerate im a strong proponent of it. I dont want to live in. [inaudible] i am a christian and a christian preacher. I do not want to live in theocracy. Not as economic one, jewish, or a christian one. Martin luther has this idea about the right kingdom and the left kingdom. I do not deceive the state encroach on the church. And i do not want to the church encroaching and religious triumph over civil society. So then at the same time, i dont embrace the idea politics does not belong at the pulpit. Because what is politics . Theres a very simple definition of politics. Wherever three or more people are gathered, there you have politics. [laughter] s because you had to in the gap negotiate interest. Invective two people together. Sometime between husband and wife is politics. Whenever three people are gathered you definitely have politics. [laughter] so heres what you got to understand. I bring the values of my faith to my work in the senate. And i said this the night i was elected in this last run off. Ive said it time and time again that i believe democracy is a political enactment of a spiritual idea. This notion that each of us has within ourselves a spark of the divine. Created. In the image of god. We were created in the image of god we should have a say in the direction of our country on our destiny within it. Even if you are given to the kind of religious language, that is fine, our tent is big. Simply put it this way we each have value. We have valuably ought to have a voice for the way to have a boys is to have a boat. The values i try to frame every Public Policy issue is i use literate resident and all of the great faith traditions. And in the souls of the people of moral courage love, truth, justice, compassion,n, empathy. That is what i bring to the senate. Pashe was the expanded Child Tax Credit which we pastor. We only did it for six months and trying to get us to ask then that. Child poverty 40 50 . The issue is climate change. But if the issue is how do we hold at bay bad actors on the global scale while at the same time not giving into literalism because doctor king described it. One of the triple evils. I am always going to try to put these issues in a moral frame. The politicians in d. C. Or anywhere else for this and a shortage of trends, politicians for both windmill transaction a politician is no need for me too do this. The reason for Ebenezer Church to give its past of the space graciously has and i was just going to show up as another transactional politician. What i am striving for and the tradition of king and thurman and baker and may is to be transformational. I see very clearly the danger of christian nationalism. And i try out feminism. And an impulse to push your own. The particularities and nuances of faith tradition living through the serious side of that. And it is the reason why i am prochoice. Its all the religious people. [applause] its a religious people who say the most hateful things to me because i am prochoice. I have tried to show up and really create all kinds of have aa productive effort i did not work. Talk about trolling my church went through it. Then attacking us on social media. All of me a false prophet, a hypocrite and do not understand who ebenezer is. After sunday but i am clear about this. The question on the issue of choice is whose decision is that . s decision is it . I happen to think a patients room is too small, a cramped space to have the u. S. Government. There are too many people in the room. [applause] that you value life as i do, it seems to me you would be concernedf about the liminal rates of Maternal Mortality in this country. Particularly in a state like georgia and black number three four times more likely to die than white women. Theyre much more likely to die even when they have the same insurance and encumbered under theug government can do somethig about the size of government not to stay in his lane and do the work the government doesnt let the church do with the church does. [applause] thank you. The next question comes from roberts. In Chapter Three redirecting rage you speak on joseph grays. Your call to pastor Turbulent Times. What do you say to young people who are constantly losing friends . At a high rate. What do you say to the young people . The pain and the trauma that we experience collectively as a communitys eight national and community problem. That we have to place as a priority if we are to see significant change. I shared a story and im thankful for allowing me too share the story of joseph who was a beloved young man here at trinity and many rememberpa how painful that moment was. I want to say thank you to many of the brothers who work with the rights of passage program. Some of you itar may not know i sure some of it in the book, we had some folks here who are ready to take quote unquote justice into their own hands. If it had not been for the men who worked with our young men we wouldve had multiple tragedies in this church. We wouldve had multiple funerals or we wouldve been talking to multiple young people through plexiglas. So i am just grateful for the men in the work that they did. But let me use the city of chicago as an example. Weri need people who are willing to place this as a priority in the city. When we use the wrong language but we keep saying Public Safety. Should be saying Public Health. Because when you say Public Safety you are only responding and putting more money in the hands of Police Officers. Police officers have the role. But if you say Public Health than all of the sudden and to deploy interrupters and social n workers but i did have school. We need to change the entire approach. And we need to see every child as valued and valuable. We should mourn collectively instead of mourning dress in a Community Aspect of this is just what happens over here. I would say to every young person that we are in the moment who we can the way the city does business to reverse some of the issues around gun violence. Number one, Charity Works of the leadfree programam we believe yu have got to have interrupters. Number two would need to make sure we funds of gun violence prevention at least by 250 million. We already fund the police bite to the tune of close to a billion dollars. But just an office of gun violence prevention. That would mean people who are deployed in our neighborhood. Do you know that we can predict the shots within a radius of Something Like 50 feet to 100 feet in terms of where someone lives. Based on when one young person is shot, they already have predictive models in terms of who the next person will be. Its like it is a disease. The center of Disease Control in atlanta not use those models because there was a law that was passed specifically by the gun lobby say you cannot follow that predictivegu model because it wl affect what . Gun sales. So we have to have a completely different approach. This is about Public Health and human flourishing. We demand every mayor, and demand every commissioner, demand everyha person who runs r congress to say they have a position on Public Health. It is not enough to put more money toward policing because they are responders. We want prevention. And prevention is always cheaper than responding. If you want to spend less money than lets begin to put money toward prevention. Fifty interrupters can do more than 500 police. Let me say it again. Fifty interrupters can do more than 500 Police Officers because their job is prevention. Fiftyeight social can do more than 500 Police Officers because their job is prevention. Police officers are responders we keep sending money to respond. We are not doing the work on prevention. Let me give you another example richmond california it took a response position i believe it was about 15 or 17 years ago took a response position. They began to hire brothers who used to be in the life to do the interruption. Within six years they had dropped the gun violence rates by 70 . As they took prevention as a priority and not response. They gave every brother a job. And they paid them a living wage with insurance. They could also take care of their fit with because i had insurance. Thats the model we had to keep electing people and we keep allowing gun lobbies determine what the policy is going to be. In chicago we know how to fix this we just need people within a political courage to step forward and do the work when you have done. [applause] next next question is from deidre online for the questions for reverend warnock. What is the scripture you call on when you walk to the valley of the shadow of death on capitol hill . Among those who loudly called the nameno of jesus but do not step in his footsteps. Looks like all the rest of that verse i will fear no evil. But thou art with me. And i keep walking to the valley. I know i would not be there without the prayers of the righteous. In my experience has taught me that with every assignment comes equipment. If it is indeed a divine assignment if it a divine assignment the assignment will come the necessary equipment. Both the things you need and the people you need surrounding you. And so this work been tough. It is hard work. It requires a lot of me. Iran for three years straight. And now finally i have a sixyear term. I clearly went after this job with my name on the ballot five times the same dog on job. But i am amazed with the resources and the support that has shown up. I did not go running after this. I was asked three times to run for United States senate. I said yes only after the third time. It felt like it was the right time. I did not know what that would look like. I did not know a month or so after i announced we would find ourselves strange virus. I announce on january 30 and in mid march the world shutdown. How do you campaign in the circumstances question what we did know how to do anything we did not hug to church. Trying to figure how to Campaign First time i never run for Public Office in the middle of covid 19 pandemic. But what that did wasnt brought in the sharp focus issues i have addressing long before he ran for the senate. Like in equity and or Healthcare System because while everybody is impactedvi by covid 19 we saw re inscribed in the midst of the pandemic the things we see with chronic illness and all of these issues, access to healthcare proves a black and brown and poor people dying at a disproportionate rate. Until the pandemic brought in the sharp focus things ive been fighting for for years trying to get georgia to expand medicaid for example. That happened in march. A couple months after that we were wrestling with covid19 we saw the emergence and the tragic way 1619 george floyd, a black man yet dying again with a knee on his neck it was at the first time we had all seen that on tv. Because i remember a few years ago i came here to preach one sunday. You had a whole service responding to the killing of kurt garner. And i preached about it that sunday. It choked to death in a new york city street. I wondered why there was not the kind of outpouring of concern i would have expected in the wake of that. George floyd was not the first time. But something i think about being in the midst of a pandemic, all of us hold up in our homes were to go. I think it was harder for the country to turn away. Weve been sitting here in our houses for couple months anyway already frustrated. Then the whole country saw this human tragedy unfold. You could not turn away. As a result of that we saw a multi racial coalitions pour out into american streets. Masks up to protect themselves from one pandemic while waging oregon for number pandemic. And in the midst of all of that i was running for the United States senate. The pastor of Ebenezer Church and then weeks after that presiding over the funeral of john lewis our great hero. So i have felt called to this worki. It is the reason i do it every single day. I am deeply honored to do it while i enjoy the work im doing for me this senate is another tool. My practice is the same it has always b been. Dancing and encouraging others to dance in the darkness. And inspired to be here. I tell more of the story by the way in my book away out of nowhere. Which is my memoir that came out. Amazon. Com, im just kidding. [applause] thank you. This next question is from eli for pastor many black outlets generate revenue by focusing one the blackness. Focusing on the darkness of hate toward our communities. How do we explore whats possible without fearing the darkness limitations . If there is a need and necessity for us to learn how to celebrate us. The resiliency and the brilliance is what i find so beautiful about our history and our stories. I think we must learn how to traffic in our own stories and be able to share our own stories. And when we begin to share our own stories we recognize the beauty of those stories. There is a tendency to think our story is one type of story. Absolutely utterly brilliant and magnificent. An incredible print their sociologists to study black people to try and figure out how in the world that you all do this . Because of the literal brilliance is doctor Raphael Warnock says people give us the blues that we start singing the blues. We have this capacity to be able to be so incredibly resilient that comes from our spirituality. Im not talking denomination. Im not talking someone make them talk about their inherent atbias we recognize that we are all gifts of the sacred. We have i the spark of the divie printing of the imprint of god. The fingerprints of the creator on us. We have to be into traffic the stories. It does not begin by picking up your phone. Let me find a good blacks stor. Sometimes youve got to go and do something is called read a book. [applause] not only reador a book event to listen to the stories of elders. Georgetown university for a book signing. One of our former interns asked this question about stories, how do you know the stories . What is an opportunity to hear the stories of my mother. The stories of my father. I listen to them. Number two is our household was filled with books. All of these fascinating stories that were in these books. And number three that alternative media live on the post was a black newspaper one was by jon bustamante. Ma jon owned the paper it was one of the funders of Jesse Jacksons campaign. He said his responsibility was that he wanted to put stories in the mind of black people that allow them to fly. That is all he wanted to do pretty when a child to pick up a newspaper not just look at but here stories of triumph. Your stories of power. Here stories of beauty and cap at the kitchen table. Begin to repeat the stories. I am a preacher. Doctor Raphael Warnock is a preacher. We tell stories of stories about a brother named jesus. When you got the right story it will change your world. If you listen to someone elses story beholding to them. If you operate under the script that someone else wrote you will always be a character in theirir movie. But if you write your own scripting to be the start and the hero at the same time. Lets start writing our own stories. But he does that otis is dreaming. If you have not seen that film you need to see it. Great film. Ask this question is for both of you. This question is from donna online. How do we prepare the next generation to be ready to carry the mantle of love and justice . Exit begins begin to keep telling the story. One of the most tragic lines i think in scripture can be found in the book of judges. I believe the second chapter. Where it says and joshua died and then goes and joshua generation died. They were gathered up to their ancestors did there arose a generation of the lord. The lord had done for israel. I am struck by that. It gone to the exodus. They have sojourned through the wilderness. It settled into the land of promise. He and his peers are all gone. Thomas and i were talking earlier about the fact that we are moving within a few yearsti folks who remember the movement. There will come a time all the folks who move through the movement are gone. That is not what was tragic. That was a circle of life. What was tragic is there emerged a whole generation did not know they did not think god moses met on the side of the mountain said go and tell pharaoh to let my people go. Work out off them for israel. That the past hour stories onto our children. With that the tell the stories time and time again. That is what this brother is trying to do and is doing areffectively. Not only in this book dancing in the darkness he does it every sunday after sunday after sunday. I we are trying to find creative ways to do it. I just got done reading to the children in the sunday School Pieces Childrens Book. I release a Childrens Book last week called put your shoes on and get ready. [applause] am as excited about that book than anything ever written. Because when i tried to do is put it where small kids can get it. And we have got to keep doing that. I think what happens if you are a parent but let me encourage a parent who is listening or pastor who is listening. The job of teenagers become unimpressed with you. [laughter] and to act like they are listening even when they might be sort of listening port listening and they do not even know they are listening. Some things are taught. And most things are caught. Most things are caught. Although some business kids in the back of the church, pastors talking at or your mom. [laughter] but you caughtit it. Doing the same thing his daddy was doing. That hit by it. Ill hit it in the head. But when you read to the children today, you the work of teaching them love and justice. Youu are giving story they could repeat. You are giving them images that looked like them so they could repeat the story images that look like them they come home and say mom would you read the story the senator read it to me can you read it to me . That is what we want to embed some things in our children. The danger is there are corporations that are trying to embed some things. Our children so that we have to be radical activists who are actively working to embed the stories of beauty and resiliency and love and justice and reciprocity, and respect and grace and mercy in our children. Not just dragging in the children sang sitting here. That is inventing a story. That is embedding a ritual in them. I will never forget the story that was told by samuel barry tlmckenney. He was the pastor at Mount Zion Church in seattle. Serving in augusta. That changed his life. He was being 18 that being what teens do but i aint going to listen to mom and dad. He had done something incredibly disrespectful to his parents. There was punishmentop at all tt is because parent star was open and he heard some noise in the room. His peeking and thought his parents were fighting or something. He peaks in the room and he sees his father and mother on their knees praying out loud for him. He said the image of his parents calling his name before god changed his life. He said from that moment on. Now i still messed up he said but something was embedded in me yoforever. There is power when your child hears and power when your child sees. He said i wanted to do the same thing for my children, that they would see me on my knees praying for them. If we can embed these stories we will see children that will embrace these ideals. Thank you. Thee last question comes from winston who is nine who is here. His question is for doctor warnock. He enjoyed reading your book put your shoes on and get ready. What was it like being sworn in by Vice President Kamala Harris . Winston can you stand up . All right winston. [applause] thank you for your question. It was amazing. And i am deeply honored. Im deeply honored by your question. There i was being sworn in by the Vice President of the United States. Think about that history in that picture. Reverend moss points out in the first black senator the state of georgia elected by the way the same time georgia and well fell swoop like a swiss africanamerican center in its first jewish senator in one fell swoop. I think thats a good reason to rejoice. But i love it when i go to places and they say georges first black senator. I want to be careful we dont say it in a i way that suggested georges lagging indicator. Because im only number 11 and the whole history of the country. Andor number 11. Think about the whole history of the republic i am only number 11. When barack obama was the senate he was the only one. That is how rare a black senator has been in this country. So, think about that history here and being sworn in the first in georgia 11 in the holes for the country. By the first black person. The first woman, and the first asian person Vice President. Sworn in at the same time commenting sworn in by her. So it was amazing. I was there standing. You can go back we are on. Cspan. So there is some footage on f cspan i should not say this because people will try to look for. I was sworn in and i wanted my children there. Chloe is six. And caleb is four. And lately caleb has been obsessed with karate. Yes. So i calm there on the isle of thet chamber you get sworn in twice. Once on the floor of the senate and actually known is standing there with you but other centers where the oil into can be on the floor other than staff. Then there is a ceremonial swearing in and the Old Senate Chamber for the Vice President as their county family can be there. My children and i come down the aisle. This is a high and incredible moment. And i said hello madam Vice President xi is so sweet and kind she leans over and says hi to chloe and she says hi to caleb. Caleb tries to karate kick the Vice President. [laughter] s it is on cspan. I have seen it. [laughter] and god the secret service attacked their pete held their peace and did not attack a four year old pictures kind and gracious is quite a moment. I do not know that my son was all that impressed. [laughter] he will end its understand itto better. Wehi want to thank everyone r being with us today for this conversation but from book notes and want to thank cspan for being with us today and broadcasting. We are going to have the book signing innc the back dont skip the announcement for reference to that cluster. Yes. Hello before you exit this lovely, lovely barbecue have a bit of protocol for all of our lovely guest joining us today and members. Our protocol would get this right and going to read for my phone. We are asking everyone exits out of the east door for the book siding in the atrium it will set the will be in Montgomery Hall we are not doing any sales while service and but this was going on. We are asking once your books are signed exit to the west door. No one will be able to come through the atrium west door. Alright thank thank you for cooperating in this lovely effort. We look forward to getting those books assigned. Thank you. Now on a book tv more television for serious