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2008-08-19 issue:

Five racial/ethnic leaders assess Mennonite Church USA’s efforts to dismantle racism

Anti-racism goal was one of four goals adopted by the new denomination in 2001; current Six Year Review is opportunity to check progress churchwide.

by Anna Groff

Print Article

Dismantling racism in the church was one of four main priorities established by Mennonite Church USA delegates when the denomination was formed in 2001. Anna Groff asked Iris de León-Hartshorn, Mennonite Church USA’s director of intercultural relations, to suggest the leaders who could evaluate progress. Here are their assessments of Mennonite Church USA’s progress toward this goal.—Editor

Michelle Armster
Co-director, office on justice and peacebuilding
Mennonite Central Committee

Michelle Armster says anti-racism in the church is complex, as it is in many institutions.

“There are ways in which the church is further along,” she says, “ways in which the church is the same and ways in which the church has backslid.”

She names a way she has seen the church move forward: Those in leadership have tried to “understand, struggle with, embrace and have conversations around the issue of race and racism in the church.”

However, Armster says the church has the same “ambiance”—or general feeling or mood—as it did many years.

For example, conference gatherings follow the same formula they did prior to 2002. She believes nostalgia is part of the reason the “ambiance” is not changing. Also, the ethnic, white Mennonites have the familial connection that continue to be present.

For Armster, Anabaptist theology is attractive to her because it came from the margins.

“I would really like to see the church bust a move on what it means to be Anabaptist,” she says.

She says the understanding of Anabaptist is often different between the ethnic, white Mennonites and underrepresented racial/ethnic Mennonites. She describes Anabaptism as an elephant in a room touched by six blind people, each person holding a different part of the elephant.

“The church has backslid, rather than moving forward and really walking through the fire of change,” she says. “It’s backslid to the comfortable, the nostalgia.”

Armster believes the church stunts change by thinking it is something it is not. “[The church] acts as a mainline Protestant church rather than the radicals of the Reformation,” she says. “We are not as different as we think we are.”


Juanita Nunez, moderator-elect
Iglesia Menonita Hispana

Juanita Nunez says the church is coming closer to its goal of antiracism set six years ago by intentionally addressing it.

“We are talking more about it also,” she says. “I remember for a long time people didn’t talk about it.”

An example of improvement is translations for the Spanish-speaking community.

“That is important to us so that people know what is happening and so we have the opportunity to read it in our own language,” she says. “Sometimes the Hispanic community feels so far away from everything.

“We have also seen Hispanic people in positions that are significant in the Mennonite church,” she says, naming recent appointees such as Gilberto Flores, denominational minister, Rafael Barahona, associate director of Mennonite Education Agency, and Samuel Lopez, Executive Board member.

Education is very important, Nunez says. Universities, colleges, seminaries need to teach about antiracism because those students are future leaders that will set visions for their congregations and agencies, she adds.

These improvements are hopeful, although we know that we still have a long way to go, she says.

“It’s an ugly issue but at the same time we have to address it,” she says.


Kuaying Teng,
Minister of Asian ministries
Mennonite Mission Network

Compared to the past four to five years, the denominational goal of antiracism has improved, says Kuaying Teng.

“It is improving,” Teng says. “I see the change,”—adding that he speaks from his perspective of the church and work with Mennonite Mission Network.

Underrepresented racial/ethnic people have power and are making decisions, he says. However, he hears requests that this happen even more. Nonracial/ethnic people have more information about what is happening in congregations of underrepresented racial/ethnic members, which is important when working toward the goal, says Teng.

He also appreciates the effort and energy the church has put into urban ministry that includes antiracism in that context.

Mennonite Church USA provides financial support, along with conferences, to church-planting and new racial/ethnic congregations.

His hope for the future is a strong partnership between Mennonite Church USA and racial/ethnic congregations to work and serve internationally.

“Sometimes racial/ethnic people feel isolated,” he says.


Hugo Saucedo
Western District/South Central Conference youth pastor

“In the past six years, Mennonite Church USA has made some good strides in becoming an antiracist organization,” Hugo Saucedo says. “Many of its organizations and constituents have willingly chosen to be stretched through Damascus Road trainings and learned how they can better understand the impact of racism. However, in this climate of xenophobia that our country is currently experiencing, I have seen backslide in the Mennonite church. Many of our Latin American undocumented brothers and sisters are experiencing discrimination and persecution by the U.S. Government.

“Mennonite Church USA has an opportunity to do more than what it is currently doing. For example, we can petition local, state and federal government agencies to petition for immigration reform. As individuals, we can also choose to welcome our undocumented brothers and sisters into our churches and our homes.

“Although Mennonite Church USA is addressing issues like immigration with various types of support and by equipping its Latin American leaders through publications written in their language and through trainings conducted in their own language, it is all for naught if those leaders are not welcomed in this country.

“To bring more awareness to this issue, Mennonite Church USA should do a better job at including more people of color within its power structure.

“This includes its various boards and its agencies. Although there is much work to be done, I strongly believe that Mennonite Church USA will step up to the challenge. And thus, doing so, will challenge us as constituents to follow suite.”


Olivette McGhee, president
Native Mennonite Ministries

Olivette McGhee says Mennonite Church USA is not losing ground on the issue of antiracism because the denomination continues to work at it.

“I don’t feel like it’s getting any worse,” she says. McGhee notes that according to Conrad Kanagy’s 2006 Church Member Profile, racial/ethnic congregations are the fastest growing in Mennonite Church USA. “I don’t believe that would be possible if we would not have felt the support of the church.”

However, she says this work will be ongoing and “it’s not going to go away” after the first six years of the denomination.

“People have made a conscious effort to keep it out there in the forefront,” McGhee says, adding that it is often discussed at denominational meetings. McGhee says she was assured during the conference call about the denomination’s proposed structural changes that racial/ethnic leaders will have a presence on the final board.

“I believe they are trying to include us in everything they do,” she says. However, the financial piece remains an issue—although it has been discussed for years, according to McGhee.

McGhee says she hopes that underrepresented racial/ethnic members might get a “bigger piece of the pie,” since their numbers are increasing.

People on the margins, like Native Mennonites, have not seen financial improvement despite Mennonite Church USA’s First Fruits giving plan, she says. Native Mennonite Ministries, that receives $8,000 per year, has been “having to work with that little for years,” she says. “[But] I know other parts of the church are hurting too.”—Anna Groff

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