Creating a Sense of Urgency: Challenging Institutional Racism in Mennonite Church USA and its Organizations
Joel Koerner
“For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.”
Galatians 3:26-29 (NLT)
Racism is a force that continues to exist at various levels in Mennonite Church USA. This is a fact that is too often overlooked by those of us in the church that are of European ancestry. Indeed, it is a problem that we wish would disappear. I have personally seen this racism on multiple occasions. While I realize that my experiences are not reflective of the experiences of all Mennonites, I will use these encounters to illustrate the fact that racism, in varying forms, continues to pervade the church on the local, conference and institutional levels. In light of these experiences, I will offer suggestions that can at least serve as a starting point from which Mennonite Church USA can more seriously begin to address the presence of racism in the church.
As I reflect back on my life prior to college, I can remember a number of what I would deem as “racist incidents”, long before I was fully aware that racism is as great of a problem as I now know it is. I grew up in a small Midwestern community that is the epitome of racial homogeneity, an area where more than 95 percent of the people are whites of European ancestry. Because church was such an integral part of life, most of my memories of racism come from these settings. I vividly remember a racist joke that our 4th grade Sunday school teacher told the class. Looking back, I am well aware that this joke should have never been told. However, now more than ten years later, that particular quip is the only thing that I can specifically remember about that year. I also remember a pastor using a particular phrase containing a racial epithet over the pulpit on multiple occasions. In these specific situations, I am fairly certain that persons of the specific racial group that was targeted in the phraseology were not present. I am also convinced that the leaders that uttered these words did so without thinking about the potential for offense that was contained in their remarks.
I think that there are viable solutions to help address the racism that is present on the congregational level in Mennonite Church USA. While these solutions may not be popular, I feel that if the church is really serious about addressing racism, then it will encourage local congregations to enact these measures. I firmly believe that all pastors that are ordained as ministers into the church should undergo Damascus Road training as a prerequisite to their ordination. Only when our local leaders become aware of the racism that pervades our society will the church even be able to begin to confront this problem in our midst. If the leaders of the local church remain ignorant of their own racist behavior, then there will never be any hope for the church to confront and deal with this problem.
Another experience that I recall from my pre-college years is attending our regional church conference. Once again, I do not remember a great number of specifics about what took place at the conference. The weather was hot and the delegate sessions were fairly boring and dry. However, I do remember one concern that was brought to the floor by a certain delegate. He voiced concern in regard to the absence of people of color within the leadership of our particular conference. Indeed, even today the leaders of the conference of which my home congregation is a part remain all white.
This is an area where a number of conferences are making progress. Multiple area conferences in Mennonite Church USA have racially and ethnically diverse executive committees and boards governing their conference structures and organizations. I believe that a key to battling racism on the conference level is to continue to make sure that these conferences are always working to ensure that their conference leadership is representative of the racial and ethnic composition of their specific conventions. Moreover, the conferences that are lagging behind in the integration of their leadership teams, conferences that are often predominately composed of congregations located in rural areas, must be encouraged to work to implement more racially diverse groups of leaders. By doing this, these predominately rural conferences will start to acknowledge that the demographics of their congregations and localities are becoming more fluid as population shifts are bringing greater diversity to many areas throughout the country.
The changing demographics of the nation are also altering the face of the institutions of Mennonite Church USA. No longer are church establishments such as institutes of higher education, ethnically and racially homogenous to the extent that they formally were. Rather, bodies such as Bluffton University are home to increasingly diverse students bodies that come from a number of different cultural backgrounds.
In regard to the question of racism within the institutions of the church, I wish to again relay my own experiences with this issue. During my sophomore and junior years at Bluffton, I participated in Damascus Road Antiracism training and I was an active member of the Damascus Road Student Team at Bluffton. I regard my experiences with the student team as an extremely important experience and I believe that we made progress in bringing at least a little more attention to the issue of racism on Bluffton’s campus. However, to some extent I also felt powerless to battle the racism that I felt was, and is present, in the fiber of this institution.
There are a number of incidents and attitudes that I could cite that made me feel that racism is still a powerful force at Bluffton. However, instead of citing specific cases, I wish to focus on what I see as the main problem concerning the very real presence of racism in the institutional fabric of Bluffton University. All seats on Bluffton’s President’s Cabinet and offices of high administration are occupied solely by persons of white, European descent. Moreover, the vast majority of faculty members are also white. There is no doubt in my mind that the vast majority of Bluffton’s administrators and faculty are progressive, open-minded people who work hard to combat injustice in the world. Be that as it may, the fact remains that nearly everyone in positions of power at Bluffton University is white. Thus, while these persons may recognize that Bluffton needs to confront the issue of racism in this institution, they simply have no sense of urgency to enact measures that will fundamentally change the almost exclusively white nature of the power structures that currently exist at Bluffton. However, the problem of white hegemony in positions of leadership is not unique to Bluffton.
A simple search of the websites of Bluffton’s sister Mennonite institutes of high education reveals that the same problem of the completely white domination of administrative and executive leadership positions. At schools such as Bethel and Goshen, the President’s Cabinet is completely white. Again, I stress that I believe that the root of this problem lies in the lack of a sense of urgency. Those of us who are white, myself included, who do not experience racial discrimination will not be able to easily prod ourselves to challenge structures where people of our own race wield overwhelming power.
The problem of white hegemony and racism in Mennonite institutes of higher learning is not a problem that can be quickly fixed. First, it is necessary for Mennonite colleges and universities to acknowledge that there is a problem. After conceding that these problems do exist, these educational institutions must commit to a deliberate process to hire more professors and administrators who are of varying minority racial backgrounds. Moreover, this process of integration will most likely have to include accountability to other leadership bodies within Mennonite Church USA which are already racially integrated. The task is monumental. However, it is also indispensable. If Mennonite institutes of high education are serious about battling injustice in the world, then these schools must begin by challenging the unjust power imbalances that exist within themselves. A commitment to do this will mark a very important step in the battle against racism within Mennonite Church USA.
As Mennonite Church USA passes through the early years of the 21st century, racism continues to haunt the church at different organizational levels. This evening, I have relayed my own experiences with racism on the congregational, conference and institutional levels within Mennonite Church USA. However, when confronting racism in the church, we cannot have a defeatist attitude. Our struggle against racism and the other forces of evil in this world will be a long and hard battle. While acknowledging that they are not ends in themselves, I have outlined several ways in which I believe we can go about addressing the issue of racism in our church. May our God, the LORD of all races, tribes and creeds, give us the courage and tenacity that we need to fight the sin of racism.
