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A Church of
Many Peoples Confronts Racism, 1989
Mennonite
Church USA
"Many Peoples Becoming
God's People" is the theme of this joint gathering of the
Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church,
August 1-6, 1989, in ' Normal, Ill. Our theme is an expression
of our ethnic diversity and thus a cause for cel- ebration. We
are becoming more like the church for which our Lord prayed (John
17:11-12,20-23; Eph. 2:11-22).
It is surely a gift of God's grace that the generations of Mennonites
now living can witness the worship of our churches in North America
in at least two dozen languages: Amharic, Arapaho, Blackfeet,
Cantonese Chinese, Cheyenne, Choctaw, Creole, Cree, English,
French, Garifuna, High German, Hmong, Hopi, Indonesian, Laotian,
Low German, Mandarin Chinese, Navajo, Saulteaux. Portuguese,
Spanish, Taiwanese, Vietnamese, and others.
That some of these worship languages seem unfamiliar to many
of us is merely a measure of our new beginnings toward a church
of many peoples. We recognize with sorrow that we are part of
a society established by invading the lands and the rights of
ear- lier residents and by importing and enslaving other human
beings. Many of our sisters and brothers, decedents of those
early victims, still suffer from the prejudicial attitudes of
the majority and from economic and other manifestations of racial
bias. At this gathering we are affirming in prayer, worship,
and fellowship that we intend to become one church of many peoples.
We recognize that our response to God's will in this matter will
call for repentance from sinful attitudes in our own hearts.
It will set us apart from some of the sinful directions of our
North American societies, in Canada and the United States.
Racism is a particular social reality of evil our Lord asks us
to confront in becoming God's people. There are those in our
societies who actively promote racial strife and the domination
of one race over others. Many resist equal opportunities for
minorities in immigration, education, employment, and housing.
Sometimes the social climate allows hate language in the public
media, harassment on college campuses, gang beatings of minority
people, defacing and arson of churches and synagogues, public
demonstrations by hate groups, terrorism against minority means
of livelihood, and even murder. The movements in many areas of
North America to uphold English as the sole "official"
language may tend to foster such hurtful racial attitudes and
give sanction to unacceptable public behavior.
We reaffirm our previous statements, made in the 1960s, on various
racial concerns (see Attachment 1). Yet too often we have been
silent in the face of these injustices. We commit ourselves anew
to witness and work for racial justice in our communities.
The foundation for our concerns is that we have become one in
the blood of the crucified Christ (Eph. 2:14), and our membership
is to be drawn from every race and tribe and language and nation
(Rev. 5:9-10). Our public witness to this fact is an essential
part of our evangelism. As representatives of Mennonite congregations
throughout North America, we declare here and now that expressions
and attitudes of racism are sin and are never acceptable in our
Christian life. They must also not be accepted in silence in
any of our personal, work, or leisure relationships.
As "Many Peoples Becoming God's People" churches, we
encourage our congregations to identify and speak out against
all forms of racism in our communities. This will require study
to recognize subtle forms of racism in the media, in social practices,
housing and employment patterns, and even within the church.
It will require us to learn to know and become known to the victims
of racism who live among us so that we may publicly stand with
them. Those who practice racial abuse and discrimination deprive
themselves of the enriching variations God intended for the human
family. We need to find ways to experience the joys and challenges
of racial diversity through our social interactions and residential
choices. Where congregations are predominantly of one race, initiatives
should be taken to foster fellowship with congregations of other
racial heritages. Where feasible, congregations should join in
projects of common service and witness.
We confess that our church institutions--district and provincial
conferences, churchwide and inter-Mennonite agencies, our colleges,
camps, and health service centers--have not always escaped our
society's pattern of institutional racism. We are called by the
gospel to review our practices in employment, promotion, purchasing
of materials, and inclusion of minorities on boards and committees.
Where inequity is found, we need to repent, be reconciled, and
take affirmative action to correct it. At least once each year
congregations can celebrate the richness of ethnic and racial
ad- versity and examine anew ways we can combat the lingering
racism in our society, in our church and in ourselves. Opportunities
for raising awareness may be found in the observance of World
Fellowship Sunday on Pentecost (as promoted by the Mennonite
World Conference), and celebration of a "Many Peoples Sunday."
Other opportunities include the observance of Martin Luther King,
Jr.'s birthday[1] in the U.S. or remembrance
of the Acadians[2] and Louis Riel[3]
in Canada. Resources for congregational study will be made available
in 1989-1992 by the Commission on Home Ministries (GC) and the
Board of Congregational Ministries (MC). CHM and BCM are asked
to report on the usage of these resources to their respective
1991 and 1992 delegate assemblies.
We ask each congregation, district and provincial conference,
board and commission of the Mennonite Church and the General
Conference Mennonite Church to give re- newed attention to issues
of racism. Particular encouragement and support is needed for
the development of leadership of all ethnic and racial groups
from local to churchwide levels. The vision God gave Peter, that
"God knows not partiality" (Acts 10:34), is still needed
today. Let us pray for courage to be a people of God who fulfill
that vision.
Notes
1. The
birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), as
civil rights and nonviolence leader, is celebrated as a national
holiday in the United States on January 15. Various states commemorations
are held on other days in January.
2. The
Acadians were French settlers in what is now Nova Scotia. In
1755, they were rounded up by the British and expelled. Many
fled to what was then French Louisiana, where their decedents
today are know as "Cajuns." Other sizable numbers returned
to the Madawaska region of Maine and New Brunswick. Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow's poem "Evangeline" depicts this episode
(which the United Nations would now label as genocide).
3. Louis
Riel (1844-1885) was a Metis (mixed native and French) leader
from Assinibola, Manitoba. The "Riel Rebellions" of
1869 and 1884-1885 established short-lived provisional governments
which attempted to resist English domination in settlement of
the Canadian West. Riel was tried and hanged in Regina on Nov.
16, 1885. He is regarded by many as a French-Canadian and Native
people's patriot.
Attachment
1."The Way of Christian Love in Race Relations," MC
General Assembly, August 24, 1955, Hesston, Kans.
2."The Christian and Race
Relations," GCMC Triennial Sessions, August 12-20, 1959,
Bluffton, Ohio.
3."Reconciliation,"
MC General Assembly, August 20-23, 1963, Kalona, Iowa.
4."The Freedom Movement,"
GCMC Triennial Sessions, July 10-17, 1965, Estes Park, Colo.
5."Urban Riots," MC
General Assembly, August 21-24,1967, Lansdale, Pa.
6."Urban-Racial Concerns," MC General Assembly, August
18, 1969, Turner, Oreg.
Adopted by the Tenth Mennonite Church General
Assembly, August 3. 1989, August 1-4, 1989, Illinois State University,
Normal, Illinois, Proceedings,pp.32-34.
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