Fort Myers, Fla. (Mennonite Mission Network/Mennonite Church USA/Mennonite Education Agency) — “When the system is working for you, you probably don’t notice the depth of how it isn’t working for others,” said Regina Shands Stoltzfus, one of the planners of Hope for the Future IV.
This was the point of a story that she told the gathering about traveling with a disabled friend and being shocked by the indignities the friend was forced to endure. For example, as they checked into a hotel, the clerk addressed Shands Stoltzfus instead of her friend. Navigating the wheelchair through narrow spaces at a restaurant was very difficult. Similar challenges that people of color face navigating White culture, said Shands Stoltzfus, who is African American.
Hope for the Future gathers leaders of color throughout Mennonite Church USA institutions to find strategic ways to improve diversity in order to help the church to thrive. This year’s conference was held Jan. 23-24 at Iglesia Menonita Arca de Salvación in Fort Myers, Florida, where more than 100 participants attended, including for the first time students from Mennonite colleges. For the second year Whites were invited and numbered 26 participants who were key leaders of Mennonite institutions, including all Mennonite Church USA agencies.
Before spending most of the three days working together in mixed groups, separate caucus groups based on race met first so that participants could talk more freely. Within the White caucus group, the message of Shands Stoltzfus’s story had been a reoccurring theme.
“When the system works for us, we aren’t always even aware of how it’s not working for other people,” said Brenda Zook Friesen of Mennonite Church USA’s Office of Transformative Peacemaking and a co-facilitator of the White caucus group.
Friesen said that many Whites expressed frustration when hearing people of color recount feelings of isolation or being emotionally wounded in the church. Whites want to believe the stories, but unless they see it for themselves, it’s difficult to relate, she said.
“It’s very hard for us to even understand that there is a different perspective or different experience of how we live in these institutions and this church. Even though we were trying very hard not to make excuses or trying not to rationalize, I think it’s hard not to,” Friesen said.
Download full resolution image.It is often easier to assume that the group feeling discriminated against is somehow less capable of meeting the required standard for success. It is harder for the dominant group to admit that it is enjoying unearned privilege, said Rick Derksen, a volunteer and co-facilitator of the caucus group with Friesen.
“It’s hard for us (White people) to talk about power and to recognize and acknowledge the power that we have,” Derksen said. “And probably even more so in the Mennonite Church because we like to see ourselves as ‘the quiet in the land,’ if you will, as people of humility and people who are committed to peace and justice.”
Derksen said Whites often become fearful when “invited and pushed to talk about power and the way power operates in our institutions.”
Ervin Stutzman, executive director of Mennonite Church USA, said that communication is vital to assuage potential fears of sharing power, which are typically rooted in systemic racism and cultural misunderstandings. Creating a space for honest conversation and together developing strategic goals to achieve positive change is the essence of what Hope for the Future is about, he said. Hope for the Future is led by Mennonite Church USA’s Office of Transformative Peacemaking through their director, Iris de León Hartshorn.
“White folks often make racist remarks or exercise power and privilege in ways that we ourselves may not even be aware that it’s hurtful to somebody else,” Stutzman said. “Unless there are times of actual storytelling and being together and hearing these things, we’re just not aware of it.”
“Telling our stories can be powerful and liberating, but it can also be devastating,” said de León Hartshorn. “When people of color tell our stories, we are putting ourselves in very vulnerable positions. We tell our stories with a purpose and a hope that it can move the church to systemic change in how power is used, and open up a way to talk about power.”
Change is both “transformation of self and of our institutions, both interpersonal and systemic,” she said.
“In Luke 14:12-14, Jesus talks about those whom we should invite to a banquet. It is not the powerful or those we know, but those who have been oppressed by society,” de León Hartshorn said. “Our transformation must include a wider tent that does not just accommodate people of color but actually adapts to people of color so that they become part of the family.”
When people of different races and cultures spend more time hearing each other and witnessing each other’s experiences, they become more informed, connected, and less fearful, Stutzman said. As in the civil rights movement, change must be led by those who are oppressed, but must also include White people who are willing to be agents for change, de León Hartshorn said.
Stutzman said that a person in the White caucus shared a story that was similar to Shands Stoltzfus’s witnessing of her wheelchair-reliant friend’s challenges. As the only White person at dinner with friends who were people of color, the person witnessed the indignant treatment toward the friends by the restaurant’s servers.
“It’s one thing to hear a story about barriers and mistreatment, but it becomes very real when you are there and see it first-hand,” Stutzman said.
“I think people of color understand White people a lot better than White people understand people of color,” Derksen said. “Living in a White dominated society, we don’t even need to know or understand people of color in order to survive. We can choose whether or not we even want to think about this (anti-racism) or do this work. On the other hand, our brothers and sisters of color have no choice other than to learn and understand White culture.”
However, this dynamic is changing. The Mennonite Church is discussing power and diversity because the demographics of the church are evolving dramatically. Ironically, the Mennonite Church’s own historic emphasis on overseas missions is helping to fuel the changes. Anabaptist church membership among White North American and European churches is declining, while growing among Asian, African and Latin American churches. A 2006 Young Center of Elizabethtown College study found that from 2000 to 2005, 25 percent of new Mennonites were non-white compared to just 6 percent from 1995 to 2000.
Many in the church believe that abolishing racism and broadening power sharing are logical goals to not only helping the Mennonite Church to thrive, but for people worldwide to coexist harmoniously – reflecting God’s kingdom on earth as Christians believe it is in heaven.
“I think for me the realization over and over and over again is that this is a lifelong work,” said Friesen. “I think the temptation for a lot of White people is to come to a training like this one time and then think, ‘I checked that off my list. I’m done.’ As long as the system of racism is in place, we are never done.”
“I am continually dying to my condition as a White male [enjoying certain unearned power privileges over other groups] in this society and the church and in my community,” said Derksen. “But I am also continually being reborn to a new life. I find that both painful and difficult and also life giving.”
“Just the fact that we had a conference as we did, led by people of color – a sort of reversal of roles – that’s a sign of progress,” said Stutzman. “That’s a sign that things have shifted to where you make some things very explicit and open and have conversations about them. Unless you have people of color in senior leadership in different institutions, you are just crippled to really make the changes that need to happen. We still have a very long way to go.”
