Jesus’ mission was guided by a single, all-encompassing theme: the kingdom of God. At the heart of this new kingdom, Jesus proclaimed, was the creation of a new humanity.

David Bosch referred to this new humanity as a “third race.”

This third race was described by Paul the apostle as a new peoplehood. They are a people whose primary identity was defined neither by Jewish ethnicity nor Gentile roots, but by becoming members of God’s new family through the salvation of and adoption by Jesus Christ.

This new community would be characterized by its acceptance, embrace and generosity toward the other. The boundaries of national origin or ethnic differences used to exclude and alienate would be superseded by a new kinship as siblings in God’s new family.

However, racism persists in our society and, sadly, also in the Christian movement in North America. The gap between our preaching and our practice clouds the credibility of our witness. We announce the good news, but then seem to perpetuate the bad news of separation, discrimination and intolerance.

Mennonites, more importantly, also are burdened with a fidelity gap. If we are, indeed, called to follow Jesus in life, then racism is a failure to be faithful to Jesus.

When we allow ourselves to participate in the racism that infects our society, or to accommodate ourselves to its pernicious effects, then we signal that we have not fully understood the plan of God and the message of Jesus for a new humanity.

When we acquiesce in the barriers of race or ethnicity that separate us, and tolerate the sinful separation from siblings in the body of faith, we diminish and distort the gospel.

In South Africa, courageous Christians named as heretical the theological legitimacy that the Dutch Reformed Church gave to the state’s policies of apartheid. In time, this faithful witness helped dismantle segregation.

A decade and a half on, the church in South Africa is learning that eradicating policies of segregation does not by itself construct communities of compassion, care and inclusion. Earlier, U.S. churches discovered that the success of the civil rights movement did not make for a civil society.

Changes in laws alone do not realize God’ s purposes in a new humanity unfettered by intolerance and discrimination.

In South Africa, our partners are working to overcome apartheid’s legacy of separation, inequality and diminishment. In the United States, we embrace anti-racism as one of the four priorities of our Mennonite Church USA. Together with sisters and brothers around the world, we are on a journey of healing the wounds of our past failures in fidelity.

We have much to learn and to teach each other; mostly, we have a common need to be guided by God’s Spirit as we seek to follow Jesus truly. May we encourage and support each other on this journey, and may we be open to the transforming work of God’s Spirit.