GOSHEN, Indiana (Mennonite Mission Network) – As the student leaders of color from Goshen College listed the many challenges they face, a heavy spirit of empathy hushed the members of the former Minority Ministries Council in the audience.
The students, who represented different Racial/Ethnic campus organizations, were participating in a panel discussion as part of honoring these elders. They talked honestly of feeling isolated and marginalized. They shared some of the subtle racist comments that they have had to endure. They admitted the fear that many immigrant students wrestle with because of the nation’s current nationalistic climate that threatens deportation. Yet they also spoke of being determined to thrive and to bond with White students who share a commitment to justice and equity.
Juan Ventura, one of the founding members of the Minority Ministries Council, speaks with Goshen College student, Alexa Valdez.
The realization of so much current pain despite positive changes was difficult for the elders to hear. It was like "déjà vu all over again," Juan Ventura, one of the founding members of the groundbreaking council, said as tears welled in his eyes. He expressed sorrow that the Mennonite college students were still having to endure similar indignities that African-American, Latino and Native-American leaders had faced in the Mennonite Church more than 40 years ago, indignities that led to the formation of the revolutionary interracial/intercultural council in 1969.
John Powell, another founding member of the council, called for his fellow elders to encircle the students and pray. The moment was exactly the type of exchange that conference organizers hoped might occur.
Goshen College’s Center for Intercultural & International Education hosted "Black, Brown, and Mennonite: Lessons from the Chicano, Puerto Rican, and Black Freedom Movements for the Mennonite Church," from Mar. 29 to Apr. 1 at the Greencroft Community Center in Goshen. Mennonite Mission Network was a contributing sponsor.
The conference honored the work of African-American, Mexican-American, Native-American and Puerto Rican leaders who joined forces to form an important civil rights organization to improve the Mennonite Church. The council forged coalitions with supportive Whites. Among their efforts was the expansion of educational opportunities and the creation of community development programs to uplift people of color. At the time of the council’s work from 1969 to when it was disbanded in 1973, Blacks and Latinos comprised about 6 percent of the Mennonite Church.
During the Black, Brown, and Mennonite conference, attendees heard from historians about the racial tensions that existed in the church particularly after World War II. The civil rights movement beginning in the 1950s and throughout the early 1970s was a polarizing time. Personal stories of frustration, pain and joy were shared by council members and their spouses. Theories were discussed as to why and how the council was disbanded, an event that caused some of its members to abandon the Mennonite Church. There was also much laughter and rekindling of relationships as some individuals who had not seen each other since the 1970s reconnected.
In addition to bringing generations together, organizers of the conference wanted to begin building an oral history archive. They honored and thanked the members of the Minority Ministries Council for paving the way for many of the opportunities that now exist for people of color in the church, as evidenced by individuals who occupy some key leadership positions in Mennonite institutions. Students of color now make up about 30 percent of Goshen College’s enrollment.
Malcolm Stovall, a senior at Goshen, conducted some interviews with the elders. Stovall said that growing up as a "self-identified Black man" in Seattle Mennonite Church, he had never heard of the council and its revolutionary coalition-building work.
Malcolm Stovall (right), a senior at Goshen College, speaks with Wil LaVeist of Mennonite Mission Network about interviewing founding Minority Ministry Council members.
Stovall said his interview with Gracie Torres was particularly impactful. Torres helped organize Latinas in the Mennonite Church, and her husband, Neftali Torres, was a member of the council. She told of being wounded as a result of a dispute with a mission board leader who was a White male. Torres said she refused to pray with him afterward. She was resentful for many years.
"Years later, she was able to reflect on that and let God work through her. Reconciliation was possible due to her ability to reflect, and her spirituality," Stovall said. "That’s one thing that a lot of minorities have had to come to terms with. They’ve had to let God work through their own pain in order to make the Mennonite Church better."
Gracie Torres (right) speaks about her involvement with the Minority Ministries Council. She and her husband, Neftali Torres (left) were key contributers to the council.
The encounter with Torres helped Stovall to reflect positively on his painful experiences, such as being racially profiled and stereotyped on campus and in the city of Goshen. Students of Mennonite colleges must learn about the legacy of social activism in the church and apply it to current issues, he said.
As the former members of the council encircled the students, Powell raised his voice to the heavens.
"God, out of the past resides the future. Out of the future, we live in the present," he said. "You have given us these young people to be a beacon of light to the present as they look toward the future, toward a reconciled and redeemed community …"
Outside of the meeting room, Felipe Hinojosa, one of the conference organizers and an associate professor at Texas A&M University, was visibly moved. His book, Latino Mennonites: Civil Rights, Faith, and Evangelical Culture, traces the rise of the Latino presence within the church.
Felipe Hinojosa (center), speaks with conference speakers Regina Shands Stoltzfus, Gilberto Pérez, and Tobin Miller Shearer (right).
"The most valuable thing was having that intergenerational conversation," he said. "It was important that we bring in the young voices who are struggling to do their thing now, and that we make that connection. I’m just grateful."
