A one-day Symposium on the Racial history and future of the Brethren & Mennonite Churches
Saturday, September 12
8:30 to 4:00pm
Eastern Mennonite University,
Harrisonburg, Virginia, and virtually via Zoom
“Where have you been?”
Brethren and Mennonite churches in America typically pride themselves on their progressive history on issues of race. As pacifist communities they refused to participate in the institution of slavery, they sent mission efforts across the globe to engage peoples of many nations and races, and their institutions were some of the first to desegregate in the middle of the twentieth century. But this history is also far more complicated. Even while seeing themselves as removed from mainstream American culture and politics, these denominations happily benefitted from and embraced their whiteness, and often used their non-resistant and quietest ways to justify ignoring the plight suffered by their neighbors of color. Martin Luther King, Jr. himself called attention to this fact in 1959 when, after years of struggling to gain white allies, he turned to a Mennonite minister, and asked, “Where have you Mennonites been?”
Though initially planned for last spring but delayed because of COVID-19, now, after the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and the resulting protests and national debates driven by the Black Lives Matter movement, this one-day symposium is more timely than ever as many historically white Mennonite and Brethren congregations are looking in earnest at their own racialized histories.
SCHEDULE
8:45 - Welcome & Introduction
9:00 - Dr. Stephen Longenecker
10:00 - Doris Abdullah
11:00 - Dr. Tobin Miller Shearer
12:00 - Lunch
1:00 - Dr. Eric Bishop
2:00 - Dr. Drew Hart
3:00 - Conclusion
SPEAKERS
Drew Hart
Dr. Drew Hart (prof. of Theology, Messiah University) will speak on his two books, The Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism (2016); and Who Will Be a Witness: Igniting Activism for God’s Justice, Love, & Deliverance (2020). Dr. Hart’s work beyond teaching and writing has included pastoring in Harrisburg and Philadelphia, working for an inner-city after-school program for black and brown middle school boys, delivering lectures and leading anti-racism workshops, collaborating with faith-based organizers in his neighborhood, and doing a broad range of public theology. Hart sees his current role as a theology professor as an extension of his ministry vocation that began with pastoral leadership.
Stephen Longenecker
Dr. Stephen Longenecker is the Edwin L. Turner Distinguished Professor of History at Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, VA. Dr. Longenecker’s address will examine slavery in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia during the 19th century and the response of German Baptist Brethren and Mennonites to black enslavement.
Doris Abdullah
Doris Abdullah is the Church of the Brethren representative to the United Nations, in addition to being a breast cancer survivor, parent, associate pastor for the First Church of the Brethren in Brooklyn, NY, volunteer with Brethren Children Disaster services, and chaplain with New York University Lutheran Hospital. Ms. Abdullah’s seminar will center on proclaiming peace and light over the darkness of hate, religious intolerance, greed, racism, discrimination, bigotry and ignorance. Ms. Abdullah will join us via video feed from New York.
Tobin Miller Shearer
Dr. Tobin Miller Shearer is director of African-American Studies at the University of Montana. He is the author of several books including Daily Demonstrators: The Civil Rights Movement in Mennonite Homes & Sanctuaries (2010), and his newest work, Two Weeks Every Summer: Fresh Air Children and the Problem of Race in America (2017), which will be the basis of his presentation. Dr. Miller Shearer will join us via video feed from Montana.
Eric Bishop
Dr. Eric Bishop is superintendent/president of Ohlone College with campuses in Fremont and Newark, CA. The guiding question for his session, “Being a Peace and Justice Church in the Contemporary Time,” will be: how can historic peace churches respond to racial issues today? Dr. Bishop will join us via video feed from California.