The constituency of the Philadelphia Mennonite church body is multicultural and multinational, but the congregations are primarily segregated along racial and ethnic lines. This project is a historical and ethnographic study of the relationship between these non-traditional Philadelphia Mennonites and the broader, traditionally European American Mennonite Church. A central question is how the religious and cultural identities of white Mennonites and church institutions are affected by their affiliation with African Americans and Asian immigrants in the Philadelphia churches. The main purpose of this research is to illuminate the interdependent relationship between religious, ethnic, and racial identities. This study is based on data collected through historical research, participant observation, and in-depth interviews. Mennonites have historically operated within an ethnicity framework, emphasizing their Swiss-Germanic ethnic roots, but de-emphasizing their racial identity as a white church. Involvement with African Americans forced white individuals and the broader church to adopt a racial framework perspective and consider the implications of historical racism and contemporary racial inequality. In contrast, white Mennonite outreach to Asian immigrants was primarily situated within an ethnicity framework in which traditional Mennonites could emphasize diverse ethnic cultures while avoiding the more difficult issues of power and privilege that accompany a racial framework. This was accomplished through a process of universalizing religious identity while at the same time particularizing ethnic identity and de-emphasizing racial identity. Despite the focus of the Mennonite church on an ethnicity framework, race continues to matter in two important areas: (1) People of color still perceive the Mennonite identity as a constraint to their full inclusion in the Mennonite community and (2) congregations remain racially and ethnically segregated. Thus, Mennonites have not sufficiently universalized their religious identity to free it from the exclusiveness of ethnic and racial particularities.
