Mennonites and the long shadow of ethnic identity
Denominations often struggle to separate faith from ethnicity. Hyung Jin Kim Sun has experienced this firsthand.
Attending public school in Washington, DC, in the 1980s and ’90s, I was taught to embrace my ethnicity—Pennsylvania German with ancestors who emigrated from what is now Switzerland—among other ethnicities.
From an early age, I also learned to distinguish between a faith tradition shared by people around the world and an ethnicity shared with people who may not be part of that faith tradition.
Author's summary: Exploring Mennonites' ethnic identity.