Mennonite Weekly Review

Immigration is a hot topic these days. The discussion usually centers on issues of the economy and the law.

Krabill

My work resettling refugees in Phil­adelphia has made me realize the brokenness of our systems and the hard work required to reform them.

But perhaps the most overlooked part of the conversation is the impact immigrants have on the American religious landscape.

Literature abounds on the decline of the church in the United States. Words like “emerging” and “missional” describe predominantly Anglo grassroots and institutional responses.

But few people recognize that U.S. Christianity is growing in other ways. While American Christianity declines in the Anglo heartlands, its immigrant counterparts are flourishing and proving to be a source of renewal.

This shouldn’t surprise us. Immigrants always carry their religion with them. Furthermore, most immigrants to the United States since 1965 are Christian (unlike Europe, where they are Muslim). As a result, the advent of newcomers signals religious revitalization and de-Europeanization, but not de-Christianization.

Consider the Catholic Church in the United States. In the mid-1960s U.S. Catholics were in the throes of a crisis, losing members and closing parishes. Today, not only are one in three American Catholics now Hispanic, these immigrants are worshiping in 3,500 parishes across the country and creating unique forms of spirituality and devotional expression by drawing on their experiences of struggle, migration and community. The same could be said of Koreans, immigrants with the fastest growing churches over the last two decades.

What has happened to the Catholic Church is also becoming the experience of other Protestant denominations, including Mennonite Church USA. Just as migrations from Western Europe and Russia shaped Mennonite identity, so too are newer groups of migrants from Africa, Latin America and Asia impacting the denomination.

Sociologist Conrad Kanagy’s 2006 Mennonite Membership Profile revealed a church in crisis, particularly among Anglo Mennonites — a crisis characterized by rapid aging and low birth rates, loss of membership, disengagement of young adults, loss of evangelistic fervor and cultural assimilation. Sobering news.

At the same time, Kanagy found immigrant churches are reversing these trends. He concluded that immigrant churches not only are de-Europeanizing MC USA, they also are the primary source of renewal and hope for a denomination in crisis.