A problem that remains is the Y.M.C.A.’s name. The Young Men’s Christian Association is open to all. But many are either confused or put off by the seeming religious connection. The Y was founded on Protestant evangelical values; its mission statement says it intends to ”put Christian principles into practice.” The organization lets it go at that.
Joanna L. Krotz, November 17, 2003, New York Times
How much is different twenty years later regarding Krotz’s observations in her New York Times Community Icon article entitled: “Clarifying What Y.M.C.A. Stands For.”
Aren’t there still many Y members and community partners still “confused or put off by the seeming religious connection”?
Maybe if Krotz had expanded her research she would have found many Y members who are still drawn in and nourished by the religious connections?
But the article gets at a crucial yet still contentious point: are our founding Western European Christian Protestant evangelical values still valid, still resonant, still worth standing upon, and still worth clarifying?
If there is confusion or offense taken by many, doesn’t that indicate the direction we ought to go – move on, adapt with the times, and take on a new identity and values?
It’s worth noting in the NYT article there is also confusion about what the focus of the Y is: are they a for-profit gym or a urban child care organization? Are they for the poor or the rich? Are they a local or national movement? Ken Gladish, the CEO at YMCA of the USA at the time, deftly and admirably tries to explain simply in the article the complex variety of programs that the Y provides.
It’s not just our religious founding that is confusing for members and the community to see, it’s also confusing to see what is the main purpose and program of the Y.
But if we revisit the spirit of Krotz’s article today, what could we say is Christian about the YMCA, amidst an even more diverse and complex organization?
Our brand mission statement includes the phrase “to put Christian principles into practice through programs” – there is also in the constitution of the Y the phrase:
The Young Men’s Christian Association we regard as being in its essential genius a worldwide fellowship united by a common loyalty to Jesus Christ for the purpose of developing Christian personality and building a Christian society.
YMCA of the USA Statement of Purpose
In 1998 the Washington Post ran an article about the C in the YMCA connected to a conflict with the identity of the Y and how they are for the community. Here’s how Larry Rosen framed his understanding of what “Christian” stands for in the Y:
Larry Rosen, director of operations for the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles, agreed. “We define Christianity in its broadest terms,” he was quoted as saying in the Los Angeles Times.
“We define it as promoting charity and peace on Earth, things attributed to Jesus Christ, whether or not you believe he is the son of God.”
Rosen noted that he is Jewish and has been involved in Y activities since he was 7 years old. “I have not found any conflict with my faith in that participation,” he said. “The organization has never asked me to compromise my faith.”
YMCA IN CENTER OF DEBATE ON SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE
For some Christians in the YMCA, this is not enough to stand on. Even as early as 1958, Evert R. Johnson writes a cover story for Christianity Today (the flagship magazine for neo-conservative evangelical Protestant Christians led by Billy Graham) titled: “The Confusing ‘C’ in YMCA”. He opens with these comments:
Returning to YMCA work in August of 1955, I was again confronted with the movement’s confusing “C.” I say “again,” because I had worked in various YMCAs, part-time and temporarily, while a student from 1948 until 1953. I say “confusing,” because I know of no other Christian movement which tries so desperately to define its Christian content in such general and inclusive terms, yet conclusive enough to say, “We are Christian.”
Just what kind of Christianity is this? Is it possible to have no formal Christian theology and yet be quite sure of what is meant by “Christian”? Can we be Christian by just saying we are, without reference to stated New Testament doctrines?
Johnson, CT Magazine, April 1958
He’s got a fair point: what is it about our actions, our attitudes, our character, our formal statements, our mission and purpose that reveals us to be Christian?
It also gets at a delicate, nuanced and existential conundrum: what exactly makes a person “Christian”?
Depending on your denomination there are different elements required. Thus it’s not really the YMCA that’s confusing, it’s Christianity that is confusing. Even within evangelical Christianity there is a patchwork quilt of confusion!
What adds to the confusion is that the YMCA started off as a sort of missionary enterprise to save souls, similar to what we call para-church ministries, it worked alongside churches and denominations at a local and national, and international scale.
And like EVERY SINGLE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY THAT HAS EVER EXISTED (please excuse my startling claim and I welcome examples to prove me wrong) what started off with successful evangelistic zeal then stabilizes, turns inward to nurture and strengthen their converts, institutionalizes in order to steady its foundation for the long-term while complexifying its work (evangelism leads to discipleship and fellowship and prayer and worship and outreach and administration and kids ministry then youth ministry then women’s ministry then men’s ministry then seniors ministry then young adult ministry then revival ministry to recover the nostalgic evangelism of their founding…).
What kind of simplicity and clarity can the YMCA still exude as a Christian organization founded in London on June 6, 1844, now in over a hundred countries with over 40 million members, holding together a culturally diverse organizational system amidst the most violent and technologically sophisticated century in humankind?
Obviously, the C in the YMCA is not above criticism. In fact, that’s a sign of its vitality, resilience, and energy: it welcomes critique, it is a public Christianity, it is out in the community every day being tested by every encounter with a member.
Most critics of the “C” in the Y are Christians who can’t agree on what the “C” ought to be like, and obviously many other critics of the “C” identify with other or no faith traditions. At least for Christians in the Y, let’s try to be critical in love, inspired by Jesus in John 17:21 alongside the Golden Rule and Great Commandment.
Also: the Y is not a church, so if a Christian only has a churched-Christianity kind of examples to draw in, there will be little imagination for the kind of Christianity that exists in the Y alongside churches.
Finally: too many Christians are too individualistic in their understanding of how to live in obedience to Jesus Christ, there is almost no thoughtful theological reflection of what it means for a non-church organization like the YMCA to embody the gospel of Jesus.
The Y is unique, which makes it prone to criticism from everyone; I get it.
So if you are a Christian in the Y, and you’d like to strengthen the presence of Christ in the Y, you’d like to see the Christian principles build a healthy spirit mind and body for all, here are a few tips for the future that I try to put into practice:
- get thicker skin; welcome critique; foster the courage to be misunderstood…
- get thicker theology; name your Christian tradition, know where your faith came from, see how you uniquely embody the gospel in the Y…
- get thicker ambitions; the Y can be a front porch for the kingdom of God which is bigger than church growth or ministry success or organizational prosperity…
- get thicker perspectives; Americans are addicted to simplification, reductionism, control, predictability and convenience, of which ruins our perception of the real Jesus in the New Testament and the complex ways the real crucified and resurrected Jesus is active in our world today…
What is Christian about the YMCA? It’s up to Christians to decide, and the decision starts when their feet hit the floor in the morning, and when they walk through the door of their Y: what kind of Christian are YOU when you show up?
When the fruit of the Spirit of Christ Jesus is obvious in Y members, the C is fine in the Y.
But if people can’t see or experience that fruit of the Spirit when they are around Christians in the Y, then it is worth wondering what is Christian about the Y.
From a Christian point of view, how many Christians who bear the fruit of the Spirit of Christ are needed in a YMCA in order for it to be a Christian Y?
Most? Majority? Simple majority? Powerful minority? At least 50? 40? 30? 20? If there are at least 10 Christians in a Y bearing the fruit of Christ’s Spirit, can we call it a Christian Y? Does the CEO have to be one of those 10? Or the Executive Director of a branch? Or a board chair?
What is it we want? For Christians to be in charge of the Y or for Christ to be in charge of you in the Y? Is it about institutional and organizational power or the power of Christ’s Spirit through us in the YMCA?
In closing, here is a series of quotes from a chapter titled “Jesus Needs You – Not Your Religion” in a book by Christoph Blumhardt called Action in Waiting (influential on Karl Barth and YMCA Christian leaders in the 1920’s-1940’s):
It is the task of Jesus’ disciples to put the nature of Jesus into action. This fact is generally not understood, since Jesus has been called a founder of a new religion. But that is not God’s word to the world. His aim was never to give us a new religion in order that we might live a bit more decently – in that case Moses and his law would have sufficed.
With Jesus’ simple command to the disciples the Savior is saying, “Don’t make a religion out of me! That which I bring from God is not a religion, for all religions are rigid.
page 48
When we approach God with our prayers full of self-love and self-satisfaction, when the aim of our prayers is to make our world great, our prayers are in vain.
The Savior will not allow himself to become petrified in religion. With this, he says, “There are some who make a religion out of me, a cozy haven, a state of bliss. It is the others who will be the living Christians, always open to change, always seeking something new, until the entire world stands there renewed.” So ask yourselves: are you ready to go for it, or aren’t you?
Dear friends, we must grasp how important it is to surrender ourselves completely There is so much Christianity in which hearts are not subjugated, so much religiosity that leaves people just as they were before. The way to serve Jesus, to go to meet God, has not yet been understood.
page 49
This kind of religion is false because it separates me from other human beings. I will have nothing to do with that! Jesus entered right into the human condition in all its ugliness. He united with people. He did not separate himself from us. In the same way I want to come alongside the lowest people in hell and not separate myself. I want to see who is finally deemed righteous, and whether Jesus is not greater than our righteousness.
page 50
The YMCA is not a church or a religion.
It started off as a dedicated association of young Christian men in 1844 London and it became a worldwide fellowship with a common loyalty to Jesus Christ.
It’s genius: anyone is welcome! Any kind of Christian (which is no small accomplishment), any kind of neighbor with no disregard for their religion, or any other form of discrimination.
Of course, the Y has not been perfect at this, we have much to repent, much to keep learning, and we know we ought to do better.
But for me, listening, confession and repentance, and making amends in the name of Christ is essential to our identity moving forward.
The early Christians earned their name through their loyalty to Jesus amidst affliction and persecution, flippantly called “little Christs” for how they cared for the marginalized, overlooked, neglected, abused, and forgotten.
Maybe every generation of Christian YMCA leaders has to re-earn the title of “little Christ”? May we have the courage and humility and endurance for it in our day.
In the meantime, let the criticism keep coming; it’s how we keep learning and growing in wisdom amidst these complex and traumatic times.
In closing, meditate on these words from our founder George Williams, addressing Springfield College in 1894, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Y:
Prayer and faith have won victories in the past fifty years but these may’be, -will be -as nothing to what shall yet be wrought through the power of Christ resting upon you. I sincerely pray that you may each be fitted with the Holy Spirit. Let it be the aim of each to be able to say, “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.”
Courtesy of Springfield College, Archives and Special Collections