Tag: George Williams

YMCA & Faith as a Dimension of Diversity

YMCA & Faith as a Dimension of Diversity ::: what are some ways we can elevate the role of religion and build a healthier, stronger “C” in the Y as a way to be even more inclusive and equitable?

The extraordinary effort the Young Men’s Christian Association is putting into being inclusive and equitable in light of its diverse and global reality is impressive and inspiring.

Yet, not without critique or flaws, and still in an agile learning mode, humbly trying to do better.

There are many aspects I value about the Dimensions of Diversity Wheel, including how it reveals then builds awareness of many key dimensions of diversity; having been through a training with it, I developed a more complex awareness of myself, as well as a richer perspective on those around me.

Nobody comes to this wheel or training or Association neutral, so I confess that this blogpost comes from a close analysis and personal reflection on my professional work with the Y as a Christian Emphasis Director and ordained Protestant minister.

The dimension of Faith is of particular interest to me regarding my vocation, my identity, my purpose, my lens personally and professionally, though it’s not the only important dimension, nor is it isolated from many others like culture, race, birthplace, etc.

I do want to humbly reflect publicly on the role of faith as a dimension diversity in the YMCA, as it seems to occupy an awkward space in the wheel and our associations.

For example, religion and faith traditions are like culture and ethnicity, you are born into it, they are often all intertwined, and it deeply shapes your whole sense of self, purpose, identity and community.

Yet it can also be experienced as interchangeable like economic status or geographic location; we all know people or have heard of those who “left” their religion or faith tradition.

While these are simplistic examples, they get at the wider discomfort of the role of faith and religion in the Y; as a matter of principle we ought to include it in an equitable and honest way – BUT: it is unlike all the other dimensions in a way that makes it socially and spiritually awkward.

What do I mean? A basic understanding of religion – scholarly or experientially – reveals the comprehensive nature of faith traditions; the role of it is to give overarching meaning and existential purpose to the totality of life in spirit, mind and body as an individual and a community (or tribe or nation).

Yet, in the Y it is generally uncomfortable to talk publicly about ones personal faith tradition or religious commitments (I’d love to hear exceptions to this assumption).

What factors might be keeping the faith/beliefs dimension of diversity in a awkward, suspicious, suppressed, role in the Y?

While there are no simplistic answers, here are a few of my observations framed by my experiences and research:

1. The complexity of secularization in a religiously and ethnically pluralistic society (keep your faith private) [for more read Charles Taylor and Lesslie Newbigin]

2. The critiques of religious violence, sexual abuse, and financial scandals (credibility of faith is corroded) [for more read Rene Girard and William Cavanaugh]

3. The centrality of technology as a means for organizing and and making sense of reality (control comes from us) [for more read Jacques Ellul and Miroslav Volf]

Or, some might perceive it like this: overly religious people do a lot of good, but then they get disagreeable and divisive and at the Y we really want to emphasize what builds harmony and healing; so, since too many religious people either want to be right/exclusive more than loving/inclusive, we will downplay our religious heritage and faith as a dimension of diversity and emphasize that which seems to more effectively forge unity and equity.

Trust me, I get it.

But…

Religion is still a powerful existential reality amongst our diverse membership; if we ignore it, downplay it, dismiss it, degrade it, we will be blind to the way it shapes (for good or bad) our culture, thus preventing us from fulfilling our purpose, cause and mission successfully.

The more people who become ignorant of religion and faith traditions, the more religious bigotry that will be fomented.

If we want less religious violence and abuse, we need to shine more light on religion, not keep it in the dark; more wisdom not less.

With the National influence the YMCA has in 2,000+ communities, imagine the positive effect we could have if we more wisely, bravely, authentically, publicly discussed and educated on religion/faith as a powerful dimension of diversity.

Christians in the Y often don’t want to offend anyone, especially those who are religiously diverse; it’s a warm sentiment, but it often leads to squelching religious expression instead of building up hospitable inclusion.

Christians in the Y too often fail to recognize the vast diversity that exists within there own faith tradition; it’s naive to think that the differences between Protestants and Catholics are irrelevant, or that the tension between conservative and liberal Christians is insignificant.

Factor in the generational and geographic, ethnic and racial dimensions of diversity as it is expressed through religion, and Christians will discover an incredible variety.

But rather than enter into the complexity of a diverse and global Christianity in their YMCA, Christian leaders too often over-emphasize a private expression of faith, or a bland version that doesn’t want to offend anyone, or a suppression of any public religious expression.

What if the YMCA of the USA embraced a intentionally public, responsible, honesty about its extremely religious origins in George Williams and Thomas Sullivan, in Anthony Bowen and John Mott, etc.?

What if the Young Men’s Christian Association cultivated a care-full spirit of mutual respect for the vast diversity of Christians who founded the Y, and for the complicated and rich Christian traditions which nourished the YMCA which we enjoy and steward today?

It could then more robustly and wisely critique that within the diverse Christian traditions which undermines or corrupts equitable inclusion in our generation.

So why does it seem that the Y is sometimes awkwardly embarrassed about the “C” in our name?

I won’t pretend to know all the reasons, and I would welcome many honest responses from readers.

From what I have heard and seen though, my understanding of the conflicted identity is rooted in the three reasons I listed earlier: secularity & pluralism, violence & hypocrisy, science & positivism; it’s a cultural/religious revolution deeply affecting Western civilization and the global community.

This means, at some level, we aren’t even sure what it means to identify as Christian now, belief in God is contested and seemingly unnecessary for the pursuit of happiness; especially when it comes to managerial and economic decisions, prayer seems less effective than benchmarks and best practices.

Yet: religion just won’t go away.

The Y can draw on powerful historical and contextual realities as resources for animating an inclusive Christianity which honestly respects our diversity while strengthening how we responsibly care for all we embrace.

Or the Y can continue to awkwardly stumble into a complex religious-shaped future conflicted about its identity and how to bring healing and hope to our society’s most dangerous and vicious evils.

If I was going to make some proposals for how a more robust Faith as a Dimension of Diversity could empower the Y to flourish as an anti-racist, multi-cultural institution – I would offer up these as a conversation starter:

  • Elevate faith/belief/religion as a dimension of diversity
  • Responsibly respect the existential and overarching reality religion and faith traditions have cross-culturally, trans-nationally, and inter-generationally
  • Cultivate care-full honesty about Y members/staff/volunteers experiences with the best of and worst of religion – for the sake of healing, wisdom, and mutual empathy
  • Resuscitate our gratitude and indebtedness to Christian Y workers in the past for their religious motivations – ie. invention of basketball or camping, George Williams organizing and John Mott’s fundraising, etc.
  • Become curious to the ways many different Y workers have religious motivations for their service, and how it is mixed with other motivations.
  • Celebrate our identity as a Christian Association which strives to be welcoming and hospitable to people from all types of religious and faith traditions, as well as every kind of dimension of diversity.
  • Have YUSA publicly engage in the Paris Basis and Challenge 21
  • Be willing to openly critique behavior of Christians in the Y who are behaving badly, without it resulting in the suppression of Christianity as a result.
  • Be willing to embrace the complexity of public expressions and embodiment of faith in the Y as a way to model for our 2,000 communities how we can do grace-full and faith-full inclusion.

Here are some concluding observations of this post: if I was going to frame in a historically positive way the different kinds of Diverse and Global Christians in the Y since 1844, I would describe them as Evangelical, Ecumenical, Equitable.

George Williams was Evangelical, with an ecumenical and equitable heart.

John Mott became Ecumenical from his evangelical spirit, and raised enormous sums of money for equitable causes.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is our inspiration for Equitable, who embodied an ecumenical yearning with evangelical zeal.

If you had a primary pulse as a Christian in the Y these days, who do most resonate with for how they embodied their faith – George, John, Martin?

If you’re like me, all of them are central to how Christianity can be embodied today in the Y!

But if we revise their Y story and minimize the role of religion, we undercut their powerful example of ways Christianity can inspire, unite, and heal.

It is always easier to critique and see the log in the eye of Christianity; its failures are legendary, some chilling and evil; but: if people are not defined by their worst moments, let’s not do that with any religion or faith tradition.

May many more humble and dedicated conversations continue to multiply around ways we can strengthen faith as a dimension of diversity towards flourishing for all.

What would you propose for a healthier and stronger Faith as a Dimension of Diversity in the YMCA?

What are some examples you have for ways Faith as a Dimension of Diversity has positively contributed to flourishing for all in your Y?

For more on this theme read Is The YMCA Still Religious? Still Christian?

YMCA and Gerard Manley Hopkins

YMCA and Gerard Manley Hopkins ::: an unlikely and unique connection between the genius of George Williams and the British poet Hopkins – a rare exploration of the convulsive context in which the Y was founded and the poetry created – both a testament to their personal and transformative experiences of God’s salvation and calling upon their life.

The Y and Hopkins were born the same year, in 1844; both British in birth and embodiment of the diverse Christianity that grounded their culture.

June 6, 1844 is the founding of the Y; Hopkins is born July 28, 1844 and would die still a young man at age 44 on June 8, 1889.

  • George Williams
  • Gerard Manley Hopkins

This past Sunday I wrote about Williams founding the Y, today on Hopkins death-day I want to remember him and the cultural context he shared with the Y, and what it could contribute to an ecumenical Christian emphasis today.

There are very few articles on the internet that make this kind of unique connection; this one published by JSRT of Gonzaga University titled Romantic Critiques of Industrial Technology is illuminating.

A bit more about the context in which the Y was founded:

The Young Men’s Christian Association was founded on June 6, 1844 by 23 year old George Williams and eleven Christian friends.

Williams was involved in the drapery or clothing industry, and would become very successful and prosperous in it.

His conscience was pricked by the complex societal difficulties and suffering of urban families, especially the young men leaving the family farms for factory work.

This cultural upheaval was experienced as one caught in the roiling surf, almost caught by a riptide but almost to tired to take the extended hand of the lifeguard in the boat.

The YMCA was started for multiple intertwined reasons: to save the souls of young men in the city who had left their parish behind; to save the minds of these young men from the grinding and filthy monotony of the factories; to save their bodies from the base temptations afflicting their neighborhoods.

The wider cultural changes included resentment and resistance to the calculated rationale of the Enlightenment and its mechanistic interpretation of the world which fed the appetites of industrialists but destroyed families.

Movements emerged which sought to re-humanize the world, to lift up the heart and value personal experiences; this was reflected in part by the birth of evangelical revivals which stressed individual conversion marked by emotional and dynamic evidences.

Poets, artists, novelists, philosophers and theologians all added their talent and energy to this movement.

The YMCA was not the only Christian organization to emerge in this time to rescue young men from the de-humanizing industrialization of the community and create space for them to have a transformational inward spiritual awakening and calling.

It seems so simplistic now, but it was a radical act of hospitality to open up housing for these young men that was safe, sanitary, secure, but also spiritually alive.

Bible studies, prayer sessions, worship gatherings were all forms of protest against state-supported or traditional churches that rigidly clung to form of transformation, logic over emotion, correctness over inspiration, hierarchy over brotherhood.

Inspired by the dark and grueling context in which Williams founded the YMCA, what are the depressing and gross circumstances that young people need rescued from today?

What kind of housing and hospitality, safety and spiritual vitality can the Y offer in these dangerous days?

A bit about Hopkins and his context in 1844:

Gerard Manley Hopkins converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, inspired by the writings of Cardinal John Henry Newman, much to the sorrow and grief of his devoutly religious family.

As a young man he was caught up in continual conflict, complicated loyalties, frustrated talents, and isolated friendships.

His deep love for nature and people put him at odds with the rational industrialized culture which prioritized technology and production over people.

As a poet he had a roiled soul, drawn to love and serve God, inspired by the stunning Creation, but personally struggling with depression, loneliness, and meaninglessness.

Like the YMCA, he spent his life with young men, seeking to build them up in spirit, mind and body.

Though the YMCA was a evangelical Protestant Christian organization, and Hopkins a Jesuit Roman Catholic, they both valued the inner heart of an individual, striving to bring discipline and freedom to their soul, instructing and guiding others to be one with God and be His faithful servant in a fallen, corrupted, industrialized world.

The YMCA and Hopkins are both unique in their Christian contribution to God’s work in the world; both are still a force for good and an inspiration to Christians these many years later.

They both inspired many other people to experience renewal and attempt their own creative projects.

The Y has been a source of original contributions to the world: ESL, camping, basketball and volleyball, group exercise and swim lessons, etc.

Hopkins invented a fresh and engaging form of poetry, putting together new words and rhythms that compel attention and spur fresh insights into Creation.

At their heart, the Y and Hopkins strive to see the world as it really is, to see men and women as they really are, to see humanity in truth and grace.

They know darkness and the light, joy and suffering, friendship and abandonment, success and failure.

For Y leaders wanting a fresh perspective on seeing the world, try taking up some of Hopkins eclectic and intriguing poems.

For Christians wanting to remember the real context for the founding of the Y in all its complexity and genius, getting to know the real George Williams and Gerard Manley Hopkins can ground you as well as inspire you.

Here are a few of my favorite poems by Hopkins that attempt to help us see the complex spirit of humanity, the faithful Spirit of God, and how we can participate in the reconciliation and restoration of all things as ones loved and transformed inwardly by Christ Jesus.

Gerard Manley Hopkins – 1844-1889

God’s Grandeur

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs–
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Sunrise over Jerusalem

Pied Beauty

Glory be to God for dappled things—
   For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
       For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
   Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
       And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise Him.

Silver Bay YMCA on Lake George, NY

As kingfishers catch fire

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies dráw fláme;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came.

Í say móre: the just man justices;
Kéeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is —
Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.

Kingfisher

An Ecumenical “C” in the YMCA?

An Ecumenical “C” in the YMCA ::: Faith is a dynamic dimension of diversity in the Y. Religion’s existential power includes its comprehensive influence on individuals and the families and tribes they are born into. The Christian religion of the YMCA will never go away – so what are ways followers of Christ can live out their faith in the Y that builds up a healthy spirit, mind and body for all? In this article I try to make the case for why the Y should intentionally resurrect their ecumenical Christian emphasis, as embodied by our founder George Williams and our most famous ambassador of the 19th and 20th century John Mott.

When we talk about the “C” in the YMCA, what are we talking about?

Is it a “thin C” or a “thick C”, a “narrow C” or a “wide C” – a “C” with complex dimensions and cultures or a simple “C” that perfectly aligns with whatever you happen to passionately believe?

With the founding of the YMCA on June 6 1844 by George Williams and eleven of his young Christian business friends, a complex “C” was already at work in the association.

Sir George Williams

Williams grew up in a nominal rural British Anglican home in the 1820’s and 30’s, but had a born-again evangelical Christian experience when he came to London looking for work as a young man.

He aligned with the Dissenting church in London, heavily involved in evangelization all the days of his Christian life, yet would join the Church of England later in life as a very prosperous and respected businessman. (For more on this see Clyde Binfield’s George Williams and the Y.M.C.A.: a Study in Victorian Social Attitudes)

Early on the YMCA had a complex relationship with “the church” – since the twelve founders of the Y had a variety of Christian traditions in their background.

This kept the Y from early on being co-opted by one church tradition, and helped it focus on being an ally of the church and partner in its evangelism and discipleship efforts for young men in the urban centers.

As the concept of the YMCA spread across Europe and the world, the variety of Christian traditions, cultures and church denominations increased within the Y movement.

The Paris Basis of 1855 is an early document of the YMCA that seeks to guide different kinds of Christians from different kinds of churches and cultures for joining together with Jesus Christ for doing kingdom work in the world.

a draft document of the original Paris Basis

Within thirty years the dynamic and influential YMCA leader John Mott would be building on this Paris Basis legacy and spirit, not only strengthening the Y movement across American college campuses, but eventually with Y students across the world.

In reading through his biography written by C.H. Hopkins, it recounts from Mott’s diary and correspondence the strong Christian faith that empowered his growing commitment to ecumenical Christianity.

The Y is about getting work done, about overcoming differences in order to better serve people; that means when it comes to religion, we focus on what unites, not divides.

This works to a certain point; the pragmatism of the YMCA and this kind of cooperation is successful when you stay on the surface.

But, when you spend enough time together, it gets complex and at some point you need the tools to dig below the surface to deal with the spirit, mind and heart of people.

John Mott’s focus on Christian mission is what led him to fully embrace an ecumenical Christianity. Can you imagine Christians on the mission-field denouncing other denominations?

Missionaries learned that the more closely they partnered in an ecumenical spirit, the more likely they could embody the prayer of Jesus in John 17 and more faithfully proclaim the good news.

Long story short, John Mott was a key Christian leader in the YMCA movement and global missionary movement, as well as the world ecumenical movement.

In a way, they were all intertwined: Mott helped support the successful 1910 Edinburgh Mission Council, which was a unique effort to unite Protestant Christian church denominations in their world missionary work.

This event was a key catalyst in global missionary partnerships and guidelines, as well as strengthening ecumenical relationships.

There is a direct line of relationship between John Mott of the YMCA and the founding of the World Council of Churches, which exists today to support and strengthen ecumenical efforts across the whole globe, in every continent, with every Christian denomination willing to participate.

Today the Global Christian Forum is a partnership between the WCC, the Roman Catholic Church, the World Evangelical Alliance, and the Pentecostal World Fellowship, through which almost every major Christian denomination and tradition has a voice and a relationship for faithfully embodying Jesus prayer “that all may be one.”

For the YMCA’s interested in Christian emphasis and Christian mission in the USA, it is imperative that we recover our connection with our ecumenical Christian heritage.

It is my observation that it will be harmful for our Y movement if we insist on a stronger “C” if we don’t build up our diverse, inclusive and global Christian relationships – like what was the case for the Paris Basis.

I grew up in a conservative evangelical fundamentalist Christian culture, and read about the dangers of the World Council of Churches in Europe, the corruption of the National Council of Churches here in America, and the liberal poison of ecumenical efforts.

For me, I’ve had to detox from this kind of religious slander and fearmongering.

As I see it, with the USA and the world becoming more globalized, more complex and cross-pressured, more connected religiously and culturally in ways that both amplify friendships and gross misunderstandings, it is imperative for American Christians to engage in ecumenical work as part of their mission work.

There is a rich ecumenical Christian tradition within the YMCA, as embodied by John Mott and his many associates and friends in the Y movement who served with him and extended his influence for decades after his death in 1955.

The “C” in the YMCA from our founding has always been ecumenical.

If we are going to strengthen the presence of Christ in our Y’s, and if we are going to be inspired by his prayer in John 17, then we must engage with the ecumenical work that diverse and global Christians have been doing for over a hundred years, including our own John Mott.

What would it look like for YMCAs in the USA to engage diverse and global Christian members in an inclusive way?

Here are a few steps Christians in the YMCA could take for moving forward:

One: do some demographic research of the many different kinds of Christian denominations in your region; spend time investigating the many independent ethnic and minority churches in your communities.

Two: you find what you are looking for – so start looking to meet the diverse and global Christians who are already part of your YMCA; prayerfully be present to the willingness of the Holy Spirit to connect you with Christians different than you.

Three: consider the different kinds of Christians you already know, examine your heart in regard to “those Christians” which you are suspicious of or consider to be CINO (Christians in name only); prayerfully submit to the Holy Spirit your attitude and perspective, and be open to how you might gain a healthier understanding of their relationship with Christ.

Four: pay attention to your cultural context in regard to different kinds of Christians in your Y and life – odds are the obstacles to unity are less about race and ethnicity and more about ideology; are the divisive distinctions being drawn around labels like: conservative vs liberal, traditional vs progressive, evangelical vs ecumenical, charismatic vs liturgical, pro-life vs pro-choice, pro-straight marriage vs pro-gay marriage, pro-capitalism vs pro-socialism, etc.?

Five: accept that being a Christian in our world is complex, that trying to live out your faith in your community is complicated, that relationships are messy, and that it is not easy to intertwine the application of grace and truth to every situation; accept that we make lots of mistakes along the way and thus it’s okay to apologize when confronted and strive to make amends in faith, hope, and love.

There are many reasons why it’s a struggle to talk about the “C” in the YMCA.

For my part, I’d like to do what I can to help forge a way for more of us in the Y to strengthen an inclusive “C” as part of our mission and cause as we seek to love, care and serve our diverse and global communities.

This means taking the “C” more seriously, learning to talk about the complex “C” in ways that are generous, empathetic in listening and learning, and honest.

Religion is not going away in the world, it is a powerful lens for participating in reality; either the YMCA fully and authentically embraces its religious heritage and seeks to let it flourish for all, or we live in denial of our founding and our foundations, to the detriment of our future.

For more on global religion’s resurgence and potential for our human flourishing, read more by Miroslav Volf of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture at Yale Divinity School.

For more on this theme read Is The YMCA Still Religious? Still Christian?