Every generation of YMCA leaders are stewards of the Y they receive, often amidst the challenges and turbulence of their time.
The YMCA they entered into on that first day of membership and employment must adapt to unexpected changes in their communities and culture.
Being a nationwide organization this often looks and feels complex since the Y finds itself in over ten thousand different cultures/communities across the USA.
As the YMCA strives to authentically and resiliently respond to the crises of our times, especially as it marshals all of its institutional strength and resources to equitably build up people in spirit, mind and body, it must remember: where did this wealth of capacity to love, care and serve come from?
What were the leaders doing in the generations prior to us that made these possibilities a reality?
What has the Y been becoming since 1844, who did we come from, what have been our failures and successes, our learning curves that have gotten us to this crucial moment?
As complex as the YMCA is, I’m going to try to make a general case for why the “C” in our name has been and can still be central to our future success, still a vital source for our DIG work.
I acknowledge up front that the “C” can also be a highly combustible reality that obviously still causes merited concern by some; but, I believe it also can be the fire we need to fulfill our mission and cause amongst those struggling the most in our communities for generations to come.
“C” as OBSTACLE
First, for some in the YMCA, the “Christian” in our name is an obstacle.
This is a sentiment of Christians in our movement as well as those of other traditions.
It’s easy to notice the Christians with loud voices who resist equity in our communities, ignore and/or undermine the “for all” in our YMCA mission.
It’d be easy to list off Christians you know who seem to be obstacles to equity, to our core values, to our mission, to our work to be an anti-racist, multicultural organization.
It might be you don’t even really know any Christians at your Y, you just know what you have seen or heard elsewhere convinces you that the “C” is an obstacle to progress and success.
It can also become easy to presume that if we removed Christian emphasis from the Y, we’d have less obstacles to equity, diversity and inclusion. That might have some truth to it.
But: what is also true is the untold Christians in the Y who are passionate advocates for DIG work because of their Christian faith.
Faith is a key dimension of diversity, and for many in our Y movement a powerful motivation for humbly and faithfully persevering in the diverse, inclusive, global work of the Y.
Be that as it may, it’s obvious that Christians in the Y have racked up a long list of examples of being an obstacle to the flourishing of all.
For this we must confess our sins, repent, make amends where we can, and do better.
“C” as OFFENSIVE
Secondly: It’d be irresponsible to overlook the fact that some within our Y movement see the “C” as more than an obstacle, they also see it as an offense.
And who can blame them?
The historically obvious sins of Christians and their institutions in the USA leave much disgust in our souls.
Not only the failures of the faith in the past, but the egregious racism and violence of Christians today give plenty of ammunition to justify the belief that we are an offense.
With the public offensiveness of many high profile Christians, along with the thousands of every day offenses committed by people of the faith, it’s not without evidence that the suppression or removal of the Christian name and identity is supported.
Why keep an offensive culture in our name as we strive to focus intensely on becoming an anti-racist, multicultural organization?
It’s tough to make a defense against the offensiveness of Christianity in light of the many negative realities revealed in history and the current headlines.
It’s tough also because there is an essential offensive nature to Christianity as evidenced by the crucifixion of Jesus we read about in the Gospels of the New Testament.
For all the good that Jesus did, for all of his teachings on love and forgiveness in the kingdom of God, he was still killed by the ruling authorities under the accusations of political sedition and religious blasphemy – intertwined realities that reveal the intense offense Christ Jesus generated among people with power and the crowds.
It’s one thing for Christians to be offensive because they act like privileged jerks with thin-skin, it’s another for Christians to offend when they insist on abiding by the way of Jesus and his kingdom of atonement and reconciliation.
So yes, there are definitely toxic Christians that give the “C” a bad name, and there have been times when Christians in the Y gave offense by their faith-fullness to Christ Jesus.
My hunch is that the majority of offensiveness that is noticed in the Y towards Christians is due to the unrepentant meanness and arrogance of how some put their faith into practice. That is worth objecting to.
For all the ways we Christians have been offensive due to our sins, we must confess and repent of this too, make amends where we can, and do better.
“C” as OPPORTUNITY
Third: For me, I think it’s worth considering, in my humble opinion, of ways the “C” can be an opportunity to build equity in spirit, mind and body, for all.
What is the work of anti-racism if it’s not spiritual work?
If it was merely a matter of educating the mind, or enforcing bodily complicity to anti-racist principles, we’d have achieved more progress by now.
But isn’t equity first an attitude before it’s an action, a belief as much as it is behavior?
Don’t we want people to want to be inclusive, not just open to multicultural friendships because of peer pressure or economic coercion?
So if you are going to draw on spiritual resources to fuel anti-racist work, why would you cut out or suppress or ignore our “C” in our name, which is one of the strongest sources of spiritual energy in our American heritage and social fabric?
I’m not going to try and make a case for whether or not the USA is a Christian nation, but I think it’s unhelpful to overlook or downplay the Christian energies that have shaped and are still central to our culture, for good and for bad.
Religion is resurgent in the world, and the rest of the world sees the USA as still one of the most religious nations in the planet.
So, rather than suppress the powerful reality of religion in the Y, we need to bring it out into the open so that we can openly benefit from the remarkable resources it brings to people, as well as maturely and truthfully critique and correct what corrodes flourishing for all.
Cancelling the “C” in our name misses an opportunity to reinvigorate our dimensions of diversity, especially the dynamic and pervasive role of faith and religion.
The majority of Americans still identify with Christianity, and it is likely that percentage is higher within the Y, especially in light of its highly public brand recognition as the Young Men’s Christian Association.
Rather than rebrand as a secular institution, let’s resource the richly complex “C” to inspire “for all” in an increasing religiously pluralistic society.
Let’s face it, many Christians within the Y are embarrassed by the negative obstacles and nefarious offensiveness of the “C” as embodied by some members and staff.
I’ve found that many Christians in the Y are frustrated with the kind of “C” that they see, and aren’t sure what a better version could look like in these pluralistic times.
So instead of experimenting with fresh expressions of an inclusive Christianity, they unfortunately let the heart of the Y wither.
If we are honest, though, some if not many of the great YMCA DIG work, some of our greatest and most inclusive leaders in the Y are beautiful Christians doing God’s work in wonderful ways.
And it is their Christian faith which shapes and fuels what they do in an irreplaceable way.
To minimize or downplay their “C” in the “for all” work they are championing is too miss the opportunity to lift this up as a way to inspire a new imagination for how inclusive Christianity can be a vital dimension of diversity.
You see the “C” you are looking for.
Let’s look for opportunities to responsibly live out and respect faith as a key dimension of diversity.
What does that mean for the Y?
It means not only honestly critiquing the moral and ethical failures of the YMCA in the past as a Christian-based organization, but to also draw on the best of our Christian foundation and heritage, to use the real ways we have cared deeply for people as a Christian-based organization as a resource for current and future equity work.
What can we learn from Christians like George Williams on lifting up young men lost in the urban-industrial wastelands?
What can we learn from John R. Mott, an American and global Christian who pioneered ecumenical work as well as innovative multi-faith initiatives?
What can we learn from Rev. Martin Luther King on nonviolent Christian reconciliation work amidst racial and social injustices?
And so many more YMCA Christian men and women, old and young, who can re-inspire a “thick C” that celebrates and nourishes a very diverse, inclusive and global Christian faith in the Y, which then is a seed-bed for loving multi-faith and multicultural work that is anti-racist, equitable, beautiful, true, just and good.
YMCA OF THE USA & THE WORLD “C”
The YMCA was and is a crucial player in the global church community to lift up the practical value of religious diversity and inclusion – we helped start the World Council of Churches.
We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. The Y still has rich resources to draw on for ways the “C” in our name can make us more welcoming, more equitable, more hospitable, more open “for all.”
An example: The World YMCA logo still includes the John 17:21 Bible reference in its logo; its at the heart of the triangle in our logo.
The prayer of Jesus that it highlights is crucial to the foundational motivations of those who breathed life into the Y in 1844.
And it is still a deeply powerful prayer on the lips and in the hearts of millions of Christians yet today throughout the whole earth and in the YMCA here in the USA.
Christ Jesus, on the night he was to be betrayed and killed by his own people, prayed for the unity of those who would believe in him in the decades and centuries to come.
Christ Jesus also prayed that all those who believed would be in deep union with God.
If you’re a Christian, isn’t that still a compelling vision for the Y – that through all of the many good programs and initiatives we have done since 1844 – that it can still be a contribution to Christians becoming more in union with our loving, caring, and sacrificial Lord Jesus Christ?
With our rich legacy already in that work, why would we end it – if we don’t reinvigorate that work, who else is there like us to pick up that task?
And if you’re not of the Christian faith, would you want the Y to downplay even more it’s influence on Christians to become more equitable and inclusive?
If the Y doesn’t do that work with Christians, who will?
Another example: Challenge 21 is a creative and compelling strategy of the World YMCA to let the “C” nourish its work while expanding the ways they strive for love and justice “for all.”
There is much the American Y can learn from Challenge 21 and our global friends in this complex work.
In fact it was cross-cultural experiences that invigorated spiritual and social transformation for George Williams (from rural to urban), John R. Mott (from America to the World), Martin Luther King (from Atlanta to India) and many others in the Y.
More examples: Who was it that decided to let women join the Young Men’s Christian Association? Christians.
Who was it that decided to lessen the strict Christian church attendance requirements for membership in the YMCA? Christians.
Who was it that decided to let Jewish and Muslim young men join the Y? Christians.
Who was it that decided to let Catholic Christians join the Y? Protestant Christians.
Who was it that decided to let non-Christians to join the Y? Christians.
Who was it that resisted all these decisions? Yes, obviously other Christians in the Y.
So which Christians do you want to pay the most attention to? The ones who resist adapting to inclusivity, or the ones that work for it.
RELIGION & the SECULAR
The real struggle of the “C” in the Y is not between secularism and Christianity, it’s mostly just between Christians.
Christians in general have stumbled through the rapid changes in our culture, especially as it has become more secular and religiously pluralistic.
The myth of secularism is that it is a “neutral” space created so that different kinds of Christians can cooperate in a public way, and then this gets extended to those of other faith and religious traditions, or those with none.
Secularism, however, is about a “negative peace” between Christians, and between those of different or no faiths, unable to unravel antagonisms, and succumbing to cultural and political entropy.
Christian Ecumenism is a “positive peace” between Christians, a constructive engagement for mutual understanding and collaboration; this is also a key foundation for Christians to participate in multi-faith and multicultural friendships in a pluralistic and secular society.
So if the Y is going to dig deeper into its DIG work, especially in its focus on religion and faith as a powerful dimension of diversity, we ought to get as much wisdom as we can on how it can be a constructive source for YMCA Christian ecumenical work and multi-faith work.
The “C” needs DIG as much as our DIG work needs a vital and bravely humble “C”.
What you suppress becomes more powerful, but in a toxic way.
It seems to me that the YMCA has struggled for the past fifty years on what to do with the “C” – it seems to have slowly suppressed it from public view, trying to be more secular, yet causing yet more consternation and antagonisms along the way.
The “C” will always be part of the YMCA – so can we transition from a “negative peace” in the Y to a “positive peace” where religion and faith can openly be lived and discussed?
Or will the “C” continue to be the elephant in the room, an unmovable obstacle, an enduring offense?
Let’s not suppress the “C” in the Y, let’s embrace the opportunity in front of us and learn how it can become a public and healthy part of our cause and mission as we become an anti-racist, multicultural organization in spirit, mind and body in the USA and the World.
For me, our current emphasis on equity and justice is a crucial way the Y is still inspired by the prayer of Jesus: “that all may be one.”
FEEDBACK
There is much that can be critiqued and questioned in my attempt to make a case for the opportunity the “C” gives the Y to flourish for all.
Did I make too little of the ways the Christian name is an obstacle and an offense?
I’d be very open to reactions that point out realities I’m missing, or ways to strengthen the way forward.
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