The Confusing ‘C’ in YMCA

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.”

What Is Christianity?

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? I am not sure I wish to have these questions answered completely in the negative, though I lean in that direction. Neither do I feel comfortable, as a Christian, in a situation where we find ourselves somewhat embarrassed by certain New Testament convictions lest we seem “too much like a church.” Nor do I feel secure among those who wish the YMCA to be free of any kind of religious identification lest some type of theological setting tend to make us exclusive.

Almost every conference voices a Christian emphasis in our YMCA circles. Each edition of The Forum and The Bulletin expresses it. It is often mentioned whenever two or more “Y” secretaries discuss YMCA problems. But on such occasions the subject is directed back to our simple, dynamic origin as a Christian movement, and to names such as George Williams and Dwight L. Moody.

The reaction to these men and to our origin seems to be twofold. In most cases there is some pride that we, the YMCA, were able to produce such respected men and that our movement is known for its religious color, its humanitarian impact, and its leadership in the Christian-social world. But while these beginnings are revered, they are also explained away as representing “immature” Christianity. It is implied that men who took the Scriptures literally and established a movement to win “lost souls to Christ” had yet to learn that other religions and other interpretations of the Christian faith have some validity too.

The second reaction is that the YMCA has strayed from something basic, elemental, and even God-inspired. But this is a minority view in our YMCAs among older secretaries and a few of the younger men.

What We Say On Paper

On paper we look good. One needs only to check our Paris Basis, Portland Test, and the statement of purpose of each local YMCA to find that we are Christian. Yet, what our bases and purposes say, and what seems to be in the minds of our board members, committeemen and staff, may cause bystanders to question the compatibility of the two.

The pertinent question is: What are we doing with Jesus Christ? Are we still “Christian” if we neglect the truths of Jesus Christ, even though we may consider his system—ethics, morals, social relationships—very seriously? YMCA reading materials often contain the expression, “the Christian way of life,” and suggest how the YMCA strives to promote such a way. This emphasis in our program is noble and good, but does this “Christian emphasis” exhaust what is meant by being “Christian”?

I personally believe that the answer to this question is an emphatic No! We cannot divorce “the Christian way of life” from the truths of Jesus Christ.

What Is Basic?

In her article, “The Changing Currents of Religious emphasis in the YMCA,” in the December issue of The Forum, Martha Bryant reveals the danger if the word “gospel” is translated to mean anything but “good news.”

What is the “good news” of Christianity? The answer to this question is basic to Christianity. A Christian way of life, a Christian service, a Christian program, a Christlike personality—all are, at best, supplementary to the “good news” that God dwelt among us in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:14). His purpose for dwelling among us was revelation (Heb. 1:2) and redemption (John 1:12; 3:16).

Jesus Christ spoke often of “doing the will of my Father who sent me” and wrapped this “will” around himself as a person. The “good news,” then, is a person, Jesus Christ. Compare the words of Christ, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” and “I am the resurrection and the life,” with the expression “the Christian way of life.” One half of the contrast speaks of a person and the products of the relationship to this person; the other half reflects a manner of thinking and behaving. As I understand the New Testament, one cannot be divorced from the other, either by an individual or a movement. It is as necessary for the YMCA to propagate the “good news” of Jesus Christ as to promote his way of life.

Superior Scoutmaster

In the article, “Catholics and the YMCA,” in the Catholic periodical The Liguorian, Lewis Miller complains that the YMCA does such a “good job” of avoiding sectarianism that it actually breeds Christian indifference. Some Protestants agree that the YMCA seems so concerned with avoiding Christian doctrine and theology that it even neglects the most basic Christian truth, that of Jesus Christ and his claims on the human race. This reduces Christian emphasis to hollow forms of worship, emphasis on good morals, ethics, service to something (Christianity), but not to somebody (Jesus Christ), and to the externals such as Christian art, proper placement of Bibles and some special services such as “dial for inspiration.” Of basic matters, only worship remains; evangelism, propagation and instruction are omitted.

The rejoinder in most cases is that this responsibility is not the job of the YMCA but the role of the Church. Granted, an agency or movement has the authority to determine its positions and policies; but when the YMCA removed from its program the basic truths of Jesus Christ, once our earlier emphasis, we ceased to be Christian except in statement and form. “A common loyalty to Jesus Christ,” as expressed in our North American YMCA purpose, actually pictures Jesus Christ more as a superior Scoutmaster than as Lord and Saviour.

The New Testament gives no ground for dissecting the Christian responsibility, then choosing only that which is convenient to our situation. Nor may we make a decision as to whether or not Christ’s Gospel is to be propagated. If one is Christian, or if an agency has Christian purpose, what is basic about Jesus Christ must be emphasized. The basic truth is that God dwelt among us in the person of Jesus Christ for the purpose of redemption and revelation. Foremost in our motivation should be a desire to tell the story of God’s love for the human race, so great that he gave his Son to die for our sins.

Opportunism And Fluctuation

In my experience with the “Y,” I seem to find it an opportunist movement. It reacts to environmental and community pressures and at least to some degree conforms, depending, of course, on how moral or ethical the pressures are. I believe it has done so in the field of Christian emphasis. Protestant theology has fluctuated drastically in the last hundred years or so, from orthodoxy to liberalism to today’s neo-orthodoxy.

Our YMCA was growing up into a mature organization and fellowship when liberalism was in its heyday. As an opportunist movement, it reflected this environment, the impact of which remains in the type of Christian emphasis we generally have today in our YMCAs. In other words, the YMCA became affected by cultural Christianity instead of being biblically Christian. Here is an example.

Liberal Christianity doubted the trustworthiness of Scripture as a divinely-evolved instrument, and viewed Jesus Christ not as the biblically expressed Son of God, but as a “son of God,” without supernatural birth, atonement, resurrection or ascension. Christianity, then, is not a divine plan injected into history. If it is simply “just one” of the religions of the world, the object is to find the common ground of all religions, namely, the moral and ethical codes, “a way of life.” When the YMCA speaks of the “Christian way of life,” I think it means a man may be a Hindu or a Jew, but if he is a Christian in behavior, he is following the Christian way of life.

Contrast this with the words of the Apostle Paul: “If any man be in Christ [not the Christian way of living] he is a new creation; old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.” As expressed earlier, the crucial involvement is not with a “Christian way of living,” but with Jesus Christ himself, a person.

Solution By Statement

If we are to vindicate our use of the word “Christian” in our name, we must redefine what we mean by “Christian.” This can be done in broad terms so as not to be exclusive. To say we are Protestant in nature tends to discourage our very fine Eastern Orthodox and Episcopalian Christians, both as staff and as constituents. To say we are biblically Christian not only is inclusive but also puts us on common ground. To illustrate what we mean by “Christian,” let us imagine a funnel, the large part representing our various methods of Christian services as well as our varied program, but the bottom and focal point representing the Bible, the Word of God, as our basis and motivation for existence. This is attuned to the Paris Basis but not to our North American purpose. “A common loyalty to Jesus Christ” is a weak expression which gives no intimation that the Scriptures are our authority.

Solution In Personnel

The second solution I propose will tread on dangerous ground, the area of personnel. Almost all of the YMCA secretaries I have met are moral, ethical, extremely religious and devoted to their church as well as to their YMCA vocation. My qualm is not in that area, but in their Christian concepts. It is not uncommon to hear a YMCA secretary state that he does not know what he thinks of Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, but he does know that the “way of Jesus” is important, and that it is “the way” with which he is concerned.

But how can one be Christian and know nothing of the Lordship of Jesus Christ? How can one experience this Lordship without a personal commitment? Without it, how can there be genuine Christian service?

The second solution, then, is found in the area of recruiting personnel. Just as a man is screened for his education, his habits, his personality, experience and abilities, so should he be screened in terms of his relationship to Jesus Christ. He should be capable of testifying to this relationship, and his life should reflect it.

A logical question then would be, where can we obtain personnel who know Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour? Too often we try to impress upon our prospects that a YMCA secretary is a professional in the field of social work and that there is prestige in such a position. For good measure, we add that this is religious work.

In colleges, seminaries and Bible schools many men and women are preparing for a life of service to Jesus Christ. As channels of service, the ministry, foreign missions, nurses’ training and Christian education are suggested. When these men or women are confronted with the possibility of the YMCA as an expression of their commitment to Christ, they are often bewildered, for they have thought of the YMCA as a recreational, social and hotel vocation.

This could be attributed, of course, to their ignorance of our YMCA purpose, but we have also allowed them to absorb this impression. We have not impressed them that throughout our history many men have testified to God’s divine providence in their lives as their reason for being YMCA secretaries.

Stumbling Blocks

What are the stumbling blocks to solving the problem of the confusing “Christian” in our title? One may be synonymous with the other, or one may be the result of another, but here they are as I see them:

1. The YMCA has reduced Christianity to one of the religions of this world, rather than accepting it as “truth” and “fact” from God the Creator.

2. Though we are “Christian,” we are not biblically-centered. Thus the term “Christian” has a broad, ineffective, almost nondescript meaning as it is used in our name, the YMCA.

3. Few staff men really know the Scriptures.

4. Few staff men have convictions on the great doctrines of Christianity, such as the condition of men, Christ’s atoning sacrifice, his resurrection, ascension and second coming, and the apocalyptic teachings.

What Kind Of Program?

To express a conviction or philosophy through a medium is, of course, imperative. Our YMCA is expressing its Christian philosophy today by means of program. Our Christian emphasis in program can be increased by stating a biblical position and by recruiting men and women who testify to Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.

I am not sure that we need a new program or a different one, but we do need a program with a different motivation. A program that reflects Colossians 3:17—“Whatever you do in word or in deed, do all in the name of Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God, the Father”—would produce different results, though not always tangible, from those of a program the motivation of which is professionalism, service for others, or even “the Christian way of life.”

There might be one added feature, however—Bible study. To many YMCAs this is their normal program already. If the Bible is our basis for Christian expression, then we must know what the Bible says. This means there must be Bible study for staff members as well as for interested constituents.

But what about interpretation? One reason we have avoided Bible study is that we have not been certain of interpretation for some obscure passages. Our decision has been to avoid it altogether. This attitude, however, does not carry through to other areas in the YMCA. We do not refuse to inculcate group work because the field of case work also has its merits. Nor do we disregard the field of physical fitness in our physical education program because the more passive type of recreation also has good points. We do not disregard financing because of the variety of systems, nor do we cancel training conferences because of the varied interpretations as to how they should be conducted or the benefits which are derived from them.

At times we try to overcome the problem of interpretation by producing the non-interpreter, or the individual who refuses to take much of the Scripture literally. We feel that this person has no position and therefore will not be offensive. We forget, however, that “no position” is a position. The position of “no position” can be just as offensive as the dogmatic, positive position. As a result of our passiveness, we often encourage unbelief. Paradoxically, we have great concern about inculcating types of belief, but seem rather unconcerned about imposing unbelief. Bible study is a feasible—and necessary—program for the YMCA.

Everet R. Johnson is Assistant Membership Secretary of the Bridgeport, Connecticut, YMCA. He holds the B.A. degree from Augsburg College, and has completed studies for the M.S. at George Williams College, Chicago, and for the B.D. at Bethel Theological Seminary, St. Paul. His point of view is being expressed concurrently in The Forum, the YMCA’s publication for its secretaries, and in Christianity Today.

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