Martti Muukkonen: The YMCA and Globalisation of Physical Education1

Martti Muukkonen

THE YMCA AND GLOBALISATION OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Presentation to the Globalisation and Sport stream of the IIS Conference in Stockholm, 5-9 July 2005

The Young Men's Christian Association is one of the oldest and largest international youth organisations of the world[1]. It has had a significant role both in the competition sports and physical education. Its 'flagships' have been basketball and volleyball which were developed in the American YMCA. It is no accident that the games cannot be played alone and both have a 'sin-confession-element' implemented in them: one has to confess the mistakes.

In order to understand the role of the YMCA physical education, it is necessary to realise that it was not just one activity. Nor it was emphasising sports as an end itself. Physical education was one significant part of fulfilling the YMCA mission to serve the whole young man, his body, mind and spirit.

YMCA mission, in turn, was a reaction of evangelical lay Christianity to the challenges of the modernity, especially those that the growing middle-class faced. Many of the contemporary YMCA emphases were developed during the first decades of its existence and almost all the rest during the first hundred years of its history. The YMCA physical education is no exception. Therefore, it is necessary to focus first on the historical situations of the emerging movement[2].

Context of the YMCA

First YMCAs Before 1855

The London YMCA, founded in 1844, has been seen as the first YMCA in the world. This is true only with a strict sense: it was the first with that name. However, there are older YMCAs today which have originally had some other name[3]. Actually, there were two main roots from where the YMCA movement spread. The first was the German movement that can be traced to BasleJünglingsverein (1787[4]) and the second is the British movement. The London YMCA, however created the YMCA concept that was adopted by others and, thus, it carries the honour of being the mother of other YMCAs. Moreover, it was mainly this Anglo-Saxon branch of the movement in which the YMCA physical education emerged. Therefore in this presentation, it is enough to focus on this branch.

The YMCA was a child of modernism. The movement emerged in a situation where industrialism had caused an uncontrolled migration to towns[5]. The London YMCA was a typical peer-group of the time which aimed to solve the problems of its own constituency[6]. After its founding, the association spread quickly with the help of political attitude to solve social problems with philanthropic associations[7]. The speciality in the YMCA was the impact that arose from the interest of the growing business-class to utilise their entrepreneurial skills in the field of religion[8]. This, on one hand, gave YMCA the organisational skills that the new merchant-class utilised in their business. On the other hand, the middle class formed the growing adherency of the movement as well as clientele of its services. This created a solid economic basis that enabled long-term planning and growth of the movement[9].

The YMCA emerged in the time that was characterised by betterment of communication channels - telegram, railway and steam ships. This increasingly helped associations in the new movement to keep touch with each other[10]. Along with industrialism, the prosperity in North America and Europe increased, and people got surplus money, which was partly directed to voluntary organisations as donations[11]. the North American YMCA in particular took advantage of the ideology of Welfare Capitalism, which saw social service as the field of voluntary organisations[12].

Along with economic factors, there were five major cultural forces that have influenced the YMCA: urbanisation, expansion of education, Westernisation, its counter-effect indigenisation, and scepticism. The YMCA, primarily as urban movement, benefited from the migration that supplied it with a new recruit basis. When young people got the opportunity to educate themselves[13], the YMCA used universities and schools as strategic points of recruiting new leaders and influencing the growing middle class[14]. On the international level, the trend of Westernisation paved the way for the YMCA when it extended to new countries. When the tide turned, the new YMCAs in these countries indigenised themselves and often managed to survive and expand. Finally, scepticism was a trend after the Second World War when the illusions of modern man’s development had vanished into the Holocaust of concentration camps. It was a time when traditional institutions had lost their strength to maintain social values. In this context, the YMCA was a perfect tool for middle-class to protect its traditional values.

The political emphasis on voluntary organisations as solvers of social problems in Britain, Germany and the USA helped the YMCA acquire legitimacy in these countries. When WW I broke, the YMCA was respected and ready to serve youth in armies, which, in turn, increased the legitimacy of the movement. After WW II, the YMCA war service organisation was modified to meet the next large challenge, that of refugees.

Religiously, the YMCA was a fruit of 19th century revivalism. The Evangelical spirit remained in the YMCA during most of the period[15] although there were already signs of separation when the YMCA developed its Four-fold Programme and started focusing on the service of the whole man[16]. Another movement, witch influenced in the YMCA, was the Muscular Christianity, which aimed to make religion more masculine[17]. This movement had a great impact on the development of the Four-fold Programme and YMCA physical education[18]. Third major input came from Social Gospel movement[19] which influenced the YMCA by challenging it to study social problems and modify its policies. Other movements that had an impact on the YMCA were Sunday School Movement[20]; Student Volunteer Movement[21], which arose inside the YMCA and helped the movement to expand to new ‘unoccupied lands[22]’; the Ecumenical movement; liberal theology[23] and the Missionary Movement[24]. The YMCA was so intermingled with these movements that it is impossible to say where the chicken is and where the egg is. Their leaders, especially John R. Mott, were YMCA leaders as well.

Although Christian movement, the YMCA was free from the direction of church leaders and sought lay responses to the challenge of secularisation and secularist ideologies, especially those of Nationalism and Communism. This freedom enabled the YMCA to develop such new working methods which would have been difficult to launch in churches.

The YMCA leaders interpreted their environment and made strategic and tactical choices based on their deep values. A host of methods and activities were developed to ‘extend His Kingdom’, as the Paris Basis states. When time passed, these strategies and activities institutionalised, became ends in themselves and the YMCA had to continuously question itself: where is the ‘C’?

YMCA Mission

The Paris Basis

When the YMCA leaders met first time each other before the Evangelical Alliance Conference held in Paris, August 1855, during the Paris World Exhibition, they accepted a statement that was a manifestation of their faith. This statement, the Paris Basis[25], became the expression of the YMCA identity, ideology and mission.

The structure of the Paris Basis was constituted of the Preamble, the Fundamental Principle and three Additional Proposals. The Preamble stated that the associations were to maintain their complete independence in the Alliance, although new associations have to accept the Basis in order to be admitted as members[26]. The Fundamental Principle expressed movement's identity (young men’s movement)[27], ideological basis (Evangelical faith)[28] and mission (unite young Christians and associate their efforts in extending God’s Kingdom)[29]. The Proposals excluded controversial political items from agenda, agreed in the means of co-operation (correspondence) and mutual hospitality towards members from other countries.

The visual expression of the Paris Basis was the badge of the World’s Alliance of YMCAs was accepted in London in 1881[30] and it has a symbolism similar to that of the Paris Basis. The report of the International Central Committee explained the badge as follows:

1ly To recall to mind the oneness of our Associations in all countries of the globe, a circle divided into 5 segments bearing the names of the five parts of the world bound together by ‘cartouches’ upon which can be read in many languages the initials of our title: ‘Young Men’s Christian Association’.

2lyIn the circle the monogram of Christ, as the faith of the ancient Christians painted it everywhere in their catacombs, will remind our Associations that Christ is their centre, their true bond of Union, their supreme end, their strength, and their only ‘raison d’être’.

3ly To this symbol of Christ we have added the Bible, both because this Divine book is the weapon of warfare which St. John gives to young men, and because it is the distinguishing mark of the great Reformation. - The Bible opens on the Saviour’s High-Priestly prayer, from which we have especially chosen the 21stverse: ‘That they may be one as we are one’ John XVII, 21st.[31]

Localism and internationalism were important symbolic tools for the YMCA. In Paris 1855, the young movement did not have its own value-system but used the symbolism of the Evangelical Revival and local religious contexts. It gave the YMCA the choice to legitimise its work in words that could be accepted by all Protestant denominations. The YMCA was not seen as a sect but a movement within each church and between them. The Christian unity that was understood as given from God, was a tool to cross denominational boundaries. It enabled the YMCA to collect resources from a larger constituency than would have been possible if the movement had been either a sect or a revival movement inside one denomination.

The Portland Basis

In North America, the Boston YMCA, founded in 1851, restricted its membership to men from Evangelical churches[32]. When the North American Confederation was founded, it adopted the same test. This did not change when both the 1855 Convention in Cincinnati and the 1856 Convention adopted the Paris Basis as “binding upon the Confederation and upon its Central Committee[33].”

Because of the pressure from Protestant churches, the Evangelical Test of the Boston YMCA was adopted in 1869 as the Portland Basis, which restricted membership to Evangelical churches. The Portland Basis was to be the basis of American associations until 1931 when it was revised. The Portland Basis of 1869 stated as follows:

Resolved: That the Associations organized after this date shall be entitled to representation in future conferences of the Associated Young Men’s Christian Associations of North America, upon condition that they be severally composed of young men in communion with Evangelical churches (provided that in places where Associations are formed by a single denomination, members of other denominations are not excluded therefrom), and active membership

and the right to hold office be conferred only upon young men who are members in good standing of Evangelical churches.[34]

Experiences in the missionary field created pressure to widen the Basis in North America as well. In 1907, a process[35] of changing the membership requirements started when Student YMCAs were authorised to use a personal test, which followed the wording of the Paris Basis. In 1922, 10 per cent of board members were allowed to be other than Evangelicals (i.e. Catholics) and in 1931, the International Convention in Cleveland adopted the following Basis, which replaced the Portland Basis:

The Young Men’s Christian Association we regard as being, in its essential genius, a world-wide fellowship of men and boys united by a common loyalty to Jesus Christ for the purpose of building Christian personality and a Christian society.[36]

This statement of purpose stressed religious commitment rather than belief[37] and incorporated the Four-fold Programme into its basis. In practice the Cleveland Basis legitimised practice in North America. When the YMCA became more and more a community agency, a pressure emerged to open YMCA boards to influential Catholics and Jews in society. The Cleveland statement did not restrict the membership to Christians any more: it was the individual’s own decision as to what he understood by loyalty to Jesus Christ.

The Red Triangle

Although the International Badge of the World’s Alliance presented the main ideology of the YMCA, it was only used in the context of the World’s Alliance. In 1891, another YMCA symbol emerged and soon became better known than the International Badge, namely the Red Triangle. The Red Triangle crystallised the ideology of the American Four-fold Programme of which Luther H. Gulick, the gymnastic instructor of the YMCASpringfieldTrainingCollege, proposed in 1891. The triangle with the YMCA initials became the best-known YMCA symbol throughout the world. Sometimes the triangle is surrounded by a circle and then it is equivalent to the Four-fold Programme.

The philosophy of the triangle principle (body, mind and spirit) and Four-fold Programme (triangle plus society) had its Biblical roots in Luke 2:52 (KJV): “And Jesus increased in wisdom (mind) and stature (body), and in favour with God (spirit) and man (society).” Other frequently cited verses that legitimate physical education were 1 Cor 6:19 (KJV): “ know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost[38]” and Mark 12:30 (KJV): “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”. It is also good to remember that the whole verse of Juvenal’s famous saying reads as follows: “Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano (It should be prayed for a sound mind in a sound body)[39]”. Thus, along with body and mind the saying contains the spiritual aspect as well.

In all levels, the Red Triangle widely replaced the official emblem of the World’s Alliance, during World War I. While the emblem of the World’s Alliance was the Paris Basis in figure form and arose from Evangelical missiology, the Red Triangle arose from the anthropology of the movement.In this sense, the Basis and the YMCA Red Triangle can be seen as supplementary statements. On the other hand, the adoption of the Red Triangle reflected a shift from revivalistic Christianity to ‘nurture Christianity’.

CharacterBuilding in the North American YMCA

The emergence of the physical education in North America was heavily bound to the unity of body, mind and spirit[40]. Behind the emergence of physical education in the YMCA, there were religious, cultural and economic factors, which enabled its emergence and spread. One of the most important questions was whether physical education was acceptable at all in a religious organisation.

In gaining the religious legitimacy for the physical education, we can see an influence of two movements in North America: Muscular Christianity and Social Gospel. These two movements were commingled in the North American YMCA and their emphases found an expression in YMCA physical education and social work.

Muscular Christianity

In the 19th century, there were signs of more positive attitudes towards recreation, sport and amusements than before. One major movement to pave the way was the Muscular Christianity. It was, according to Clifford W. Putney, “a movement geared toward reinjecting health and manliness back into Victorian religion[41].” It emerged in Britain in the mid-1800[42] and spread soon to North America as well. Best known of its outcomes have been YMCA physical education, the Boys’ Brigades[43], the Scout movement[44] and, to some extent, the Salvation Army. In the case of the two latter mentioned, the influence of Muscular Christianity can be seen especially in the use of uniforms and military ranks. Along with the emphasis on manliness, “its adherents sought to reduce women’s influence in the Protestant churches[45].” The movement declined after the First World War but had an influence on YMCA physical education and restriction of its services to men and boys only.[46]

Muscular Christianity had to face negative attitude towards sports and amusements in general.

When sports were seen as worldly amusements, it was no wonder that Evangelicals had a negative attitude towards them. Muscular Christians, instead, saw physical education as a way “to consent to his service, as far as may be, all the powers of the body, soul and spirit[47].” Because these attitudes were justified by theological doctrines of Calvinism, Pietism and Methodism[48], the positive attitude had to be based on theological arguments as well.

The first theological justification in the YMCA for amusements and physical education was given at the Second World’s Conference of YMCAs in Geneva in 1858[49]. John H. Gladstone, one leading member of the London YMCA, argued in his presentation that associations should offer good recreational programs to young men and defended his thesis mainly with historical examples and with some Biblical quotations. His argumentation started (following the Evangelical thinking of focusing on heaven instead of earthly matters) from the question whether recreational activities are meant to serve God or ourselves. He also made a distinction between detrimental and innocent recreation that saves people from bad habits. It is in this latter case that YMCAs have some responsibility for their members. There is always a danger that “an ignorant Christian and restrictive and narrow-minded spirit are often obstacles of the Gospel.” Thus, according to Gladstone, a Christian association should avoid extremes and consider three questions. “Whether the situation require them? Does they harm the more important activities? Are its pious members able to sanctify the means which they will adopt?” In relation to the last question, Gladstone mentions that in America and England associations offer reading rooms that have journals and periodicals in order to serve people’s intellectual, social and political benefit. In Germany, people gather to sing to their Lord to show their joy. In Holland they cultivate poems and stories in order to learn how God guides peoples of the earth. Thus, Gladstone’s thesis for the legitimacy of recreation rests a lot on the Christian use of arts.[50]