On July 4th, Trump and the GOP-led Congress enacted one of the most controversial bills in American history, set to the tune of ‘Y.M.C.A.’ by the Village People.
The irony is not lost on me that our current racist, homophobic, xenophobic, Christian nationalist administration chose a song performed by a disco band featuring a black policeman, a gay American Indian, a cowboy (also gay), a construction worker, a leather-clad biker, and a sailor as their theme song to announce the roll-out of their Big Ugly Bill. Equally ironic is that the song Y.M.C.A. was co-written by French composer and songwriter Jacques Morali, also gay and from the same country that gifted America the Statue of Liberty. I might also add that the YMCA did initially sue The Village people in 1978 over trademark issues and concerns about the association with a gay disco band, but they got over it and decided the publicity was worth it. Good choice, it did indeed bring a great deal of brand recognition and a lot of publicity. There’s a lot to unpack here, and admittedly the only thing blatantly missing are women, or 50.5% of the US population, and tangentially anybody that is not Christian. But we’ll put a pin in that for now.
About a decade ago a friend invited me to attend a YMCA board meeting to encourage me to become more involved as a potential board member and invest in the organization.
All I really knew about the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) at that point was that it offered communities an affordable place to take swimming lessons, provided afterschool youth activities for children regardless of income, summer camps that centered around sports and outdoor adventures, and provided hostels for the poor. I jumped at the opportunity to be involved because these are all things I greatly valued. Who wouldn’t want to make sure every child, no matter what your family’s background or income was, had access to these things. I grew up listening to and singing the lyrics to Y.M.C.A. What I hadn’t thought much about, not at all in-fact, until that day at the board meeting, was what the acronym YMCA really stood for and just how male and Christian it was. You may be wondering if the YWCA is related. It is not. Although the two organizations share the Christian heritage and began in England in the mid 1800’s they began with two distinct missions about a decade apart. The YWCA’s initial aim was to provide support for women migrating to urban areas for work during the industrial revolution, offering safe housing and resources with a focus on eliminating racism and creating equality. The founders of the YMCA had a significantly different objective in mind.
I don’t recall all the details of that YMCA board meeting, but I do remember they were launching a campaign to raise money for a remodel of their summer horse-camp facilities and a presentation reinforcing the Christian values they wanted to make sure were included in their programs. The word Christian caught me by surprise, which in hindsight was silly considering it represents the third letter in the acronym YMCA. Over the next hour and a half Christianity and the emphasis on ‘Christian’ morals and values surfaced several times. It was subtle but as an agnostic humanist to me it came across as both loud and unnecessarily limiting, and to be honest, intrusive making it difficult to concentrate on all the other great work and messages. I couldn’t help but think: what about the children who aren’t Christian—those raised Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, or, like my children raised agnostic? Were my children being raised without values, simply because they did not include the word Christian in front of them? Do we need a deity to know and learn right from wrong? Should it matter if your deity is God, Jesus, Jehovah, Buddha, Allah, or in the case of Hinduism, many? Surely not.
It is fair to say that after attending that board meeting the song Y.M.C.A., sung by a queer, campy disco band made up of macho stereotypes took on a whole new meaning for me. In any case I did not join the board that day, but I did do some research into the history of the YMCA and here is what I learned…
The YMCA was founded in England In 1844 by George Williams, a 20-year-old Christian evangelical, and eleven friends on the principles of muscular Christianity. Muscular Christianity was a movement in the 19th century that grew from a concern men were becoming too soft (aka “woke”) and giving into lives of sin. To counter this trend the church would lean into athleticism and masculinity as a virtue and the YMCA would provide sports and bible studies as an option to taverns and brothels.
Following the Civil War, a similar cultural shift was unfolding in the United States. As men increasingly disappeared from church pews, the rise of large corporations and the emergence of the idle and effeminate “dandy,” a figure who blended masculine and feminine traits and rejected traditional labor, helped fuel the rise of American Muscular Christianity and the growing popularity of organized sports.
By the late 19th century only about one-third of American men attended church regularly, while nearly one-half of all American women did, and ministers were afraid that long-term effects of the “feminization of the church” would marginalize and deplete their power. To solve this masculinity problem ministers and church leaders leaned in heavy on muscular Christianity. From the pulpit, preachers prayed for a winning season, striking their sermons with so much athletic symbolism that they sometimes sounded like color commentators on TV sport broadcasts. As the United States was developing into a world political power, and industry boomed, muscular Christians oversaw the development of modern sport. The core organization that oversaw and progressed sports and sportsmanship was the YMCA, an organization that demanded the “evangelical test” for all voting members. Any male in good standing in any evangelical church could join. And they did, growing the movement and the adoption of Christianity worldwide. Theodore Roosevelt and his family were active and vocal members of this muscular Christian movement.
In 1878 the headquarters of the YMCA moved to Geneva Switzerland and became an influential, worldwide youth organization. Today it employs 90,000 and has more than 920,000 volunteers, serving over 64 million people in 120 countries.
The fact is the YMCA does do some really great things, and to be fair religious entities and organizations do provide a place for people to come together and feel seen, heard, and reinforce kindness and empathy for their fellow humans. There is a lot to be said for having faith in a greater good, and I am proud of and in awe of my friends and family that apply their religion to do just that: bring love, faith and good to all, doing for others what you would want done for yourself. Religion however can also be isolating and reinforce cliques by grouping people into categories by ruthlessly applying black and white definitions to right and wrong, good and evil, sinful and righteous when so much of life and humanity is in-reality nuanced and gray. Take for example, women’s reproductive rights, science, creationism versus evolution, gender and sexuality. Depending on where you fall on any of these spectrums, religion can be limiting, isolating and judgmental. Some might argue unnecessarily and unjustifiably so.
One thing is certain; the YMCA is an excellent case study in Christian propaganda. Perhaps good propaganda from many vantages and perspectives. But still propaganda.
It is also true that a majority (62%) of Americans are Christian today. But it’s also important to point out that more than 1/3 of the country is something other than Christian.
It can and has been argued that this diversity is what really makes America the big, beautiful melting pot I grew up believing in. In my humble opinion we should celebrate all the voices, not shun, silence or force them to tune to a single chorus line or key that we may not all be able or want to carry. As our country continues to grow, we could choose to consider the decline in Christianity as an opportunity because it leaves room for more voices and recognizes that a polyphony of voices can be powerful and beautiful too. Creating a far more diverse message while still striving to harmonize, ultimately leaving us with a much richer story line.
Religion is personal and as nuanced as mankind. In a democratic government built on liberty and freedom-for-all, everyone should be free to decide how religion and which religion, if any, applies to them as an individual morally and spiritually. Nobody and no government entity should be empowered to force their religious belief on others. America’s founding fathers had a very sound point with respect to separation of church and state and took the time to write it into the constitution. I for one am a strong believer that we should adhere to it, making the theme song Y.M.C.A. a tough sell for me, but admittedly forever a catchy one.
On a positive note, I’ll leave you with one last thought. In 2021, many years after I attended the board meeting at the YMCA, and a year into the Biden administration the YMCA did hire their first woman president and CEO, Suzanne McCormick. I wonder if the current regime considers her a DEI hire?
Anyway, at the end of the day, it is not all that surprising that Y.M.C.A. should be used as the theme song by the current administration to celebrate a very Christian nationalist “Big Beautiful Bill”. However, as their audience dances and mimes the letters Y-M-C-A to the Village People, a band also responsible for the song “Macho Man” we should question just how inclusive and beautiful it all really is. The bill, the song, and most importantly the current administration’s focus on Christian nationalism. For that matter religion et al and whether it belongs at the center of our politics.
Stay educated, think critically. Every truth matters.
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