YMCA Flyer Allegedly Violates 'Separation' Issue, Barred from School District
by Jim Brown
December 19, 2003
(AgapePress) - A California school district has barred YMCA promotional flyers from its campuses.The Panama-Buena Vista School District in Bakersfield claims flyers promoting a YMCA basketball camp violate the so-called "separation of Church and State" because they include the group's mission statement: To put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind, and body for all. But CEO John Bagala says the Kern County YMCA will not remove references to Christianity from its flyers.
"The one thing we're not going to do is ever compromise our mission statement or our Christian values," he says. "The YMCA is a young men's Christian organization, and it's been like that for 150 years."
The YMCA has been in the Bakersfield community since 1924. "We're hoping that the school districts will come to their senses and allow us to pass out our fliers again, as we have in the past," Bagala says, adding that the district is unfairly silencing his group. He explains that even though the group's mission statement makes it clear the YMCA promotes Christian values, it does not discriminate.
"That means [our programs are available to] believers, non-believers, [and] believers of other faiths -- we don't discriminate about anybody coming to the 'Y.' But we are a Christian-based organization, and we're not ashamed of it," he says.
Although the YMCA is not considering legal action, Bagala says he is unhappy with the censorship because 80% of the children in his program are from the Panama-Buena Vista district. Other area school districts have not raised objections to the Y's flyers.
The head of a Christian ministry is encouraging local YMCA's not to revise their mission statement when asked to by public school districts. Bill Tetreault is director of the "C" Project, a group dedicated to lifting up the "C" in Young Men's Christian Associations.
The Christian activist believes Bagala and the Kern Country Chapter of the YMCA will be rewarded for taking a stand. "Local YMCA's focused on fulfilling their Christian purpose and mission will flourish in every way."
Tetreault encourages Christians to pray for their local Y chapters and to get personally involved in practical ways at the local level. "I think that would do a great deal to help their local YMCA fulfill their Christian mission," he says.
