Name Changes Omit “Christian” by Dave Miller, Ph.D.

http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=7&article=3595

Name Changes Omit “Christian”

by	Dave Miller, Ph.D.

The YMCA has announced a name change, omitting the word “Christian” from its longtime designation “Young Men’s Christian Association” as founded in England in 1844 and in America in 1851 (Muhlstein, 2010). Likewise, the charitable organization that has long raised funds to aid poverty-stricken children around the world, Christian Children’s Fund, has eliminated “Christian” to become simply “Child Fund” (Price, 2010). The usual politically correct claptrap of sensitivity to “diversity” and “inclusion” accompanied these announcements.

A fundamental sense of shame ought to accompany the foolish desire to distance oneself from anything Christian—a view certainly not shared by Paul (Romans 1:16), nor the Founders of the American Republic. For example, signer of the Declaration of Independence, President of the Continental Congress, and Governor of Connecticut, Samuel Huntington, issued a proclamation to his home state in which he announced:

It becomes a people publicly to acknowledge the over-ruling hand of Divine Providence...and with becoming humility and sincere repentance to supplicate the pardon that we may obtain forgiveness through the merits and mediation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (1791, emp. added).

Jesus said: “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory” (Luke 9:26).

REFERENCES

Huntington, Samuel (1791), “By His Excellency Samuel Huntington, Esquire, A Proclamation for a Day of Fasting, Prayer and Humiliation, March 9, 1791” (Hartford, CT: Hudson and Goodwin).

Muhlstein, Julie (2010), “YMCA Logo Change Reflects Changing Times,” HaroldNet, http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20100716/NEWS01/707169911.

Price, Cynthia (2010), “Christian Children’s Fund Name Change to ChildFund International Official,” ChildFund International Press Releases, June 1, http://www.childfund.org/press_releases/.