When I lived in Midland I went to the YMCA behind Albertson's, although it was private before it was given to the Y. And although I was not religious then either I found utterly nothing wrong with it.

I certainly hope that the Salvation Army doesn't change its name. It does some seriously good work and they get money from me. I see nothing wrong at all for someone to have to listen to a homily preaching self-reliance while he's eating free food.

And anyway, what's wrong with having Christian in a name? TCU? Well, it's a Christian school. There would not, I guarantee, be this much shilly-shallying around if it were the Young Buddhist Youth Association.

And if it were the Young Muslim Youth Association, they'd be given a free site two blocks from Ground Zero and free medical advice on performing clitoridectomies on their children.

Maybe the next devolvement in this Christian Based organization is for the SA to be remamed....The Salvage Corp.

Actually Salvage isn't a bad name for it--isn't that what they do?

I read an article on the SA in of all places The New Republic, which is hardly a bastion of conservative thought. A polite urban atheism is the rule there. The author in the end, after entirely too many words, was convinced that they do a damned good job.

And these people do not do well by doing good. Like most charities.

I think that I need to drop them some $$$ now.

I would think that in the evolution of business, it actually would not be very difficult to actually wrap one's head around the changing of the name. Why would they call it the Young Men's Christian Association anymore? With all the women that attend (something that I think was not really allowed in the early days); the company just is not the same.

Anyone who has taken a basic business course can understand that business change over time, change is inevitable and without it businesses fail. And why not call it by the popular term "Y". Coca-Cola puts Coke on their cans....should we drag them out for being lazy or anti-American for giving into popular culture? Brands can often take on a life of their own. And often, those lives move on….maybe you should too.

MR:

You could well be right. But I also remember that the "National" Y has some leanings toward having "correct" sensitivities. We found this out about 6 or 7 years ago when they (National) wanted every YMCA who had an Indian Guides or Indian Princess program to change it to something (anything) else because they deemed it too insensitive to Native Americans.

Thankfully, the local YMCA board politely declined.

Gee whiz, and I tohuhgt this would be hard to find out.

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