Something I learned about this article that I never knew was about the Muscular Christian movement. The Muscular Christian movement focused on showing patriotism and manliness through sports. Since we have been Christians our whole lives, it does relate to a large part of the Christian belief about manliness. I never knew that Christian ideals of masculinity translated to sports in such a big way to where it created a movement. Sports and religion have always been intertwined, but I never saw the correlation between masculinity and sports as so connected.
Another topic I learned from this article was that the YMCA was a crucial part of how the USA kept its promise to Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines about establishing institutions for democracy. I knew that the United States was supposed to help these countries become democracies, but I never have heard about the YMCA’s contribution to doing this. Every time I picture the YMCA, I think of the song and a place for children to go after school. To learn that it had such a big impact on the politics of this region was super surprising for me and for many others.
This article did remind me of knowledge I already had. This being that the YMCA is used to create a athletic culture in countries. In the United States, the YMCA gives kids a place to come and participate in many different sports and creates a community. YMCAs also allow different schools to have tournaments at their facilities. When I played basketball, we went to the YMCA for tournaments during the summer. It makes sense that the YMCA would be used in other countries just like it had been in the United States. While I never had heard about YMCA in other countries, it makes sense because it is an easy way to get kids active and have a place to go to play sports. For many people, the YMCA is an opportunity that they would not have otherwise to participate in sports.
