RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES IN THE EARLY YMCA IN BRAZIL

My grandfather, Myron Augustus Clark, founded the first YMCA in Latin America on July 4, 1893. My grandmother, Chiquita Pereira de Moraes Clark, had this to say about the early days of the Associação Cristã de Moços, as it is called in Brazil.

“Sr. José Fernandes Braga, a prominent figure in Protestant circles who had joined the Protestant Church when a young man, was one of the principal contributors to this organization. He was a wealthy hat manufacturer, a capitalist and an industrialist. José Braga Jr., his son, was another who helped immensely then and all through the years. The members of this family became some of my dearest friends. The mother helped me in every way and to this day they are my best friends, and their family became connected by marriage with mine later on.

As happened often in Brazil, my family included, the strongest and most sincere Catholics were more easily converted to the living Christ than those who were only nominally Catholic. Senhor Braga, like the early Christians that once came to North America, was very strict in his beliefs and all through his life he was so full with the new faith that he was forever talking and preaching about O Senhor (the Lord). It was beautiful to see how his heart and that of his dear wife were overflowing with the love of God, which was the most important factor of their lives. It was not surprising that they understood the doctrine of the Bible literally. For this reason, when modernistic thinking began to invade the Protestant Church of Brazil, they suffered a great shock. I wouldn’t be surprised if this shortened the life of the richest man of the Protestant Church in Brazil and Portugal. His frequent visits to Portugal were spent in evangelistic tours to the towns and villages of his mother country. This gentleman became the benefactor of the ACM, and he and his family and he and his family the lucky star of the Clarks.

With all these Protestant connections, that first YMCA was seen by those who had no religion as a religious institution so they did not care to join it, and by the Catholics as propaganda protestante, so they worked against it. Increasing the suspicion, the most intelligent and attractive speaker at the Y was a very anti-Catholic minister who took this opportunity to speak of the faults of the dominant church. This attracted quite a few materialist and anti-clerical young men, but the Association was controlled by the active members who were those who professed the Protestant faith. My husband couldn’t control these talks, especially because the meetings were better attended when this preacher was in charge.

Because of this very strong religious attitude the work developed very slowly and the support of it was in the hands of a few during the first years of its existence. As the members were mostly clerks in the different lines of business, a class for learning bookkeeping was organized in order that the young men might have an opportunity for better positions. When night classes were created and a Departamento Phísico (Physical Activities Department) was organized, the membership grew, as there were so many young men who could not get any education at all except at night classes.