The YMCA's Hidden Legacy- with Bill Federer

The WallBuilders Show

Tim Barton, David Barton & Rick Green

Wallbuilders Show, Education, Constitutional, Church, Christianity, History, Conservative, America, Family, Christian, Biblical, Religion & Spirituality, Wallbuilders.show, Government, News, Politics

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Americanminute.com The story behind the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) is far more fascinating and consequential than most Americans realize. In this eye-opening conversation with historian Bill Federer, we uncover how a simple commitment by one young attorney sparked a movement that would change the world. Charles Finney, a 29-year-old lawyer in 1821, walked into the woods seeking God and emerged with a life-altering decision. When a client arrived the next morning, Finney declare...

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to The Wall Builder Show.
0:08.6	Thanks for joining us today.
0:09.7	We're taking on the hot topics of the day from a biblical, historical, and constitutional perspective.
0:14.1	Rick Green here with David Barton and Tim Barton.
0:16.2	You can learn more about us at our website, wallbuilders.com, as our main website, where we've got all kinds of great materials for you and good information and lots of great programs coming up as well. So check all that out at wallbuilders.com. And then, of course, our radio program, where you might be listening to even this program, or maybe you're listening to one of our partner stations around the country. But the website for the radio show is wallbuilders. Show. And you can catch up on past programs there as well. All right, David and Tim, Bill Federer
0:41.8	are back with us. Of course, great colleague of ours that always brings some interesting
0:45.2	stories from history. And today we'll be talking about the YMCA. Do we have the music?
0:50.8	Q YMCA. Of course, that would sound like a Trump rally if we played the YMCA theme song, right?
0:56.6	That wasn't the actual YMCA theme song, but it's still funny.
1:00.7	Yeah, and I can safely tell you that the YMCA group that did that music is nowhere close to the YMCA we're going to talk about today.
1:07.8	Not even the same, maybe the same universe, but not the same planet for sure.
1:15.2	That's a good point.
1:16.3	Yes.
1:16.7	No, this is, I did not know.
1:19.3	As I was reading the show notes in prep for this, I had no idea how many people throughout
1:25.1	history, meaning like the last 100 years or so, had come through
1:29.1	the YMCA and had something to do with the YMCA that then turned around and did something
1:33.5	significant. So this is going to be kind of cool to see the ripple effects. You just don't know
1:37.3	when you're planting seeds with other people in your ministry or your family or whatever,
1:41.1	what kind of ripple effects might come from that. It really is.
1:49.9	And just a kind of way of acknowledgement that the book is Courageous Christianity by Bill Federer.
1:54.6	And also, we've known Bill for years, I would say probably decades now.
	...

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