NEWS ANALYSIS: Promise Keepers looks to build on success of Stand in the Gap

c. 1997 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ When Promise Keepers brought hundreds of thousands of men to the National Mall on Saturday (Oct. 4), it looked like the apex of the seven-year-old evangelical Christian men’s movement. But Bill McCartney, the movement’s founder, has a plan for much more: Free stadium events, regional pastors’ conferences, and […]

c. 1997 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ When Promise Keepers brought hundreds of thousands of men to the National Mall on Saturday (Oct. 4), it looked like the apex of the seven-year-old evangelical Christian men’s movement.

But Bill McCartney, the movement’s founder, has a plan for much more: Free stadium events, regional pastors’ conferences, and a bold display of”vibrant”men’s ministries by the year 2000 are part of this very organized group’s plans to become even more institutionalized.


And, in the year 2000, after churches manifest their dedication to racial and denominational reconciliation in the United States, Promise Keepers says it will turn its attention to taking its message to a global audience.

For six hours, the hundreds of thousands of men on the Mall confessed personal and corporate sins and pledged to do better by their faith and their families in a setting whose massive breadth was in stark contrast to the quiet solemnity that often covered the mall-turned-church.”Even though you had this huge number of men, there was a remarkable intimacy in each moment, where a single man knew that he was visible, naked, laid bare before the eyes of God,”said the Rev. Steve Henderson, a Christian school administrator in Easley, S.C.

Now, after getting up off their knees and heading home, participants carry with them the action plan enunciated by McCartney, a plan for all _ and for each _ of them.”Can’t no guy leave out of here a lone ranger,”he said.

Rather, McCartney urged men return to their churches, heed their pastors and work with other churches towards”vibrant men’s ministries.” Some experts, however, wonder about the potential dangers and challenges of a plan clearly aimed at making its mark on American _ and global _ society.

Stephen Boyd, professor of religion at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., was struck by McCartney’s being convinced he was enunciating a plan given him by God.”He said, `We all have to leave here with a plan,'”recalled Boyd.”A plan. Who defines the plan? … What’s going to happen when a pastor doesn’t share the vision? Does that mean the pastor is out of God’s will? What happens when these men go home and their pastor is a woman?” Mark Muesse, a religious studies professor at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., agreed there are some potentially destructive aspects to McCartney’s hierarchical thoughts.”It encourages a very uncritical acceptance of the perspective of another person,”he said.”It sets up a pattern where you’ve got superiors and subordinates and subordinates are supposed to do what they’re told to do and there can be no questions.” Muesse said such sentiments might be rooted in McCartney’s background in the Catholic Church and his past support of the idea of”shepherding,”a controversial practice among some charismatics that critics say can lead to submissiveness and cult-like mentalities.

Part of McCartney’s plan _ which scholars find laudable if not plausible _ is for churches to become more visible examples of racial and denominational reconciliation by standing together on the steps of state capitols on Jan. 1, 2000.”I look to the year 2000 … to mark the end of racism inside the church of Jesus Christ and then it will have a dynamic impact on society,”McCartney said in his address near the close of the gathering.

But Muesse said he believes Promise Keepers can only go so far in addressing racism because it chooses to do so only by personal and not political means.”I do believe it’s going to help race relations in the country but I don’t think it’s going to eradicate racism in the church,”he said.


Merle Longwood, professor of religious studies at Siena College in Loudonville, N.Y., said he sensed the men on the Mall were not only confessing their individual sins but also were repenting for”the soul of the nation.” Longwood said it would be a far greater challenge for participants to change the nation than to change their individual home and church lives.”I suspect that … a significant number of those persons will have been affected deeply and what they do in their local churches will be significant,”he said.”Whether that event itself is going to be transforming to the nation as a whole, that’s anybody’s reading.” (BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

Much of what was said from the podium on Saturday was not new. Promise Keepers has consistently worked to encourage men to be committed to church, family, community and improved relations across racial and denominational lines.

But the announcement that the organization’s future stadium events will be free may mark a turning point for the group.

In the past, men mostly in the mainstream of the evangelical movement have attended the events at stadiums, forking over $60 in advance or $70 at the gate. Now, McCartney said, they can attend, along with faithfully”lukewarm”brothers, without opening their wallets. Experts say this could be a move to keep their numbers growing after seeing a sharp decline in stadium-event attendance this year.

Muesse said Promise Keepers also seems to be trying to maintain support among a wide swath of evangelical supporters by leaving some issues off the table.

For example, he said, platform speakers didn’t discuss the Second Coming of Jesus, which is”a point of great contention”among evangelicals.”I think that is part of their efforts of trying to have some sectarian reconciliation,”Muesse said. But leaving out such fundamental issues raises objections from religious critics who think they aren’t serious about doctrinal issues.


(END OPTIONAL TRIM)

While Promise Keepers has managed to escape some of the longstanding disputes between Christians about sacraments and polity, it has not been able to avoid the issue of gender roles.”What the Promise Keepers are exposing is a fault line within denominations, not just between denominations … around issues of gender roles and human sexuality,”said Boyd.

Promise Keepers speakers voice more than one sentiment, sometimes romanticizing women and at other times declaring their need to submit to men’s decisions.

At Saturday’s rally, for example, Promise Keepers president Randy Phillips declared”no woman should feel threatened by this gathering because the ground is level at the foot of the cross.”But a few hours earlier, McCartney told reporters that when a husband and wife cannot reach consensus,”the man should take responsibility for making that decision … almighty God ordained that somebody would make the final decision in any organization or team.””They speak out of both sides of the mouth,”said Muesse.”Neither one treats the woman as an equal partner. Either she’s above us or below us.” Henderson, who also is the editor of the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood’s newsletter, didn’t see Phillips and McCartney’s statements as being contradictory. His organization believes women should be submissive to their husbands’ leadership.

And he said he thinks Promise Keepers, having established itself as a men’s ministry, has been in the uncomfortable position of always being reactive rather than proactive about its views on women.”That always is going to put them in a negative position, a negative light,”said Henderson.”I think they are making good progress in being able to say this is what we understand the Bible to say as relates to men’s and women’s roles.” Nor do the experts believe the movement has peaked with the assembly on the Mall.”I think it’s (the rally) going to pump enough life into the movement where it’s going to last and maybe increase for the next couple of years,”said Muesse, adding that like other movements, he expects it will decline over time.

Grassroots participants, on the other hand, see many years _ and perhaps, generations _ ahead for Promise Keepers.

Ronald Conn, 22, a chaplain’s assistant at the Naval Training Center in Orlando, Fla., said he hopes Promise Keepers doesn’t end with his generation, but rather is extended to his young sons.”Who’s going to carry on the Promise Keepers once all of us are gone?”he asked as the sun set on the dwindling crowds after the assembly.”If they don’t have leadership … they’re not going to be able to (carry) God’s word and God’s grace on.”


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