c. 1997 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Promise Keepers, the Denver-based evangelical Christian ministry, officially announced its plans Tuesday (Feb. 4) for”multitudes”of men to come to Washington, D.C., in October for a”sacred assembly”they are calling”Stand in the Gap.””Our church of Jesus Christ has been divided. It’s been divided by race, by denomination, by opinion,”said former football coach and Promise Keepers founder Bill McCartney.”But God is doing a new thing. God is doing an extraordinary thing in the hearts of men and you’re going to see that when we gather here on Oct. 4.” At a news conference, organizers outlined an event they said would be more racially and ethnically inclusive and more spiritually focused than the Million Man March of October 1995, a rally of hundreds of thousands of black men organized by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

African-American, Hispanic and Native American board members took turns at the mike during the news conference as a demonstration of the group’s emphasis on diversity.

Bishop Phillip H. Porter of the Church of God in Christ, an African-American who is chairman of the group’s board of directors, said his placement in the organization is an example of Promise Keepers’ commitment to people of color.”That’s amazing to many people because many folk believe that Promise Keepers is just a white evangelical group,”he said.”My hue belies that thought.” The Rev. Jesse Miranda, another board member and leader of AMEN, a national alliance of Hispanic evangelicals, said he expects many Hispanic Christians to support the event.”Promise Keepers, like few other agencies, has sought the contributions of Hispanics, my people,”said Miranda, an associate dean of multiethnic and urban affairs at Azusa Pacific University in California.”We look forward to coming to this sacred assembly. … We prefer community to competition, so coming together is going to be one grand fiesta for us,”he said.

In addition to having a diverse staff _ about 30 percent of the 437 staffers of the organization are minorities _ McCartney has met with small groups of 35 to 75 men, often African-Americans and Hispanics. Mini-conferences, called”Wake-up calls,”have been held in Spanish in cities such as Los Angeles, Miami and San Antonio.

And during Promise Keepers’ rallies in 1996, 500,000 mostly Anglo men stood and promised God and McCartney they would bring a man of color to the”Stand in the Gap”event, said the Rev. Raleigh Washington, the group’s vice president of reconciliation.

Recalling the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963″I Have a Dream”speech uttered from the Lincoln Memorial to a throng gathered on the same stretch of lawn _ reaching from the Memorial to the Capitol _ where the Promise Keepers will meet, Washington spoke of the whites who may agree with King’s vision of blacks and whites joining hands.”The white folks are going to be here but they can’t make that dream come true by themselves,”Washington told RNS after the news conference.”Now if I’m a black man and I got a chance to make Martin’s dream come true, I’m coming to D.C.” Porter, however, said after the news conference that the march will be focused on things of the spirit rather than on race.”The Million Man March spoke of the need of men to be recognized, the need of men for economic growth and inclusion, the need of men to be included as men of color,”he said.”We speak of the core need of men. We know that’s not skin, but sin.” Organizers shied away from predicting exactly how many men will appear on the Mall this fall, speaking of”multitudes”rather than millions.”PK’s success shouldn’t be measured by numbers,”said Randy Phillips, the group’s president.”Promise Keepers is not something that you join. It’s someone who you are.” The organization, founded in 1990, is dedicated to shaping Christian men’s spirituality by urging them to be more committed to God, their families and their churches.

Its 18 regional rallies for 1997 will have the theme”The Making of a Godly Man.”It estimates its 1997 budget at $107 million. In addition, the group has a $10 million budget for the Washington”Stand in the Gap”event.

The fall event’s title comes from Ezekiel 22:30, in which God says,”I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.””Typically, it’s the ladies that have stood in the gap and held the fort,”McCartney said.”But we’re asking the men to come alongside of the ladies and we’re asking men all over America to take responsibility for the moral decline in this nation.” Rank-and-file supporters of the men’s movement are already showing their enthusiasm for the event that is still eight months away. Since they started learning in late January of the exact date of”Stand in the Gap,”planes have been chartered in Washington state and California and 1,200 seats have already been filled on a chartered train from Peoria, Ill.”Our guys have known about it for a while, so there’s kind of a pent-up demand for details and everybody’s very concerned about transportation and lodging,”Steve Chavis, Promise Keepers’ national spokesman, said after the news conference.

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