Promise Keepers

Founded in 1991 by Bill McCartney, a former football coach at the University of Colorado, Promise Keepers is an international evangelical Christian organization designed specifically to appeal to men and promote a masculinity centered upon “traditional” definitions of home, family, marriage, and Christianity.

Promise Keepers began as a late-twentieth century manifestation of “muscular Christianity,” a movement that emerged in Great Britain and the United States in the mid–nineteenth century to make Christianity more appealing to men by encouraging masculine expressions of religious devotion and using athletic metaphors to describe Christian commitment. Promise Keepers asks its members to maintain an ideal of Christian manhood that focuses on being faithful, devoted [Page 376]husbands and fathers and adhering to what they consider “good Christian morals.” Promise Keepers are particularly ...