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 concerned with abstaining from what they have labeled “sexual sins,” such as lust, pornography, adultery, fornication, and homosexuality, which they believe threaten proper male behavior and family devotion.

To help members maintain their commitment, Promise Keepers advocates “shepherding,” in which small groups of men submit to the authority of spiritual leaders who form a network extending to organizational headquarters in Colorado. Through shepherding, McCartney argues, the Promise Keepers can make a difference in society as men, implying that their identity as Christian men is critical not only to their construction of masculinity, but also to the success of their movement. Members of Promise Keepers form groups of no more than five men, typically operating within a church, and are expected to submit all aspects of their lives to review. Each member answers questions concerning such key aspects of masculine identity as marriage, family, finances, sexuality, and business activity. These groups are led by a “Point Man” who answers to an “Ambassador,”who reports directly to headquarters in Boulder.

The Promise Keepers movement grew rapidly in the mid-1990s. McCartney attracted only 4,200 attendees to the Promise Keepers' first meeting, held in 1991 in a University of Colorado basketball arena, but between 1995 and 1996 Promise Keepers held twenty-two events, attracting 1.1 million men, with many rallies being held in sports stadiums. The movement's popularity peaked in 1997, when more than 600,000 men attended the “Stand in the Gap” rally in Washington D.C., and 638,297 men attended eighteen regional stadium conferences.

Critics of Promise Keepers argue that it reflects a conservative backlash against gains made by racial minorities, women, and homosexuals during the civil rights movement. They point to a conspicuous lack of racial minorities among its members, and to its profoundly conservative views of women and homosexuals, to support their claim that Promise Keepers is nothing more than an attempt by middle-class white males to reassert their authority in mainstream American society. Other scholars contend that, while this may be true, Promise Keepers does provide a “safe” place for white men to come together and reaffirm their faith and values.

Although the source of Promise Keepers' appeal remains open for debate, it became clear in the late-1990s that its success would be short-lived. Promise Keepers experienced a drastic decline in popularity after 1997 due to a changing political climate and its insistence on maintaining a strict system of shepherding. It cancelled or scaled down many of its rallies and relied on volunteer staff. Yet its emergence reflects an ongoing concern in American life to define Christian commitment as a marker of manhood.

...