The idea that women are simply human has been a long time arriving, and has not yet found its perch in many benighted minds--perhaps because there is not much to perch upon. There are godly men today, soldiers of the manly God, who parrot his archaic commandments with all the jerky fervor of a dummy in the hands of a ventriloquist. These godly men meet in sports stadia by the thousands, eyes closed, mouths agape with praise, and arms extended heavenward, as though straining to grasp the hem of the godly garment.
     These meetings are hosted by a group called Promise Keepers, which coats its sour sexism with heaps of sugary rhetoric designed to deceive contemporary females as surely as the serpent did Eve.
The PK boys make only one demand of women: submit. Exactly what that entails will be decided by the interpretation of Holy Writ according to male muckamucks, which, historically, has tended toward the oppressive. Why, uppity women may ask, should we have to submit to men? The answer is both simple and simple-minded: because the manly God ordained it, and the godly men have maintained it. Amen.
     Verily, their answer is no more compelling than that. One human being must submit to another merely because one has a penis--the most godly organ of all, admittedly, but the possession of which is hardly justification for the denigration of those lacking the same. And yet PK boys will be boys, and here is how one of them writing in a book titled Seven Promises of a Promise Keeper addressed his peers in the godly struggle against uppity women:

                         Don't misunderstand what I'm saying here. I'm not suggesting that
                    you ask for your role back. I'm urging you to take it back. Unfortunately,
                    there can be no compromise....Treat the lady gently and lovingly. But lead...
                    (And) to you ladies who may be reading this: "Give it back! For the sake of
                    your family and the survival of our culture, let your man be a man if he's willing."
                         (Emphasis the author's.)

     Praise the Lord and pass the Barbie dolls.
     There, in one nut's shell, we see the real agenda of the PK boys: to put women back in their godly place, without, it should be noted, even asking. Why should a PK boy ask a woman to play her "traditional" role when it is as plain as the patriarchy exactly what the manly God wants: that women should submit without a lot of uppity objections.
     It is typical that the godly man brooks no opposition to his word--which is, in fact, His Word.
"Unfortunately, there can be no compromise, " harangues the proud penis bearer. Oh yes, now there's an infallible recipe for a good relationship!
     The holy hierachy of the patriarchy: God is the head of the man, and the man is the head of the woman, who is treated, intellectually, as though she has no head. But then, she really has no need for one; after all, her traditional job was to reproduce, and that took no intelligence, just physical stamina.
     That PK should be so popular an organization is hardly surprising; for the stern control of women has always been a hallmark of fascism, and the Divine Right, no less than the German or Italian strains of that ideology, believes that the righteous destiny of women is found in kinder, kuche, kirche: children, cooking, church.
     Naturally (PK boys put great stock in the "natural") women must give up any notions of controlling their reproductive destinies. Once egg has spawned and sperm delved, the Lord has spoken as to the moral status of the combination: it is a human being. Period.
     (But what, at this initial stage, physically distinguishes this ball of cells which is potentially a person from those of other creatures? Practically nothing. It usually takes a good two months before the fetus begins to have a human appearance. To those who regard the creation of a unique combination of DNA as the creation of a legally viable person, it must be noted that chimpanzees share 99.6 percent of the active genes of Homo sapiens--that is, us. The .4 percent is obviously significant, but surely godly pro-lifers will admit that one should err on the side of caution and agitate for an exalted socio-theological status for our simian cousins, who may even, for all we know, possess that cherished metaphysical appendage called the soul--or at least 99.6 percent of one.)
     One of the founding fathers of PK is Bill McCartney, late of the University of Colorado, who has parlayed his success as a football coach into renown as a spokeswarrior for Jesus.
     McCartney follows the right-wing divine line on matters such as school prayer ("I personally believe that since they've taken prayer out of schools...schools are not as productive"), homosexuality ("...an abomination against Almight God"), and, of course, abortion, which the coach regards as murder most foul.
     In a 1993 speech before 50,000 men in Boulder, Colorado, McCartney revealed the gameplan of the PK boys: "We are going to war as of tonight. We will not retreat anymore. We have divine power. That is our weapon."
     The co-founder of PK, Dave Wardell, was no less bellicose when he said, "We're drawing the line in the sand here....There has already been controversy about abortion and homosexuality. I hope there won't be physical confrontation but look at Amendment 2 and the Act-Up people and the foreign religions coming in here."
     "Foreign religions"? Yes, we have no religious tolerance!
     Conservative Christians have tended to favor military metaphors, all-too frequently taking such admonitions literally. In these latter, loonier days, when some zealots have shown a preference for shooting over shouting, it is perhaps irresponsible for prominent religious leaders to preachify in such a fashion, as the uncompormising Christian soldiers might get carried away in taking back their traditional role.
     Considering Bill McCartney's parenting and marital woes, he hardly appears to be a desirable role model for your Garden-of-Eden-variety godly man. In 1989, McCartney's daughter gave birth to an illegitimate child after admitting to a number of flings with Colorado footballers. (At least she was loyal to the team.) McCartney, who has a wrathful temper (like Yahweh, like coach), confessed that he contemplated killing the journalist who broke the story. Despite dad's patriarchal and spiritual guidance, daughter maintained her wayward ways, giving birth, in 1993, to yet another illegitimate child fathered by yet another Colorado player.
     McCartney has not been much more successful in reining in his wife, who admitted in a 1990 interview with Sports Illustrated that she smoked and drank, saying "Somebody in the family has to." McCartney also has had his problems with the spirits (not the holy variety), and rumor had it that his resignation from Colorado may be linked to some of the foregoing woes.
     Nowadays McCartney spends more time with his wife, but she spends no time at all with him during PK hullaballoos, as the PK boys prefer women not to be present during their beatific bonding. This follows the long, lamentable tradition of men reaching conclusions about women without female representation.
     For example, in 584 AD, in Lyons, France, a group of 63 Catholic divines held a most interesting debate on the question "Are Women Human?" Happily for the female half of the race, the godly men decided in the affirmative, 32 to 31. But actions, as always, speak louder than words, and it would seem that the negative faction, while losing the battle, actually won the war throughout most of human history.
     As if to prove the old adage, "The more things change, the more they stay the same, " there was a controversy in Algeria in the late 1970s over the reform of the "family code"--which contained elements of Islamic and French colonial law. During the manly debate (naturally no women were allowed to participate) one of the matters discussed was the length of a stick a man could use to beat his wife. Justice would have been served if the decision has specified that no man could beat his wife with a stick longer than his penis.

     Traditionally, the more conservative branches of Christianity have tended to enshrine obedience as a prime spiritual value. This can be a dangerous doctrine. For in religion, as in anything else, there can be too much of a good thing; and when respect for authority devolves into cringing servility, it is surely a bad thing.
     Recently there has arisen, mainly among the "charismatic" Christian tribes, a movement known variously as "shepherding," "headship," "mentoring," or "accountability groups." These groups consist of a small number of people (in the case of PK, only men), who divulge the most intimate details of their lives to a "mentor" who then advises them as to what the Lord desires of them. According to Russ Bellant, a writer who has written several books scrutinizing the Divine Right, PK has started about 10,000 of these small groups nationwide.
     This phenomenon dates back to the early 1970s, when the Catholic "Word of God" movement began in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Leader of WOG emphasized submission of less spiritually mature men and women to the more mature, known, appropriately enough, as "shepherds." Furthermore, an us-against-them- attitude was cultivated among the faithful, in which the outside world was typified as grossly wicked.
     As Dale Schlafer, PK Vice President for Church Relations put it in 1996, "There are forces in our culture not liking what is going on today. In fact, they are marshalling themselves against us. And, of course...they are being orchestrated from the pit of hell." C'mon PK boys, let's get those wagons in a circle--here comes the devil!
     As Bellant wrote, "The culture of submission promoted by the shepherding movement had a profound influence on Bill McCartney. While an assistant football coach in Ann Arbor, McCartney was recruited through a WOG sports outreach to the Word of God / Sword of the Spirit Community in the 1970s, as he enthusiastically recounts in his autobiography, From Ashes to Glory. One of its top shepherds, Jim Berlucci, was one of the two most influential persons in his life, McCartney said in a 1994 interview."
     There is something that is, well, unmanly about putting oneself in so subservient a position. Such a situation puts the shepherd in a position of near-absolute spiritual power that could easily be corruptive.
     Whether many of the PK boys will submit to such a slavish relationship remains to be seen, but there is ample scriptural justification for the pious to bow and scrape. For example, Ephesians 6:5 commands, "Slaves, be obedient to those who are your earthly masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ..." Or to your shepherd? Philippians 2:14 urges the faithful to "Do all things without grumbling or questioning..." (Would that more people grumbled about and questioned more the dictates of our political and religious shepherds!)
     Yes, one hopes the PK boys will question authority. Simply following the advice of a spiritual leader, whose words allegedly flow from the throne of God to the leader of the flock is, at best, a dubious proposition. Nothing grows faster than the human ego, requiring only a meager amount of power to inflate it to the dimensions of a hot-air balloon. It is therefore probable that there will be abuses of authority among the mentor / shepherds as they instruct their sheep-witted brethern on conduct pleasing unto the Lord. But the desire for certainty is so great among many men, and their hunger for "wisdom" so great, that they may be willing to sell their individuality for a mess of conformist pottage.
     A female writer for MS magazine, who attended a PK meeting in drag had this to say: " (Men) in their eagerness to reform themselves, have declared a willingness to be commanded. If you listen closely, most PK speakers combine messages about healing and mutual aid with proclamations about a sacred chain of submission."
     Despite the inherent biblical sexism, homophobia and the likelihood of it becoming little more than a zombie legion of the Divine Right, PK does give some cause for optimism--however slight--in its rhetoric which advocates less emotional repression on the part of the PK boys, as well as a greater awareness of the needs of women and children. In less enlightened times, when a man's home was his castle and his wife and children humble serfs, an occasional beating was thought acceptable in order to discourage ungodly rebellion. ("Blows that wound cleanse away evil..." Proverbs 20:30.)
     But feminism has influenced even the domain of the godly man, as evidenced by this statement by PK board member Gary Oliver: "We need to stop telling little boys they should 'take it like a man.' One of the few emotions men have been allowed to have is anger, and, unfortunately, many women, children, and other men have been the victims of that."
     Encouraging words. Will they be followed by encouraging deeds?

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