A long time ago, before I became fond of lime-green text, I had another website. I wrote it in the course of a day during Spring Break last year--back when I still had no clue what my masters thesis was really going to be about. You'll find no references to the theory I plan to use, no clear focus, and very little understanding. This is okay. That attempt at a page helped bring me to the blessed clarity I feel today.
And if you believe I'm totally clear on things today, I've got some ocean front property in Nebraska I'd like to sell you. Anyway, practically the entire contents of my old website exist on this page. It's not as bad as I think it is. Browse at will.
Promise Keepers is one of the fastest growing religious movements in the United States at this time. Their 1995 tax return form showed their income to be in excess of 57 million dollars. Their 1996 income was projected to be 120 million.
One million men were expected to attend their rallies in 1996.
When you consider they started in 1990 with 72 men meeting at a basketball court, that's a very big deal.
This site considers what Promise Keepers believe, why they believe it and what they plan to do about it.
Promise Keepers: What Is It Anyway?
Promise Keepers is a Christian organization that attempts to recruit men of all denominations and races. Through rallies and accountability groups, the organization tries to promote Christian unity and male involvement in the lives of their wives and children.
That's what they say. Other people say that Promise Keepers promotes the domination of women.
I'm doing my masters thesis (in sociology) on the group. In the future, you'll see a shortened version of that masters thesis on these pages.
I hope to include information on the group's beliefs, their history, the theory I'm using to analyze them, and finally, my findings.
At the present, you'll find a short history, why I find the group worth studying, and my first impressions of them.
Investigating these groups will expand sociologists' knowlege of social movements because recent social movements have come from the left (civil rights, feminism, environmentalism...). We don't know whether movements from the left and right work the same. Here's a chance to find out.
Promise Keepers I've spoken to, disagree, saying that the organization encourages men to serve their children and spouses.
Sociology ought to be involved in the issues of the day. Investigation may actually make things clearer. So I hope.
Bill McCartney, coach of the University of Colorado's football team, discussed his dream of gathering Christian men together to pray with another man during a ride in a car. Soon after, they gathered 72 men together in a basketball court.
After that, all I know is that they grew. Well, that's not entirely true. I also know that Focus on the Family, an evangelical organization helped fund Promise Keepers at the beginning and publishes its books even now.
All the same, I've read Bill McCartney's autobiography From Ashes to Glory. While the Promise Keepers organization does not appear within its pages, some very interesting things do-- especially if you're trying to discover the sources of Promise Keeper beliefs.
His parents brought him up Catholic in Riverview, Michigan. He went to college at the University of Missouri and coached two different high school teams before being hired as an assistant coach at the University of Michigan. The University of Colorado hired him in 1982.
McCartney's book provides interesting information about his beliefs
and makes me suspect
his concerns guide the organization. In reading the book I learned:
1. About Bill McCartney's conversion experience. Christianity became much more important to him in 1974.
2. Bill McCartney regrets being overinvolved in running a football team and leaving the raising of his family to his wife. In his book he describes her as deserving all the credit for his children.
3. McCartney expresses concern for the minority players on his college football teams. Not only are they athletes in addition to students, but also minorities in a mostly white environment.
Themes of making men committed Christians, involving them in their families' lives, and racial reconciliation run through the Promise Keepers organization's literature.
If you have additional suggestions for where I can find information on the organization's history, I'll take them. Please email me.
I'm giving my opinion previous to doing much actual research. I've read a couple books and a lot of newspaper articles on Promise Keepers, but a case studyrequires much more than that.
I plan to read more books, articles and their magazine, attend a Promise
Keepers conference, attend their regular weekly meetings, visit websites,
read their newsgroups, and generally immerse myself in everything they
have to offer. After that I'll analyze patterns in the data and have an
opinion worth hearing.
Many men work first and see their family as their jobs allow. This can't be good either for their marriages or for their relationships with their children. If Promise Keepers can change that then men will have taken a big step forward.
At the same time, I can't help but notice something missing from Promise Keepers talk about women. Promise Keepers devotional books include a lot of material on remaining faithful to your wife, avoiding pornography and other things like that.
Yet, Promise Keepers never addresses labor in the home. Research indicates that even though women work in increasing numbers outside the home, they still do as much as they ever did inside the home (laundry, cooking, cleaning, child care...). Men do very little to help. If Promise Keepers ever promotes learning to clean and cook, I will be very impressed.
As for racial reconcilation, I applaud that. It's very good to see a conservative movement care about that issue. Promise Keepers rallies often include African-American speakers talking about their experience of living in the United States. I've heard men (white) talk about these speeches and about hugging black Promise Keepers afterward.
I know the speeches affected people in the rally. I can only hope it affected them outside. I find it interesting, however, that Promise Keepers remains by all reports an almost entirely white organization. The National Baptist Convention USA, the nation's largest black denomination started a separate but similar movement named "Trusted Partners."
Do blacks see racist undertones in Promise Keepers? I'm curious.
Overall, I respect Promise Keepers goals. I believe they do intend that men get involved in their families and that blacks and whites reconcile.
At the same time, I wonder if male involvement might not also assume male leadership (and female submission) in the household? Does the lack of minority membership mean more than bad communication between the Promise Keepers organization and black churches?
I don't know. I hope to find out.