ARE THE PROMISE KEEPERS REAL? ARE THEY BIBLICAL?

INTRODUCTION-- This weekend, a group called the "Promise Keepers" is having a rally in Washington, D. C. The group is both praised and ridiculed. It is supported and it is opposed. It is charged with being a clandestine right-wing political organization. It denies having any political agenda. What is it?

LESSON--

1. Basically, it is a nearly spontaneous movement reacting to the challenge of its founder. Bill McCartney, former football coach at University of Colorado.
   
   1. Bill lost his family because of alcohol abuse, adultery, and a failure to instil biblical moral values in his children (his daughter had two illegitimate children by two different Colorado football players).
      
   2. In a spirit of repentence for his failure, he projects his own losses into a rallying cry for all men who have suffered similar failures.
      
2. PK's organizational base is loosely tied to Evangelical doctrine, which emphasizes the direct work of the Holy Spirit to effect change in the sinner's attitudes and conditions.
   
3. The critics of PK's runs the gamut of feminists, and male feminist sympathizers. Here are some quotes I picked out of the New York Times (internet).
   
   1. MARY STEWART VAN LEEUWEN says, "As a Christian feminist, I consider myself a friendly critic of the Promise Keepers. Indeed, I think Promise Keepers is neither an absolute good nor an unmitigated evil; instead, it is a group with a confusing mixed message. Promise Keepers is responding to two of the strongest challenges of feminism, even though it would rather cite God as its sole inspiration. The first challenge is eliminating the stereotypes about housework. As Arlie Hochschild noted in her 1989 book "The Second Shift," it does women little good to enter the work force if men don't move into the domestic arena. So to the extent that Promise Keepers persuades men to take care of their children, it is helping advance an important goal of feminism.
      
      1. She also writes, "Promise Keepers helps men feel safe about crying and confessing to their sins. It sets a tone of tough love and new beginnings, much like Alcoholics Anonymous. That's good, as far as it goes, but when it comes to equality between the sexes, Promise Keepers doesn't know where it stands.
         

         Unlike its no-holds-barred statement promoting racial reconciliation, Promise Keepers has no formal position on whether men are heads of the household. Some Promise Keepers representatives advocate full equality in marriage, while others endorse husbands' benevolent paternalism. Sexual equality is, Promise Keepers notes, an issue on which evangelicals disagree, so it does not make its speakers toe any party line. But when Bill McCartney, the founder of Promise Keepers, says, as he did last week, that God has proclaimed husbands to be the spiritual leaders at home, couldn't one assume that this is the group's official position? Or if Promise Keepers is equivocating on this issue, is it also equivocating about its political neutrality?
         

         I would like to see Promise Keepers evolve into an organization that recognizes equality between the sexes. Failing that, I would like the group to send a consistent message. Then I would know what I'm dealing with, even if it's a position with which I disagree." (Mary Stewart Van Leeuwen is a professor of psychology at Eastern College.)
         

      2. The reason why PK's has no clear agenda on the "equality of the sexes" is directly associated with the Liberal trend in religion, which has infiltrated many Evangelical churchrs, causing them to adopt some modern, anti biblical views on many subjects (sin, easy grace, whimsical worship practices, as well as the equality of the sexes.)
         
   2. GLORIA STEINEM, a well-known feminist, wrote in 1992, before Promise Keepers became a topic of the nightly news shows, "Make no mistake about it, "women want a men's movement. If you doubt that," she wrote, "just listen to women's desperate testimonies of hope that the men in our lives will become more nurturing toward children, more able to talk about emotions, less hooked on a spectrum of control that extends from not listening through to violence, and . . . less repressive of their own human qualities that are called 'feminine.'"
      
   3. MAUREEN DOWD, writing in New York Times, says, "I'm not at all alarmed, as Patricia Ireland of NOW is, that the Promise Keepers will force women into submission. It's way too late for that. (in other words, she thinks that women have already won the battle of equality.) I'm just tired of men exploring their fragilities. It usually leads to trouble. When Promise Keepers talk about taking back "Christian leadership" of the family, and the TV clicker, it seems like the Iron John chest-beating of men who don't know how to adjust to a world where they are no longer the lords of reproductio n..........The Promise Keepers offer an odd trade-off: We won't cheat, and in return we get to run the family. O.K., we women really, really appreciate that. In return for no longer doing what you promised at the altar not to do, you can boss us around? I would like to start a women's movement called the Promise Takers. We would extract promises from the men in our lives, and we wouldn't settle for not cheating. We have the poor dears, insecure about their role in society, over a barrel. Here's what they have to pledge:
      

      (1) That they will shut up already, and just go ahead and clean the gutters and change the diapers. (2) That they will not, as some Promise Keepers are wont to do, wash our feet. (3) That they will not go off to hold hands with other men and celebrate Coach's mundane illumination that a real man "lives out what he says." (4) That they will stop thinking of sports as a metaphor for life. (5) That they will stop exploring the holy mysteries of their gender. (6) That they will give up weak and chatty for strong and silent. (7) That they will restore shame in America, and forsake all exhibitionist exercises in mass repentance. (8) That they will stop worrying about who wears the pants. We both do."
      

4. MARTIN MARTY, a male commentator, has a different viewpoint.
   
   1. He says, "The National Organization for Women, other largely secular women's groups, much of the press and those suspicious of the Christian right in politics all have been firing away at the Promise Keepers. Is the movement a mask for right-wing political movements, whose leadership many of these men are no doubt right at home with? The critics may be making that leap, but the leaders of the Promise Keepers seem not to be; they are trying to steer clear of overt political organizing.
      

      Oddly, the critics may be working to the group's advantage. Just as some signs of the group's decline -- smaller stadium crowds, staff reductions -- have become evident, feminist critics have come along to help the Promise Keepers' leaders convince followers that there really are enemies out there."
      

   2. Yet, even Mr. Marty is confused. He also says, "Listen to the muscularly Christian rhetoric at the stadiums or from the rostrum on the Mall and you will hear the consistent call for men to change their way, to keep promises to spouse and family. It is unfortunate that the speakers and leaders gravitate to biblical texts that portray God in a patriarchal way and 'the man of the house' as the necessary upholder of authority. Critics think this adds up to an incitement to abuse women and children, to create victims. But this is contrary to the experience reported by many families of Promise Keepers.
      

      Instead, what bothers evangelical women is that so many men have had so much trouble adjusting to the new world around them, a world that differs from that of their mothers or grandmothers. Today, many evangelical women have added the stress and satisfactions of work outside the home to their work in the home. They want more help from their husbands. Many of these husbands have been knocked off balance and want help righting themselves. Promise Keepers has come to their rescue.
      

      Is it not possible that this sprawling movement is, in its present expression, as benign and as simple as that? As we watch the gathering and overhear the prayers and speeches, instead of seeing a threat we should listen for what is really bothering the men. Perhaps this most recent "muscular Christian" phenomenon is sincere at its core." (Martin E. Marty is professor of the history of American religion at the University of Chicago and directs its Public Religion Project.)
      

5. Woe to the Feminists! Wouldn't it be a shame, if men could came around to the Bible concept of manhood?
   
   1. They would begin to love their wives, as Christ teaches, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church." (Ephesians 5:25-29)
      
   2. They would treat wives as unequal in one realm, but equal in another. "Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered." (1 Peter 3:7)
      
   3. They would take responsibility for raising their children. "And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord." (Ephesians 6:4)
      
   4. They would be "head" of the family, but not tyrants. Paul wrote inspired spiritual advice to the Corinthians, and said, "Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ. 2 Now I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things and keep the traditions just as I delivered them to you. 3 But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God." (1 Corinthians 11:1-3)
      

      (NOTE: It is no disadvantage to a woman to be under the headship of a man, so long as that man recognizes that Christ is head over him, and yields to that authority.)
      

APPLICATION--

1. For men floundering in denominational confusion, and modern gender stresses, Promise Keepers may be a good outlet. If it lives up to its "promises," it can certainly do no harm to society.
   
2. For men secure in the knowledge of their role in God's order, Promise Keepers is no option at all. Submission to Christ is all they need.
   
3. As for keeping promises, the Lord has a word or two.
   
   1. Matthew 5:33-37 "Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, `You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.' 34 But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; 35 nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 But let your `Yes' be `Yes,' and your `No,' `No.' For whatever is more than these is from the evil one."
      
   2. Romans 1:28-32 "And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; (one of which was) covenant-breakers." (And Paul says, "They that practise such things are worthy of death.")
      
4. Therefore: Men!....be Christian men, in all that it means to be Christian!