GOD SQUAD
Novosad, Nancy
GOD SQUAD The Promise Keepers fight for a man's world by nancy novosad In July 1991, Bill McCartney, then head coach of the University of Colorado's national championship football team, publicly...
...I was getting pressure from all quarters," she says...
...Now that its structure is firmly in place, the Promise Keepers says it plans to "go the distance"—to impose its idea of leadership on the rest of the nation...
...On PK NET...
...the organization's official worldwide web site, you can "Meet Jesus," enter the "Prayer Room...
...To fulfill God's purposes for that generation, so the next generation is positioned to fulfill God's sovereign plan," Phillips says...
...Private piety must become public virtue...
...Of the 1.5 million men attending stadium conferences this year, most are white, married, evangelical Christians with above-average education and earnings...
...Their first step is to reassert male dominance in the family...
...he says...
...When push comes to shove, what's more important, race or gender...
...It was the largest gathering of pastors ever held in the United States...
...The greatest promise any man can make to himself is He must increase and I must decrease...
...Despite concerted outreach to people of color since at least 1993...
...Focus on the Family, James Dobson's mammoth family-values ministry, also publishes some Promise Keepers materials...
...It's a whole new way to live or die...
...The conference, subtitled Fan Into Flame, received a lot of attention for its purposeful interracial, interdenominational dynamic...
...We have divine power...
...That I don't believe men own their wives or their children and that we need to be very cautious of any efforts that may be interpreted in that way...
...Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, says the Promise Keepers is becoming "a powerful vanguard in religious-right activity...
...Berlet says...
...Men leave Promise Keepers conferences accountable in all aspects of their lives to Promise Keepers peers...
...It was a campaign against me and particularly the agency, because I questioned the Promise Keepers...
...Every time the demand arises that the people who hold power and privilege in society share it, those in power make an effort to redefine who "we" arc as opposed to "them...
...Men agree to meet with no fewer than three, and preferably no more than five, other Promise Keepers at least once a week to pray, account for their actions, and to mature as Christians...
...We need to build that church based on men who are anchored into Jesus Christ," Schaffer says, "who understand the male distinctives, who are practicing the godly disciplines, and who are changing the world...
...It's not the proper climate...
...and to recruit and train a minimum 40,000 ambassadors...
...Don't you understand, mister, you are royalty and God has chosen you to be priest of your home...
...The Promise Keepers maintains a tight rein on members...
...There is no enemy that can withstand that kind of force and that kind of initiative under God's hand in this country," Phillips says...
...They're building a list right now of 'godly politicians' to pray for," says Skip Porteous...
...Movement leaders believe they are prophetic agents of God...
...Using Promise Keepers study guides and other organizational manifestos, they begin to restructure their lives, behaviors, and thought processes...
...In February 1996, McCartney appeared on Pat Robertson's 700 Club to talk about a gathering of 43,000 pastors in Atlanta's Georgia Dome at The National Clergy Conference, sponsored by the Promise Keepers...
...For God's sake, discipline your children...
...What happened here [in the case of the Promise Keepers] is that the boys' club has expanded to include people of color...
...We're calling you to war," Bill McCartney told Promise Keepers '93 in Boulder, Colorado...
...But toward what end...
...The Promise Keepers has announced its own Million Man March on Washington in 1997...
...Pohut-sky's board of directors received calls demanding her removal...
...Recently, a Promise Keepers mini-conference at Fort Bragg...
...The calls were very well coordinated, consistent, and invasive...
...They include Pat Robertson, D. James Kennedy of Florida's Coral Ridge Ministries, Bill Bright of the Campus Crusade for Christ, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson of Focus on the Family, and Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship Ministries...
...Porteous says his organization keeps track of communication on a Promise Keepers computer bulletin board...
...He admonishes men to get tough with their wives: "I'm not asking you to ask for your role back, I'm asking you to take it back...
...The Promise Keepers has been deploying men to establish relationships with 400,000 churches across the country...
...volunteer by "Serving with PK," and learn how to fulfill the organization's seven promises...
...McCartney has a well-documented history of radical rightwing political activism, including membership on the board of Colorado for Family Values, the virulent anti-gay organization based in Colorado Springs...
...Pohutsky has worked with children and families at risk for the last twenty-two years...
...The Christian right believes it can manipulate the votes of millions of Christians...
...sees many gay and lesbian youths who have been kicked out of their homes because of their orientation...
...The Promise Keepers is now beginning its "second five-vcar phase" with a budget of $120 million,'a staff of 500, thirty-eight regional offices, and twenty-three conferences scheduled at football stadiums around the country...
...McCartney invokes war a lot...
...Secondly, you represent the Promise Keepers organization," says Ray Vialpando, Colorado state director who appeared with Dan Schaffer, national director of field-ministry training, at the 1994 Leadership Conference in Boulder, Colorado...
...He's the man who's going to set that up and support his pastor so that church can be a dynamic force in the community...
...Key men help pastors create a "male context" in their churches, Schaffer says...
...We don't want you to volunteer if you're just going to be a guy but aren't going to be PK and live up to all of the tenets which I've presented to you...
...It's almost totally political...
...Men must "reclaim" their manhood, according to Evans...
...Promise Keepers leaders ask new-members to make a twentv-five-year commitment to seven promises: to honor and commit to Jesus Christ: pursue vital relationships with other men: practice sexual, moral, and ethical purity: maintain a strong marriage: ' I 'm not asking you to ask for your role back, I'm asking you to take it back...
...For the short term, the most significant development for the organization is the premiere of its Saturday morning one-hour radio program, which debuted on 100 stations across the country in May 1996...
...Power in America has traditionally been accorded to straight, white, Christian men," says Chip Berlet, who is writing a book about rightwing populism and scape-goating...
...He has connections to Randall Terry and has given speeches to Terry's group, Operation Rescue...
...It's Promise Keepers...
...One-quarter of all registered voters are white evangelical Christian Protestants, and the most powerful religious force in politics today, according to a study released June 25, 1996, by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press...
...By the hundreds of thousands, members of this evangelical Christian organization pack football stadiums across the country, where they are exhorted to take their rightful place as society's leaders...
...Their relationships with God, their commitment to their family, their sexuality, their finances, and their relationship to all other believers and nonbelievers are scrutinized, directed, and overseen by Promise Keepers accountability partners...
...By the year 2000, the strongest voice in America, a booming voice, is going to belong to the men of God," McCartney announced...
...The board allowed her to restate her concerns as a private individual...
...Influential members of the community threatened to withdraw their financial support from Pohutsky's organization...
...Some members of The Sanctuary board met in closed session and attempted to orchestrate her dismissal, Pohutsky says, but they were unsuccessful...
...Ambassadors" introduce the Promise Keepers to the church and community, then recruit, train, and supervise "key men" in the local churches as they work in concert with pastors...
...While the Promise Keepers declare emphatically that it is apolitical, many well-financed leaders of the religious right publicly support the ministry...
...and to become "the strongest voice in America"—a voice that threatens a democratic, pluralistic society...
...Randy Phillips, president of Promise Keepers, pastor, and former Bible-study leader of the Denver Broncos professional football team, cites David and the men of the twelve tribes united under him as the Promise Keepers' model...
...We have a holy cause...
...The loss of personal autonomy is in keeping with the strident authoritarian structure of the organization...
...1 believe that they are God's children, too, and deserve to be treated with respect and honor...
...Robertson said recently that "evangelical Christians and pro-life Catholics have the ability to elect any person to any office in any state, city, or town in America...
...The enemy is a pervasive feminine influence...
...The goal for the year 2000: to develop a relationship with half the churches and train at least 200,000 key men...
...There was no enemy that could withstand their unity and their strength.You unite the brothers together...
...an expert on the radical right and policy analyst with the Institute for First Amendment Studies...
...But to command, you've got to know what's going on...
...Ambassadors also receive training in public speaking, equipping them to give national leadership seminars...
...Don't you understand, mister, you are royalty and God has chosen you to be priest of your home?' support the local church financially and through their involvement...
...You do know, don't you, that we're raising our children at a time when it's an effeminate society," he told his troops...
...They can be quite adamant about it...
...We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we capture every thought to make it obedient to Christ...
...The Promise Keepers is the fulfillment of McCartney's vision...
...Between Thursday evening and Friday, Pohutsky received about 100 telephone calls protesting her statement to the newspaper...
...I just said I had concerns regarding the archaic system of family relationships that we know has not been very successful in the past," she says...
...By ioining forces with the rest of the religious right, it plans to "take America for Christ...
...Recently, Harvey Baynes, a pastor who works for the Promise Keepers, was arrested for his activities at a Denver Planned Parenthood clinic...
...We have seen immorality corrupting our nation...
...the Promise Keepers held its first simultaneous conferences on April 26 and 27 this year with 70.000 men in Kansas City's Arrowhead Stadium and 59.000 men in Seattle's King-dome...
...Promise Keepers conferences have been drawing tew minorities, even in cities like Detroit...
...In Detroit last year, he gay-bashed to make his point about racial reconciliation: "I am here to serve notice on you today, if black homosexuals can get together with white homosexuals, and if yellow homosexuals can get together with Hispanic homosexuals and produce immorality in the name of hell, then black and white Christians can get together and bring the kingdom of God in the name of heaven...
...Last year, a few days before a Promise Keepers conference in Michigan, a local newspaper contacted Mary Pohutsky, who was the executive director at a service agency called The Sanctuary in Detroit...
...The Promise Keepers' idea of male involvement in family affairs places the emphasis on discipline, command, and control...
...Women pastors were not allowed to attend...
...he asks...
...PK NET publicly and directly addresses the movement's global aspirations...
...Still, Pohutsky was forced to issue a retraction of her statement...
...Evans receives loud applause for his homophobic diatribes...
...GOD SQUAD The Promise Keepers fight for a man's world by nancy novosad In July 1991, Bill McCartney, then head coach of the University of Colorado's national championship football team, publicly articulated his vision of a radical Christian patriarchy equipped and deployed against a "corrupt and deceived culture...
...I hope you have good protection," she said when I first contacted her for an interview...
...She went on to say that her organization Nancy Novosad is writing a book about the Christian men's movement, male identity, and radical Christianity...
...The sin of racism is insidious and ingrained in the fabric of our society," McCartney said at a June 21 news conference in Denver, at which the Promise Keepers pledged $1 million and "thousands of man hours" to rebuild black churches burned in racially motivated incidents across the country...
...It smacked of fanaticism that to me is reminiscent of what I learned about fascism...
...The second principle of war is unity of effort...
...We've got to surrender, yield, and obey and allow this King of Kings and Lord of Lords to come in and take over our lives...
...Loss of self is an imperative, since men must solidify as a team around one goal and only one goal: to advance God's kingdom...
...His charge to men regarding their children is no less authoritarian: "We must be willing to discipline our children...
...If there's at least one key man for every church we develop a relationship with," Vialpando said, "there will be at least 200,000 key men in America—that's an army...
...Dobson...
...to train and supervise the key men...
...As an ambassador, you represent first and foremost Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life...
...As McCartney explained in 1991...
...Colson, and Bright speak at Promise Keepers conferences and contribute articles to the group's books and magazines...
...In his interview with his friend McCartney, Robertson asked about the exponential growth of the Promise Keepers and what McCartney saw for the future...
...move beyond racial and denominational barriers to achieve unity within the Body of Christ...
...Psalm 2:8 says, 'Ask and I will give you the nation for your inheritance, the outermost parts of the Earth for your possession,'" McCartney responded...
...The newspaper article ran Wednesday, April 26, 1995...
...he told a crowd of 51.000 Promise Keepers...
...The first principle of war is unity of command," he says...
...Men must say, "I want to be a man again," Evans declares...
...to "give the country back to God...
...The paper wanted her reaction to the Promise Keepers...
...North Carolina, attracted more than 1,200 military personnel...
...Later that day...
...McCartney's war is a gender war...
...By the end of the weekend, she was seriously rattled...
...As a step toward the goal of satellite-linking two million men...
...We need young boys that are launched to be men and that has to be imitated for them by a godly man...
...The newspaper that ran the controversial Promise Keepers article received protest calls for more than two weeks after it appeared and subsequently ran a column indicating the callers were right, the paper should not have devoted so much space to the protesters...
...The demise of our community and culture" is the fault of "sissified" men who have been overly influenced by women, according to Tony Evans, a black Dallas evangelist, protege of radical-right kingmaker James Dobson, and one of the Promise Keepers' most popular speakers...
...and actively evangelize the gospel, "making disciples of all nations...
...The organization's media, publishing, and merchandising arms rake in millions for the Promise Keepers...
Vol. 60 • August 1996 • No. 8
