G
Gandalf Grey
Guest
Stadium Revival: Promise Keepers Try to Regain the Offensive
By Bill Berkowitz
Created Jun 29 2007 - 9:13am
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of "Stand in the Gap," evangelicals hope to
bring 250,000 men to Washington to re-ignite the Christian men's movement
Ten years ago this October, somewhere between 500,000 to one-million -
depending on who was doing the tallying - Christian men gathered in
Washington, D.C., to "Stand in the Gap." At the time, the Promise Keepers
(PK), the chief organizer of the event, appeared on the verge of becoming a
major force in conservative politics. Within a few years, however, money
dried up, media interest peaked and peeled off, and leadership squabbles
ensued. The bubble burst. Despite scaling down their activities and
continuing to function, the organization pretty much dropped off the radar
screens of the traditional media.
With its 10th anniversary only a few months away, get ready for a SITG
sequel!
Although, according to several press reports, the Denver, Colorado-based
Promise Keepers (website) is only one of some 75 or so groups involved in
staging the October event, it is far and away the most storied.
Founded in 1990 by former University of Colorado head football coach, Bill
McCartney, the organization captured the attention of the media through its
high-profile stadium rallies that attracted tens of thousands of
participants. Christian men, accompanied by their buddies and/or children,
prayed, sang, and bought just about everything available from PK's commerce
department from t-shirts and hats, to mugs and bumper stickers, to books and
DVDs.
The success of Promise Keepers alarmed liberals and progressives: Women's
groups and gay rights organizations staged mini-protest rallies of their own
outside PK events at arenas and stadiums. During this period, Lee Cokorinos,
as senior researcher at the Center for Democracy Studies of the Nation
Institute, helped coordinate a national campaign - centered on the
organization - which received a considerable amount of national attention.
This led to the establishment of PKWatch, a research bulletin that,
Cokorinos told Media Transparency in an email interview, "focused on the
growth of PK, and served as a critical source of information for
progressives fighting back against its agenda of putting women into
submission."
These days "the conservative Christian men's movement is still out there,
but is less visible because they are not holding massive stadium events as
at the height of PK," Cokorinos pointed out. "It's much more
regionally-focused as evidenced by its shift to arena events. It is also
much more structured along denominational lines - as different ministries
have developed their own men's ministries, such as the Southern Baptist
Convention's men's ministry."
Since the first "Stand in the Gap" in 1997, the organization has held more
than 160 conferences. "PK is still a fairly large organization," Cokorinos
added. "It had revenues of over $25 million in 2005, the most recent 990
available, and they were still paying Bill McCartney $100,000 a year that
year despite the scandals of yesteryear."
According to Cokorinos, a number of issues led to the organization's fall
from the heights it had reached in 1997. "There was a fight-back by
progressives, that especially engaged the feminist movement. Rarely has a
conservative religious movement been as directly confronted ideologically as
was PK. NOW and the Feminist Majority Foundation, backed by the solid
research we did at the Center for Democracy Studies, took on PK and
essentially devastated its cover story that they were merely compassionate
men 'coming home' to be responsible."
One of the most powerful frames created by Promise Keepers leadership was
that these Christian men were only interested in being good husbands and
good fathers. For Cokorinos, when Promise Keepers used the phrase "coming
home," its really meant "to put women in submission, and network with one
another to make that happen."
There were also myriad "turf issues," says Cokorinos. "As I argued a decade
ago, PK was a product of the right wing evangelical movement. They supported
it, put it together, made it grow, staffed it (Focus on the Family's Dr.
James Dobson lent it dozens of full time staffers), and backed it."
"There were always a lot of tensions, however, over whether PK was engaged
in 'sheep stealing,' and whether their small groups were taking energy from
the churches, especially from other denominations. When these forces pulled
the plug, PK was cut down to size."
"A lot of the conservative evangelical leadership in the Southern Baptist
Convention, ELCA, Assemblies of God and other denominations felt their
memberships were being targeted. And PK always had a problem attracting
Catholics. The Atlanta 1996 Pastors conference - the largest gathering of
pastors in history - brought a lot of this tension to a head. Also, as the
right wing mega-churches have grown stronger over the past decade, a lot of
the men's ministry efforts have been brought in-house (for example, TD
Jakes'
Man Power)."
And the situation wasn't helped by what Cokorinos calls "the corruption
issue," which particularly "revolved around McCartney's transgressions."
In those heady days of the early 1990s and right through the "Stand in the
Gap" rally, the nation's traditional media seemed to develop a fairly
non-critical view of the movement. While the notion of racial reconciliation
that PK leaders espoused was emphasized, little attention was paid to the
underlying aspects of racism itself. Racial reconciliation meant not so much
support for racial equality as it meant opening the doors to African
American pastors who supported PK's core beliefs and to Black men who
accepted the organization's credo.
From the beginning, "the story line was superficial, 'men trying to get
right with God' in football stadia," longtime right wing watcher and
journalist Fred Clarkson told me in an email. "While there was some truth to
that, and the events were remarkable spectacles, there was much else to the
story that went uncovered."
"But it was the very shallowness of the coverage that ultimately led to the
lack of follow-up. Once that story had been told, there wasn't much more to
tell, largely because the media are afraid of most of the controversial
aspects of religious movements and report on them poorly," Clarkson added.
"There are a few aspects of the PK phenomenon that the media largely
missed," said Clarkson, author of "Eternal Hostility," one of the earliest
books to document the rise of the new religious right. "One is that there is
a long tradition of stadium revival meetings in the summer that are simply
updates of the tent revivals of an earlier era. They continue to this day."
"Another aspect of the PK phenomenon, as demonstrated by their own data at
the time was that they were not building very much on the people they
already had; people who were frequenters of revivals or who were already
evangelical Christians who came out of communities that were part of that
tradition. Additionally, a large percentage of those who attended PK events,
had attended previous events making them the PK equivalent of the Dead
Heads. I think after a certain point, the novelty wore off for both
participants and the media. There was less there than met the eye."
Lee Cokorinos, now the executive director of the Capacity Development Group,
a consulting partnership that assists progressive nonprofits with strategic
planning on diversity and gender equality issues, says that the PK media
story is actually "very complex and [agrees that it] has never been fully
told." The organization was "covered quite uncritically by the mainstream
media (on the religion reporter beats, which are very uncritical) until NOW,
the FMF and some progressive religious groups (Unitarians, United
Methodists, progressive Baptists) began actively seeking out the press to
set the record straight."
"The existence of two opposed sides both increased the coverage - it jumped
it to the news pages - and made the coverage more edgy and interesting.
However, the media lost interest when the stadium events stopped and the
scandals multiplied. Ironically the more controversial PK became, the less
the mainstream media was interested."
Fred Clarkson, co-founder of the blog TalkToAction, also pointed out that
one of the tipping points "for the sharp decline of PK was the McCartney sex
scandal. It came out during media interviews promoting a new book that he
had once cheated on his wife; he proceeded to tell her about it, and then
went off to do the Promise Keepers. She said she had been nearly suicidal.
The scandal was not so much the confession of a long ago infidelity, but the
way he had neglected his wife while PK was on the rise that demonstrated how
McCartney talked the talk but couldn't walk the walk. And it was crystal
clear in national TV interviews. 'Coach' McCartney, famous for encouraging
men to be good husbands, was unable to be one himself, and apparently did
not even know it. I think that the episode made it clear to the media and to
would-be Promise Keepers, that they had been had."
Ironically, says Clarkson, "PK served as a catalyst in both its success and
decline -opening-up the market for other Christian men's ministries, and the
institutionalization of PK principles of male 'headship' in the family, and
in the church and in society. The Southern Baptist Convention, during the
Paige Patterson era, passed resolutions endorsing the notion of wifely
submission in marriage, and banning the ordination of female pastors."
Although Clarkson believes that "it's too early to tell if the October event
will really have any juice - I recall that then-president Bill Clinton
endorsed the 1997 rally - so if it gains even a little bit of traction major
politicians from both parties will be seeking to have their names associated
with it in some way." After all, Clarkson noted, "Faith is in fashion this
political season."
_______
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
By Bill Berkowitz
Created Jun 29 2007 - 9:13am
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of "Stand in the Gap," evangelicals hope to
bring 250,000 men to Washington to re-ignite the Christian men's movement
Ten years ago this October, somewhere between 500,000 to one-million -
depending on who was doing the tallying - Christian men gathered in
Washington, D.C., to "Stand in the Gap." At the time, the Promise Keepers
(PK), the chief organizer of the event, appeared on the verge of becoming a
major force in conservative politics. Within a few years, however, money
dried up, media interest peaked and peeled off, and leadership squabbles
ensued. The bubble burst. Despite scaling down their activities and
continuing to function, the organization pretty much dropped off the radar
screens of the traditional media.
With its 10th anniversary only a few months away, get ready for a SITG
sequel!
Although, according to several press reports, the Denver, Colorado-based
Promise Keepers (website) is only one of some 75 or so groups involved in
staging the October event, it is far and away the most storied.
Founded in 1990 by former University of Colorado head football coach, Bill
McCartney, the organization captured the attention of the media through its
high-profile stadium rallies that attracted tens of thousands of
participants. Christian men, accompanied by their buddies and/or children,
prayed, sang, and bought just about everything available from PK's commerce
department from t-shirts and hats, to mugs and bumper stickers, to books and
DVDs.
The success of Promise Keepers alarmed liberals and progressives: Women's
groups and gay rights organizations staged mini-protest rallies of their own
outside PK events at arenas and stadiums. During this period, Lee Cokorinos,
as senior researcher at the Center for Democracy Studies of the Nation
Institute, helped coordinate a national campaign - centered on the
organization - which received a considerable amount of national attention.
This led to the establishment of PKWatch, a research bulletin that,
Cokorinos told Media Transparency in an email interview, "focused on the
growth of PK, and served as a critical source of information for
progressives fighting back against its agenda of putting women into
submission."
These days "the conservative Christian men's movement is still out there,
but is less visible because they are not holding massive stadium events as
at the height of PK," Cokorinos pointed out. "It's much more
regionally-focused as evidenced by its shift to arena events. It is also
much more structured along denominational lines - as different ministries
have developed their own men's ministries, such as the Southern Baptist
Convention's men's ministry."
Since the first "Stand in the Gap" in 1997, the organization has held more
than 160 conferences. "PK is still a fairly large organization," Cokorinos
added. "It had revenues of over $25 million in 2005, the most recent 990
available, and they were still paying Bill McCartney $100,000 a year that
year despite the scandals of yesteryear."
According to Cokorinos, a number of issues led to the organization's fall
from the heights it had reached in 1997. "There was a fight-back by
progressives, that especially engaged the feminist movement. Rarely has a
conservative religious movement been as directly confronted ideologically as
was PK. NOW and the Feminist Majority Foundation, backed by the solid
research we did at the Center for Democracy Studies, took on PK and
essentially devastated its cover story that they were merely compassionate
men 'coming home' to be responsible."
One of the most powerful frames created by Promise Keepers leadership was
that these Christian men were only interested in being good husbands and
good fathers. For Cokorinos, when Promise Keepers used the phrase "coming
home," its really meant "to put women in submission, and network with one
another to make that happen."
There were also myriad "turf issues," says Cokorinos. "As I argued a decade
ago, PK was a product of the right wing evangelical movement. They supported
it, put it together, made it grow, staffed it (Focus on the Family's Dr.
James Dobson lent it dozens of full time staffers), and backed it."
"There were always a lot of tensions, however, over whether PK was engaged
in 'sheep stealing,' and whether their small groups were taking energy from
the churches, especially from other denominations. When these forces pulled
the plug, PK was cut down to size."
"A lot of the conservative evangelical leadership in the Southern Baptist
Convention, ELCA, Assemblies of God and other denominations felt their
memberships were being targeted. And PK always had a problem attracting
Catholics. The Atlanta 1996 Pastors conference - the largest gathering of
pastors in history - brought a lot of this tension to a head. Also, as the
right wing mega-churches have grown stronger over the past decade, a lot of
the men's ministry efforts have been brought in-house (for example, TD
Jakes'
Man Power)."
And the situation wasn't helped by what Cokorinos calls "the corruption
issue," which particularly "revolved around McCartney's transgressions."
In those heady days of the early 1990s and right through the "Stand in the
Gap" rally, the nation's traditional media seemed to develop a fairly
non-critical view of the movement. While the notion of racial reconciliation
that PK leaders espoused was emphasized, little attention was paid to the
underlying aspects of racism itself. Racial reconciliation meant not so much
support for racial equality as it meant opening the doors to African
American pastors who supported PK's core beliefs and to Black men who
accepted the organization's credo.
From the beginning, "the story line was superficial, 'men trying to get
right with God' in football stadia," longtime right wing watcher and
journalist Fred Clarkson told me in an email. "While there was some truth to
that, and the events were remarkable spectacles, there was much else to the
story that went uncovered."
"But it was the very shallowness of the coverage that ultimately led to the
lack of follow-up. Once that story had been told, there wasn't much more to
tell, largely because the media are afraid of most of the controversial
aspects of religious movements and report on them poorly," Clarkson added.
"There are a few aspects of the PK phenomenon that the media largely
missed," said Clarkson, author of "Eternal Hostility," one of the earliest
books to document the rise of the new religious right. "One is that there is
a long tradition of stadium revival meetings in the summer that are simply
updates of the tent revivals of an earlier era. They continue to this day."
"Another aspect of the PK phenomenon, as demonstrated by their own data at
the time was that they were not building very much on the people they
already had; people who were frequenters of revivals or who were already
evangelical Christians who came out of communities that were part of that
tradition. Additionally, a large percentage of those who attended PK events,
had attended previous events making them the PK equivalent of the Dead
Heads. I think after a certain point, the novelty wore off for both
participants and the media. There was less there than met the eye."
Lee Cokorinos, now the executive director of the Capacity Development Group,
a consulting partnership that assists progressive nonprofits with strategic
planning on diversity and gender equality issues, says that the PK media
story is actually "very complex and [agrees that it] has never been fully
told." The organization was "covered quite uncritically by the mainstream
media (on the religion reporter beats, which are very uncritical) until NOW,
the FMF and some progressive religious groups (Unitarians, United
Methodists, progressive Baptists) began actively seeking out the press to
set the record straight."
"The existence of two opposed sides both increased the coverage - it jumped
it to the news pages - and made the coverage more edgy and interesting.
However, the media lost interest when the stadium events stopped and the
scandals multiplied. Ironically the more controversial PK became, the less
the mainstream media was interested."
Fred Clarkson, co-founder of the blog TalkToAction, also pointed out that
one of the tipping points "for the sharp decline of PK was the McCartney sex
scandal. It came out during media interviews promoting a new book that he
had once cheated on his wife; he proceeded to tell her about it, and then
went off to do the Promise Keepers. She said she had been nearly suicidal.
The scandal was not so much the confession of a long ago infidelity, but the
way he had neglected his wife while PK was on the rise that demonstrated how
McCartney talked the talk but couldn't walk the walk. And it was crystal
clear in national TV interviews. 'Coach' McCartney, famous for encouraging
men to be good husbands, was unable to be one himself, and apparently did
not even know it. I think that the episode made it clear to the media and to
would-be Promise Keepers, that they had been had."
Ironically, says Clarkson, "PK served as a catalyst in both its success and
decline -opening-up the market for other Christian men's ministries, and the
institutionalization of PK principles of male 'headship' in the family, and
in the church and in society. The Southern Baptist Convention, during the
Paige Patterson era, passed resolutions endorsing the notion of wifely
submission in marriage, and banning the ordination of female pastors."
Although Clarkson believes that "it's too early to tell if the October event
will really have any juice - I recall that then-president Bill Clinton
endorsed the 1997 rally - so if it gains even a little bit of traction major
politicians from both parties will be seeking to have their names associated
with it in some way." After all, Clarkson noted, "Faith is in fashion this
political season."
_______
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson