ZmeyNet // "Promise Keepers"

Promise Keepers: Groundless Threat or Real Danger?
By Zmey Smirnoff
In the religious field of our life now one of the most popular issues for conversations is a huge organization with very uncertain goals- the Promise Keepers. This organization has been created in 1990 by Bill McCartney in order to unite all male Christians of the world in one "family" and to make them to obey the seven rules of Promise Keepers. Nothing new for Christianity, but what was the most amazing that he succeeded in his difficult business. Now there are 2.3 million Promise Keepers all over America excluding European, Canadian and 36 other regional offices. The president of PK, Randy Phillips, is trying to assure the U.S. Government and Congress that his organization doesn't have any political intentions in order to get Congress's approval that will grant him a "green light" in any of his business. But at the same time the PK claims not to have any laws or rules except the Bible, and they proclaimed that only "God's will" will control their activity, and as far as I concerened this is already more than enough to prohibit this movement forever. The social opinion about the PK varies but opinions of the mass media have separated in two opposite parts. Some hail the Promise Keepers and believe that the huge religious movement will turn all Americans into a "Christian nation "( and doom this nation for extinction), but others argue this point of view, trying to explain that the Promise Keepers may cause instability in the religious environment of the world, especially nowadays when the Satanic movement is very active. No wonder that my subjective point of view matches the opinion of the skeptics. I don't believe that the PK leaders have no political intentions. Along with this I think that such huge religious organization may be very unsafe and hard to control by the Government and Congress, because there are 2.3 million Promise Keepers and even American Army will have serious difficulties to stop them. I bet that we all understand that the Promise Keepers are extremely negative and even a dangerous movement. The first reason why the American Congress and Government should restrict and eventually prohibit this particular movement is because it is illogical and unnatural for a such big religious organization not to have any political intentions; the conclusions that they have such plans are obvious. The number of PK members is increasing tremendously. Table #1 will show you how widespread this organization became in the period from 1991 till 1996.

1991: 4,200 men , University of Colorado Coors Event Center

1992: 22,000 men , University of Colorado's Forsom Field

1993: 50,000 men , filled Forsom to capacity

1994: 278,600 men , seven stadiums nationwide

1995: 727,324 men , 13 stadiums nationwide

1996: 1,1 million men , 22 stadiums nationwide (PK fact sheet 10/30/97 p1)

The Promise Keepers has grown extremely fast. As a matter of fact, Bill McCartney claims the PK to be a "not-for-profit" organization, but at the same time they run a very large commercial activity to raise money for "their needs". Mr.McCartney, enlight us for what needs, probably to buy guns and explosive materials! Some Christian "experts" think that the PK is a Satanic movement, but this point I can argue... The Promise Keepers and their leaders don't want to follow the Constitution of the United States; neither do they pay due respect to laws of Government and Congress and of course I'm not talking about taxes, those nice guys probably do not even know what is that. The second reason is that the PK is actually wrecking religious environment of this country . According to the opinion of the Protestant and Catholic Church, the Promise Keepers are not true Christians in their origin and they follow the "Seven Commandments of Promise Keeper" more accurately than the Old and New Testament. They welcome Mormons, Pentecostalism and Russelitism (falsely called Jehovah's Witnesses). All of those movements are actually anti-Christanic according to the opinion of all Christian Churches. "Never have I seen such a conglomerated mess of doctrines taken from mythology, psychology, paganism, humanism, the barking dog in the glass cathedral, and other isms and ologies" (Camp,p1) This is the opinion of a very experienced Christianolog that spent five years researching this particular movement. Finally the Promise Keepers is an extremely fanatical religious movement. And through this, the direction and goals of his further activity might and will be absolutely unpredictable and uncontrollable. The United States Government should ban this organization! It is difficult and sometimes impossible to control a fanatical organization with a huge amount of money and human resources. Here is statistical information about budget of this "not-for-profit" organization along with data of a number of men employed in their business.

STUFF-- BUDGET

22-- $4 million-1993

150-- $26 million-1994

300-- $64 million-1995

360-- $97 million-1996

452-- $117 million-1997 (estimated) (PK fact sheet 10/30/97p1)

Where did this huge profit come from? Unfortunately, Bill McCartney didn't bother to let us know how a "not-for-profit" movement can earn $117 million in four years, and even more interesting how they are going to spend it. Along with these confusions, according to Gina Lawton, the Promise Keepers don't need anything but prayer. "We need to pray" she said. I don't think that all these millions of dollars will be spent on prayers. “Worrisome as such theology may be to many, it is, after all , theology. But critics, who believe such theology has political implications, insist on seeing the organization through secular eyes. They dismiss the Promise Keepers’ reassuring statements about love, commitment, reconciliation and faith and then root for signs of the group’s supposed true intentions".(Cose,p.30) When discussing negative and dangerous characteristics of Promise Keepers those who don't support this vision of problem will cite a number of reasons for opposing the prohibition of Promise Keepers. First ,they may say that this movement is helpful to keep families together and to create a friendly environment inside of the family. However, this may not be absolutely accurate. To bring happiness and joy to your families nobody should attend meetings, pay membership fee or to give away promises to be good father and husband. If you really think that your family needs your help and attention, stay home and help your wife to do home chores instead of congregating in huge crowds and blocking traffic in the cities. The second most common argument made by Promise Keepers and those who support them is that men should take away hard life's responsibilities from women in order to help them . However I want to remind them about the roots of discrimination against women. Fist of all , discrimination started when God first created Adam and only then Eve. Then Saint Timothy said "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach , nor usurp authority over the man , but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve." (Bible, 1st Timothy 2;11-12) The Promise Keepers are trying to start it all over again. We, the civilization of planet Earth, should take a very attentive look into our past, and learn some lessons from our history, because everything is coming back. This is the law of history itself . And we all remember the horror of the Dark Ages , the fires of the Inquisition and the cries of innocent people dying because of religious fanaticism. Nine million people were killed by the Inquisition in Europe, 5,000 in America, 500,000 in Russia. Now we see the history is turning back and we shouldn't forget about the deadly danger of fanaticism and religious conspiracy. The Government and Congress of the United States should understand true nature of Promise Keepers and stop them before the crusade against "those who don't keep promises " starts.

Works Used

Bible, Genesis 12;20

Bible, Genesis 19;8

Bible, 1st Timothy 2;11-12

Camp, Wayne "The Promise Keepers: Satan's Latest Tool in Deception" Internet.http://www.christiancorner.com/pk.htm p.1-8

Griffiths,Penny "Who's Your Master?" Internet. http://www.pk.com/wavemaker.htm 10/25/97

Lawton,Gina "We Need to Pray" Internet. http://www.pk.com/wavmaker2.htm 10/25/97

Cose Ellis “Promises… Promises” NEWSWEEK 10/13/97 p.30-31

PK Fact Sheet updated 01/06/97 Internet. http:// www.promisekeepers.org/21ca.htm 10/30/97 p.1-3

Wright,Betsy "Did You Laugh at this Cartoon? I won't, and that's a Promise!" THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 26 October 1997: J5