Promise Keepers is an international conservative Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 organization for men. While it originated in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, it is now world-wide. It is self-described as "a Christ-centered organization dedicated to introducing men to Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, helping them to grow as Christians".
Promise Keepers is a non-profit organization, not affiliated with any Christian church or denomination. Their most widely publicized events tend to be mass rallies held at football stadiums and similar venues. They also sell a variety of promotional products to "help men keep their promises," including clothing, books, and music. Dr. Bruce Wilkinson

Bruce Wilkinson

Bruce Wilkinson is a Christian teacher and author. He was born in New Jersey and graduated from Northeastern Bible College , Dallas Theological Seminary and Western Conservative Baptist Seminary . He served as a college professor at Multnomah School of the Bible in Portland, Oregon, until...

 developed the widely-used video curriculum, Personal Holiness in Times of Temptation, as a part of “The Biblical Manhood” series for Promise Keepers.

Beliefs

The core beliefs of the Promise Keepers, outlined in the Seven Promises, consist of the following:

• A Promise Keeper is committed to honoring Jesus Christ through worship, prayer and obedience to God's Word in the power of the Holy Spirit
  Holy Spirit
  Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...
  
  .
• A Promise Keeper is committed to pursuing vital relationships with a few other men, understanding that he needs brothers to help him keep his promises.
• A Promise Keeper is committed to practising spiritual, moral, ethical and sexual purity.
• A Promise Keeper is committed to building strong marriages and families through love, protection and Biblical values.
• A Promise Keeper is committed to supporting the mission of his church by honoring and praying for his pastor and by actively giving his time and resources.
• A Promise Keeper is committed to reaching beyond any racial and denominational barriers to demonstrate the power of Biblical unity.
• A Promise Keeper is committed to influencing his world, being obedient to the Great Commandment
  Great Commandment
  The Great Commandment, or Greatest Commandment, is an appellation applied to either the first, or both, of two commandments which appear in , and...
  
   (Mark 12:30-31) and the Great Commission
  Great Commission
  The Great Commission, in Christian tradition, is the instruction of the resurrected Jesus Christ to his disciples, that they spread his teachings to all the nations of the world. It has become a tenet in Christian theology emphasizing missionary work, evangelism, and baptism...
  
   (Matthew 28:19-20).

History

Promise Keepers was founded in 1990 by Bill McCartney

Bill McCartney

William Paul McCartney is a former American football player and coach and the founder of the Promise Keepers men's ministry. He was the head coach at the University of Colorado from 1982 to 1994, where he compiled a record of 93–55–5 and won three consecutive Big Eight Conference...

, then the head football

American football

American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

 coach at the University of Colorado

University of Colorado at Boulder

The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...

 at Boulder

Boulder, Colorado

Boulder is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County and the 11th most populous city in the U.S. state of Colorado. Boulder is located at the base of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains at an elevation of...

. According to the group's website, McCartney got the inspiration for Promise Keepers on March 20, 1990, while he was attending a Fellowship of Christian Athletes

Fellowship of Christian Athletes

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes is a non-profit interdenominational Christian organization founded in 1954 and that has been based in Kansas City, Missouri since 1956. It falls within the tradition of Muscular Christianity. Although established by evangelical Protestants, the concept has...

 banquet in Pueblo, Colorado

Pueblo, Colorado

Pueblo is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and the most populous city of Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The population was 106,595 in 2010 census, making it the 246th most populous city in the United States....

, during a conversation with Dave Wardell, who was also in attendance at the event. He envisioned his home stadium, Boulder's Folsom Field

Folsom Field

Folsom Field is an outdoor football stadium on the campus of the University of Colorado, at Boulder, Colorado. Opened in 1924, it is the home field of the Colorado Buffaloes of the Pacific-12 Conference; until July 2011, Colorado was a member of the Big 12 Conference. The horseshoe-shaped stadium...

, would be used as a gathering "for training and teaching on what it means to be godly men". In July 1990, 72 men met at Boulder Valley Christian Church in Boulder to organize what would be Promise Keepers' first event at University of Colorado's Event Center

Coors Events Center

Coors Events Center is an 11,064-seat multi-purpose arena on the Boulder main campus of the University of Colorado. The arena opened in 1979, and is home to the Colorado Buffaloes men's and women's basketball teams and the volleyball team....

. From that point, the Promise Keepers' membership gradually grew. By the time of the first official PK conference in July 1991, approximately 4200 attended. The organization was incorporated as a nonprofit in the state of Colorado in December 1990.

What Makes a Man?, Promise Keepers' first hardbound book written for the organization, was published by The Navigators

The Navigators (organization)

The Navigators is a worldwide Christian para-church organization headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Its main purpose is the discipling of Christians with a particular emphasis on enabling them to share their faith with others....

' Navpress publishing arm in 1992 for its first Folsom Field gathering in June of that year. Dr. James Dobson

James Dobson

James Clayton "Jim" Dobson, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian author, psychologist, and founder in 1977 of Focus on the Family , which he led until 2003. In the 1980s he was ranked as one of the most influential spokesman for conservative social positions in American public life...

 had McCartney on his Focus on the Family

Focus on the Family

Focus on the Family is an American evangelical Christian tax-exempt non-profit organization founded in 1977 by psychologist James Dobson, and is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Focus on the Family is one of a number of evangelical parachurch organizations that rose to prominence in the 1980s...

 nationwide radio program that same month. McCartney resigned his coaching position in 1994 in order to focus his attention on the organization.

Promise Keepers' most notable event was its Stand in the Gap: A Sacred Assembly of Men open-air gathering at the National Mall

National Mall

The National Mall is an open-area national park in downtown Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. The National Mall is a unit of the National Park Service , and is administered by the National Mall and Memorial Parks unit...

 in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 on October 4, 1997. C-SPAN

C-SPAN

C-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...

 carried the event live in its entirety. It was reported at the time to be the largest gathering of men in American history, surpassing even the Million Man March

Million Man March

The Million Man March was a gathering of social activists, en masse, held on and around the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on October 16, 1995...

. In 1998 the Promise Keepers began to experience financial difficulties; there is speculation that the cause of this was related to the 1997 Washington rally. Attendance at regional rallies, admission to which cost $60 USD, dropped by 50%, as many men opted to attend the free Washington rally instead. The organization laid off its entire U.S. staff and became strictly a volunteer organization. From 1998 onwards, attendance figures at PK events were significantly smaller than they had been previously. Plans to have 50 simultaneous rallies on the grounds of every U.S. State Capitol at the turn of the millennium

Millennium

A millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years —from the Latin phrase , thousand, and , year—often but not necessarily related numerically to a particular dating system....

 were canceled, over concerns about the Y2K bug. Further layoffs were announced in 2000.

McCartney resigned as president on October 1, 2003 after a personal leave of absence. Thomas Fortson, previously the group's executive vice president for administration and operations since 1996, became the group's president and CEO the same day.

On September 10, 2008 McCartney came out of five years retirement to become Promise Keepers CEO/Chairman. Along with McCartney's placement, Raleigh Washington, former Promise Keepers vice president of ministry advancement and McCartney's Road To Jerusalem ministry collaborative partner, was named president of Promise Keepers.

Criticism

The National Organization for Women

National Organization for Women

The National Organization for Women is the largest feminist organization in the United States. It was founded in 1966 and has a membership of 500,000 contributing members. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S...

, an American feminist organization, has expressed the view that the Promise Keepers are a threat to women's rights. NOW alleges that the group encourages inequality within marriages and teaches a doctrine of male superiority.

According to Amy Schindler, "the discourse of masculinity found within conservative religious movements, such as the Promise Keepers and the Victorian era

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 movement 'muscular Christianity,' is inherently political. Any masculinity project aimed at restoring or reclaiming a 'traditional' male role for privileged white, heterosexual males has a political impact within the tapestry of class, race, and gender power."

The group was also criticized for doctrinal compromises and inconsistent doctrines. Dr. Raymond Hartwig, president of the South Dakota district of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, commented: "They use the Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

in a very simplistic form, as a springboard to jump into the law.'"

Books

• Brickner, Bryan W. 1999. The Promise Keepers: Politics and Promises. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
• Bartkowski, John P. 2004. The Promise Keepers: Servants, Soldiers, and Godly Men. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
• Claussen, Dane S., ed. 1999. Standing on the Promises: The Promise Keepers and the Revival of Manhood. Cleveland, OH: The Pilgrim Press.
• Claussen, Dane S., ed. 2000. The Promise Keepers: Essays on Masculinity & Christianity. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Inc.
• Hardisty, Jean V. 1999. Mobilizing Resentment: Conservative Resurgence from the John Birch Society to the Promise Keepers. Boston: Beacon Press.
• Novosad, Nancy. 2000. Promise Keepers: Playing God. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2000.
• Williams, Rhys H., ed. 2001. Promise Keepers and the New Masculinity: Private Lives and Public Morality. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

Other

• Anderson, Connie. 1997. "Visions of Involved Fatherhood: Pro-Feminists and 'Promise Keepers.'" Paper, annual meeting, American Sociological Association, Toronto.
• Bellant, Russ. 1995. "Promise Keepers: Christian Soldiers for Theocracy." Eyes Right: Challenging the Right Wing Backlash, ed. Chip Berlet. Boston: South End Press.
• Berkowitz, Bill. 1996. "Promise Keepers: Brotherhood and Backlash." Culture Watch, September, 1,4.
• Conason, Joe, Alfred Ross, and Lee Cokorinos. 1996. "The Promise Keepers Are Coming: The Third Wave of the Religious Right," Nation, October 7.
• Everton, Sean. 2001. "Religious Revival or Third Wave of the Religious Right?" Review of Religious Research 43:51-69
• Heath, Melanie A. 2003. "Soft-Boiled Masculinity: Renegotiating Gender and Racial Ideologies in the Promise Keepers Movement." Gender and Society, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 423–444.