ABCNEWS.com
Oct. 3 -Hundreds of thousands of grown men are
preparing to weep, hug, beg for forgiveness,
profess their love for one another, and promise a
six-hour spiritual re-awakening on Washington's
National Mall today.
Just who are these men and where do they come from?
They're the Promise Keepers, a fast-growing evangelical
men's organization, holding its most ambitious and public event
yet since its creation by former University of Colorado football
coach Bill McCartney in 1990.
At rally after rally in stadiums across the country, Promise
Keepers has attracted almost 3
million men, preaching a message
of moral renewal. In the process,
they claim to have repaired
families and re-defined
masculinity for millions of
American men.
Clearly tapping into a deeply
felt need by men in America, the
movement comes at a time of
rising divorce rates, growing
poverty and increasing drug
abuse. By pledging to become
better Christians, and to put their
wives and children first, these
men seem to have found a
powerful new way to express
their spiritual faith.
"This movement touches the
guilt and need for change in men
who are disoriented and have
been thrown off by the chaos in
the world around them," said
Martin E. Marty, professor of the
history of American religion at the University of Chicago.
Religious Bonding in a Political Place
Though Saturday's event is in a very public and political place,
the leaders claim that it is non-political.
"More than anything, I would like to see men come
together and fill stadium and proclaim
that a man's man is a godly man," said
McCartney, describing the mission of
the Promise Keepers to ABCNEWS.
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