Thinking about the Promise Keepers brings me back to the mid 1990's when I was working on my master's thesis in sociology. I wrote about the Promise Keepers website.
The Promise Keepers came into being in 1990 if I remember correctly. Bill McCartney, head coach of the University of Colorado's football team, was riding in a car with a friend. They were heading to a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting and came up with the idea of filling a stadium with Christian men.
Within a year, they had done so. And the organization grew, taking in some 130 million dollars a year at the height of its growth. That was in 1996 or 1997.
During the year when they gathered on Washington D.C.'s mall, however, they received less donations and lowered stadium attendance. Nonetheless, a lot of people went to the mall--a few hundred thousand less than the million men they hoped for, but it was still a lot. And the Promise Keepers got a lot of attention for it.
They fell quickly after that.
They stopped charging a $60 fee to attend their rallies, rented smaller stadiums and still the crowds were lower. The poor men the change had been designed to attract weren't coming.
Reaching some grasp of that particular reality, the group began charging admission again.
Reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated. It's attracting men to stadiums as much as ever and looks to become a stable organization. As I write this, it's only taking in some $30 million a year, but that's a long way from total destruction.
Core assumptions of the group:
The world was much better a long time ago (the 1950's?) back when men were responsible wage earners, took care of their wives and children, and generally were involved parents and good Christians.
Because men haven't continued to do this (women have had to take up the slack) the world is going to Hell in a handbasket.
Racism is bad.
Traditional Christian perspectives (if fundamentalism is traditional Christianity) are good.
Thus, the way to change the world for the better is to become involved fathers, helping their wives with the housework and children, attending churches, evangelizing non-believers, attending Promise Keepers rallies, meeting regularly with small groups of other Christian men, and buying Promise Keepers merchandise.