Saturday, January 10, 1998

'98 could be make-or-break year for Promise Keepers

By Ken Garfield / Knight-Ridder Newspapers

Any year that will include new developments with Billy Graham, Promise Keepers, racial reconciliation, Southern Baptists fighting Mormons and everyone else fighting over homosexuality is sure to be marked by high drama.

In that passionate light, what can the faith community expect to experience in 1998?

Billy Graham's recent pneumonia in Florida only heightens concern that Christianity's most powerful modern-day evangelist nears the end of his ministry.

Graham is recuperating this holiday season, assuring supporters he'll preach in 1998 and past that. But age -- he turns 80 next November -- and infirmity will catch up to him as it will to all of us one day.

Will that day come next year for Graham? Only God knows.

I predict this will be a make-or-break year for Promise Keepers. Can the Christian men's movement seize the momentum from last October's rally in Washington and capture society's imagination with its call for husbands and fathers to reorder their lives? Or will the tint of male chauvinism and political conservatism reduce it to just another partisan ministry?

If the movement can keep its eye on the real prize -- helping men right their ship -- it will flourish long enough to change the world one soul at a time.

What else to anticipate in 1998?

Look for faithfulness to spread among our athletes. The sight of the Charlotte Hornets praying after each game this season has captured the city's fancy. It won't be long until it captures the attention of other players in other cities.

Finally, who says national religious conventions have to be dull?

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) brings its national meeting to Charlotte June 13 to 20, when they'll likely pick up where they left off last year and fight about gays and ordination.

The Southern Baptist Convention heads to Salt Lake City next June, prepared to proselytize Mormons. I'm preparing to write about Mormons pushing back. Who knows? 1998 is shaping up to be so lively, maybe the Baptists will redeclare war on Walt Disney.

(Ken Garfield is the religion editor at The Charlotte Observer. Write to him at: The Charlotte Observer, 600 S. Tryon St., Charlotte, NC 28232.)

(c) 1998, The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.).

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