Saturday, July 25, 1998

Many fundamentalists want no part of Promise Keepers movement

By Marc Schogol and Jim Remsen

Knight Ridder Newspapers

Promise Keepers' most familiar critics, front and center, are feminists and other progressives. They stage protests and news conferences to warn that the massive Christian renewal group wants to pull society back down the retrograde path to patriarchy and social repression.

But look to the right. Shots are being fired at the PK bandwagon from that flank as well. They come from the starched tents of the fundamentalist camp.

The soldiers of the "hard religious right" are always on the lookout for false prophets and counterfeit revivals, for the mischief of Satan and his nefarious angels of light. The Promise Keepers, it seems, have put those vigilant forces on full alert. They warn that even where the evangelical men's movement is well-meaning, its mix of scriptural truth and error can lead unwary souls down "the path of compromise."

Promise Keepers too liberal? This may come as an amusing surprise to the general public, notes Hartford Seminary scholar Nancy Ammerman, author of Bible Believers: Fundamentalists in the Modern World. But she says it is deadly serious to the archconservative watchmen who find even the Rev. Billy Graham objectionable for his fellow-traveling with "apostate" Christians.

Some fundamentalists do find common cause with "modernist" evangelicals, Ammerman notes, but multitudes of others do not. The right-wing opposition to Promise Keepers comes from a diffuse community of several million people. Their heroes include the Revs. Bob Jones and Carl McIntire, and their loosely knit coalitions include the American Association of Christian Churches, the Independent Fundamental Churches of America, the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship, the Fellowship of Fundamental Bible Churches, the Independent Baptist Fellowship of North America, and the Fundamental Evangelistic Association.

"A whole host of fundamentalist, Bible-believing Baptist churches have risen up and spoken out" against the recent Promise Keepers rally at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, says the Rev. Mark Franklin of Hardingville Bible Church in Monroeville, N.J.

The dissenters didn't descend on the Vet to protest or issue leaflets, though. Their lifestyle is one of "Bible separation" from worldly ways, and they tend to keep to themselves. But beyond the earshot of mainstream America, the groups have been issuing resolutions denouncing the "Compromise Keepers." In sermons and bulletins, their pastors urge members to keep away or proceed with grave caution. Fundamentalist journals and Web sites contain tightly argued, sometimes vehement tracts against the Colorado-based movement.

In many ways, scholars say, this is one more round in century-old feuding that has divided and subdivided conservative Christianity in this country. With Promise Keepers, the objections zero in on theology, ecumenism and psychology. Here is a summary:

-Theology. The parachurch Promise Keepers points out that it didn't rise out of nowhere; it followed years of prayer and calls for revival, and built on a number of renewal efforts around the country. All that is true, say the fundamentalist critics - and it only serves to highlight the movement's false consciousness.

Promise Keepers' trumpeting of revivalism, the critics argue, is a sign that it promotes, or at least condones, a false postmillennial outlook. Millennialist theology may seem arcane to the general public but is a serious wedge issue among many Christian conservatives. These Christians look to the Millennium not as a calendar event but as a divine epoch that will come perhaps soon, perhaps farther along. Simply put, the Millennium is the 1,000-year reign of peace and prosperity that will precede the end of days. To these believers, the defining question is, will Jesus return before or after that period?

Fundamentalists interpret Scripture, primarily Revelation and Daniel, as clearly saying He will come before. Here's their premillennialist scenario: The world descends into a brief period of horrors and tribulation (as the Christian "Elect" watch and wait); Christ returns and defeats Satan; the Elect are "raptured" into Heaven; and then the Millennium begins, to be followed by Judgment Day.

Postmillennialists, on the other hand, see an end presaged not by a slide into chaos and godlessness but by a growth of Christian commitment and influence. This brings on 1,000 years of golden Christian rule - and then Jesus returns.

And how do postmillennialists bring about their necessary Christian flowering? Through revivals and broad renewal movements such as Promise Keepers, say the wary critics. This, to them, is PK's hidden agenda.

-Ecumenism. In their eagerness to spread the Good News and draw people in, the fundamentalists say, the Promise Keepers get doctrinally fuzzy and syncretistic. The movement's rallies are indeed open to all, and one of its famed Seven Promises calls on men to reach beyond "denominational barriers" on behalf of biblical unity. Some in the movement have downplayed denominational differences as matters of tradition and style. A large PK pastors' gathering in 1996 offered Holy Communion to all as a demonstration of unity.

This ecumenism is abhorrent to most fundamentalists. They have always taken strong issue with Catholic dogma, Mormon prophecy and Jehovah's Witnesses theology and want no part of fellowship, however brief, with such groups.

"There's too much confusion, too many different viewpoints and systems" to warrant joining, said the Rev. Gary Myers, leader of Biblical Baptist Church in upstate Meshoppen, Pa., and president of the Fellowship of Fundamental Bible Churches. He cited Amos 3:3 for support: "Can two walk together except they be agreed?"

"Doctrine divides because truth divides," the Rev. Bill Randles of Believers in Grace Fellowship Church in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, stated in a much-cited "open letter" to Promise Keepers founder Bill McCartney in 1995. "There are many denominational barriers that should be kept in place."

Troubled as they are by the presence of Catholics and Mormons, these critics are downright repelled by the profusion of Christian charismatics. A fundamentalist tenet is that the "signs and wonders" of the Holy Spirit were visited on Jesus' disciples alone for a divine purpose particular to that era. They consider the swoonings and outbursts by today's charismatics and Pentecostals to be arrogations of "extra-biblical revelation."

The fundamentalists are quick to note that McCartney is a member of a charismatic megachurch, that the PK board includes some charismatics, and that the movement's membership is rife with "Spirit-filled" worshipers. This "leaves the movement wide open for the introduction of countless errors and heretical teachings," says the Rev. Douglas W. Comin, a Reformed Presbyterian clergyman in Iowa who has written an anti-PK booklet.

And woe to the congregation that has to cope with the fallout, Comin says: If one's newfound excitement is a " 'zeal which is not according to knowledge' (Romans 10:2), the results in the local congregation to which a Promise Keepers zealot returns could be disastrous."

Camille Costa, a deacon at Hardingville Bible Church, says he sadly turns away. "If I want to participate in Promise Keepers, it tells me what Luther did and what the Reformation stood for was a waste of time," he says. "I cannot stand for that. The Reformation was there for a purpose.

"There is a lot of emotion. Promise Keepers is emotionally driven. You go in and you feel warm and fuzzy with tens of thousands of other men. But I don't know how much they're engaging their mind. ... I'm not denying that Promise Keepers patches many lives. But at the same time, the way the Lord Jesus left it when he left the Earth, he left the church that particular task. The church should be the one building believers."

-Psychology. The old-schoolers worry that the movement's view of masculinity is adulterated by secular psychology. They object to its "encounter-group format" and say the peer-mentoring model for men may lead to ill-informed attempts at biblical discernment. The proper response, they say, should be to turn to one's wife for confession and to church elders for discernment.

"The church is God's method of accomplishing His work," says the Rev. Richard Harris, head of the American Council of Christian Churches, a Bethlehem, Pa.-based network of about 20 fundamentalist denominations. "Within that church family can be continuous and direct relationships between individuals. Most of our churches have men's fellowships that needn't resort to mass emotional meetings."

"The Promise Keepers suggests that if I'm having some impure thoughts, I ought to share it with some man I'm accountable to," says Franklin of Hardingville Bible Church. "My response is why shouldn't I be telling my wife about that? It's almost an undermining of the family to suggest that's the way it should be. Men accountable to men? Why not men accountable to their spouses?"

The various fundamentalist objections miss the point, replies PK spokesman Steve Ruppe. "Promise Keepers is trying to bring men to a saving relationship with Christ and into being more involved with their families. That's our point of contact. We're not taking on the mantle of the church or acting as a denomination and dictating what they should believe or how they should worship."

The movement is "a big tent," he says, but offers an "orthodox Christian message" and requires all speakers to sign its "fundamental Protestant" faith statement.

Also, he said, the organization stopped using some of the "secularist" guidebooks for men when objections were raised.

So is the movement charismatic? "We're neutral on that. It's not up to us whether one's denomination raises the hands or believes in laying on of hands in worship." Is it postmillennialist? "That's not something we spend a lot of time discussing. Our statement of faith is the basics."

This hardly mollifies the critics. Says Comin: "The outward goals of the movement notwithstanding, we believe that Promise Keepers represents a dangerous lowering of the standard of truth."

People who take part are exposed to "an ecumenical hodgepodge," Harris says. So rather than face religious "relativism" and "shallow emotionalism void of scriptural substance," his association will continue to call on members to stay away.

"A lot of what is being portrayed as revival simply is not," says Pastor Dave Natale of Chadds Ford Baptist Church in Chester County, Pa. "You know the expression not everything that glitters is gold? There's a lot of fool's gold being passed out there."

The critics are undaunted by the movement's mass appeal. Says Comin:

"On what basis do we assume that a movement is the work of the Holy Spirit? Clearly, the criterion cannot be sheer numbers. History is peppered with examples of popular movements which were obviously not the work of the Holy Spirit. ... Its teachings must be consistent with God's Word."

(c) 1998, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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