Saturday, September 27, 1997

Hundreds of area men traveling to Washington D.C.

By LORETTA FULTON Senior Staff Writer

More than 300 men from the Big Country will be in Washington, D.C., Oct. 4, joining men of like mind from across the country for the Promise Keepers Stand in the Gap rally.

Hundreds of thousands of evangelical Christian men are expected to congregate on the National Mall for a six-hour event to focus on personal spiritual renewal and "to inspire unity and reawakening in the church."

In Abilene, men who can't make the trip to Washington are invited to University Baptist Church, 2141 Grape, to see the happenings via satellite.

A praise and worship service will be held from 10:30-11 a.m., followed by the satellite broadcast from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., said Jim Mayfield, local coordinator.

Promise Keepers started in 1990 as a dream of former University of Colorado football coach Bill McCartney.

"McCartney had a vision of men filling football stadiums, not watching football games but praising the Lord - now that has come to pass," Mayfield said.

Each year conferences are held at football stadiums around the country. Only 4,200 men attended the first conference in 1991. Last year 22 conferences were held with 1.1 million men attending.

This year's theme is from Ezekiel 22:30, which reads, "I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land, so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none."

The fact that all the participates standing in the gap will be men, mainly white men, has drawn criticism on various fronts.

McCartney, who anticipates an "incredible demonstration" of diversity at the gathering, acknowledges that Promise Keepers erred by not making racial reconciliation a top priority from the very start.

"If you don't have your brothers of color there at the beginning, it's like then you're inviting them to come fill up a quota and many have felt like it has worked out that way," he said in an interview with Religion News Service.

McCartney said the organization is "calling on men to make a difference in their communities and in the inner cities." In response to that challenge, about 5,000 of the men attending the rally will volunteer on Oct. 3 to repair 147 inner-city schools in Washington, D.C.

However, no such olive branch is being extended to women, some of whom view the the male-only gathering with a wary eye.

The National Organization for Women has initiated an anti-Promise Keepers campaign, contending the movement is a covert attempt to take back hard-won women's rights.

"When Promise Keepers talk about men taking responsibility, they really mean men taking control and women taking the back seat," Patricia Ireland, president of NOW, was quoted by Religious News Service as saying.

In addition to the football stadium rallies, members of Promise Keepers meet regularly for "accountability sessions," said Mayfield, the Abilene coordinator.

"We go through our book and work on ourselves," he said.

Locally, men meet each Friday for lunch at Southside Baptist Church. That church is sponsoring a group of 70 area men from various churches who will fly to Washington for the rally.