Breaking Walls, Raising Fences: Masculinity, Intimacy, and Accountability among the Promise Keepers

Sociology of Religion, Spring, 2000 by John P. Bartkowski

John P. Bartkowski [*]

The Promise Keepers' desire to rejuvenate "godly manhood" has stimulated debate about this evangelical men's movement. This study addresses two key questions: (1) What do Promise Keeper luminaries understand to be godly manhood? (2) What is the impact of elite PK definitions of godly manhood on the gender identities and practices of this group's members? I begin by briefly sketching the contours of two competing gender discourses -- instrumentalist versus expressive masculinity -- advanced by Promise Keeper leaders. I then examine the ways in which these divergent discourses of masculinity are reproduced, negotiated, and creatively reformulated through accountability groups frequented by PK members in a Texas metropolitan area. I reveal how social interaction and identity negotiation within these settings meld together contradictory gender practices, thereby producing a godly masculinity that is marked by both expressive and instrumental characteristics. My investigation concludes by addressing the implicati ons of these findings, and by specifying directions for future research on the Promise Keepers.

The Promise Keepers' desire to rejuvenate "godly manhood" has attracted nationwide attention and has stimulated intense political debate within the last several years. Yet, despite the rise of this evangelical men's movement and the debates it has ignited, this organization has just begun to attract the attention of scholars. Michael Messner's (1997) Politics of masculinities, an incisive analysis of various contemporary men's movements, provides one of the more detailed treatments of the Promise Keepers to date. Based on his review of current scholarly and journalistic accounts of PK, along with excerpts from an advice manual written by PK's stalwart traditionalist Ed Cole, Messner (1997) concludes that the Promise Keepers amount to little more than a reactionary "essentialist retreat" from progressive gender politics. Yet, Messner (1997: 35) is careful to qualify his conclusions. He highlights the need for "outcome research" on the quotidian gender practices of Promise Keeper members who attend small-group meetings that PK recommends as a follow-up to their stadium conferences.

The present study is designed to shed further light on this evangelical men's movement, while addressing two key questions: First, what exactly do leading Promise Keeper spokesmen understand to be "godly manhood?" Are leading Promise Keepers the unambiguous defenders of gender traditionalism that some portrayals suggest? Second, what is the impact of PK definitions of godly manhood on social interaction among this group's members? To what degree are elite PK discourses of godly manhood negotiated, or even recrafted, in the crucible of its members' actual social relationships? I seek to address these vexing questions via analyses of textual, ethnographic, and in-depth interview data. My study draws on recent theoretical and empirical work which (1) identifies both discourse and everyday interaction as important sites for the cultural construction of gender identity and religious conviction (Bartkowski 1997a,

1997b, 1998, 1999a, 1999b; Currie 1997; Hollway 1984, 1995; Mahoney and Yngvesson 1992; Todd and Fishe r 1988; Wodak 1997; Wuthnow 1998); (2) conceptualizes gender as a contradictory constellation of social processes capable of being negotiated and disrupted by local social actors (Bartkowski 1997b, 1998, 1999b; Hollway 1984, 1995; Kandiyoti 1988; Mahoney and Yngvesson 1992; Stombler and Padavic 1997); and (3) examines the ways in which gender, sexuality, and bodily practices intersect with one another (Connell 1995; Davis 1997; Hollway 1995; Lowe 1995; West and Fenstermaker 1995) and with religious meaning systems (Bartkowski 1997b; Belzen 1999; Coakley 1997; Mellor and Schilling 1997; McGuire 1990; Read and Bartkowski 2000). I begin by outlining two competing gender discourses -- instrumentalist versus expressive masculinity -- advanced by Promise Keeper leaders. I then examine the ways in which these divergent discourses of masculinity are both reproduced and reformulated via social interaction among Promise Keepers in a Texas metropolitan area. By drawing together poststructuralist and dramaturgic approach es to cultural analysis (Wuthnow 1987: 13-15, 50-57, 343-346), I am able to compare the elite discursive production of PK masculinities with the local members' negotiation of these gender discourses (cf., Griswold 1994; Williams and Blackburn 1996).

GODLY MASCULINITIES: COMPETING DEFINITIONS OF CHRISTIAN MANHOOD AMONG LEADING PROMISE KEEPERS

How do leading spokesmen for the Promise Keepers define masculinity and articulate their vision of godly manhood? A detailed analysis of advice manuals written by two very different Promise Keeper authors lays bare the competing discourses [1] of masculinity advanced by leaders of this evangelical men's movement.

Essentialist Appeals to Gender Difference: The Promise Keeper Discourse of Instrumentalist Masculinity