PK publicity and production: between the lines and behind the scenes - Promise Keepers - Cover Story

Humanist, Sept-Oct, 1997 by Marian Hetherly

Visually awestruck, perhaps, by the ability of Promise Keepers to fill stadiums across the country with tens of thousands of emotionally charged men, many in the media have puffed PK's message of worship and family leadership -- failing to investigate what more watchful analysts warn is the group's underlying goal: the creation of an ultraconservative, authoritarian nation segregated along gender lines that merges church and state and returns men to the helm of all political and religious institutions.

But scrutiny is growing -- and warranted, as The Humanist discovered firsthand at a Promise Keepers conference held June 13-14, 1997, at Rich Stadium -- home of the Buffalo Bills -- in Orchard Park, New York. This was one of twenty-four such PK stadium events being staged this year on the theme "The Making of a Godly Man." During the weekend of the Buffalo conference, PK held similar events in Washington, D.C., and Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

PK Upstate New York Field Representative Olin Henneman said that one of the reasons the group holds its conferences in stadiums is because men feel more comfortable there than in a church: if these guys all here today ... would have said to someone, Would you go sit in my church all day on Saturday?' they would have said, `No way.' But if they said, `Would you go and sit in Rich Stadium with me?' [they'd say] 'Okay, if it's something you think I'll benefit from and enjoy ... yeah, I'll come with you." But critics say this positioning of conferences is just one more subtle attempt by PK to reinforce its patriarchal ideals. What could be more "manly" than football -- not to mention that PK's founder is former University of Colorado Head Football Coach Bill McCartney.

These patriarchal ideals certainly played out in Buffalo, as I found myself alone in a stadium of 20,000 men. Other women reporters (and their male counterparts) had come, filed their stories, and left. PK Director of Public Affairs Steve Ruppe was quoted in the Buffalo News as saying some 500 women served as volunteers for the conference. Yet, as I meandered through the crowd with my press credential clipped to my satchel, they were nowhere to be seen -- or heard -- in the stadium's open seating, down the aisles, or in the staging area set up on the playing field. There were no woman ushers, security officers, band members, singers, or speakers. Nor were there any women spokespeople at an afternoon press briefing.

Instead, the PK women handed out information packets and promotional materials at tables stationed outside the stadium and in its corridors. They staffed the tent that had been set up in the parking lot for the buying and selling of PK merchandise. A few PK women sat quietly in the enclosed stadium press box as PK men communicated with each other by walkie-talkie.

Thus, at one of the group's largest and most visible events, it was almost exclusively the men who were honored with the spotlight and, more importantly, the salaries. The women, all unpaid volunteers, were confined to menial tasks behind the scenes. It's not surprising, then, to hear PK national spokeswoman Laura Swickard state that there are no women on the group's board of directors and that the highest-ranking woman in the group is director of technical services ("in charge of anything technical, like telephones and computers").

The subservience of women by Promise Keepers was among the criticisms voiced by eight organizations at a joint press conference held in Washington, D.C., the morning of June 13. Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women, warned that "Promise Keepers have created a false veneer of men taking responsibility, when they really mean taking charge. Their targets are women, lesbians, and gay men and anyone who supports abortion rights or opposes an authoritarian, religiously based government." Pamela Coukos, public policy director for the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, cautioned that Pk's stated philosophy threatens to undermine "decades of progress" by anti-domestic-violence advocates:

The apparent goals of the Promise Keepers in

reinforcing a sense of men's entitlement with the

home and family, and strengthening men's

authority over women and children are incompatible

with our nation's continued progress to eliminate

violence against women and children.

Speakers' presentations in Buffalo were overtly interwoven with Pk's authoritarian and patriarchal ideals. Take, for example, David Castro's thunderous rallying cry against sexual impurity (promise three of the "Seven Promises of a Promise Keeper"). Complete with chants of "brotherhood, brotherhood, brotherhood," Castro implored the men to become sexually pure in order to attend PK's October 4, 1997, "Stand in the Gap" march on Washington. Stirring applause from the crowd, Castro proclaimed:

Tonight, we gotta make a decision ... yes, I'm gonna not

only go to Washington ... I'm gonna take a man that

because of his ... walk with Jesus has the authority to