Promise Keepers. What do you all remember about these people?

[The Backlash Cometh]

Were the Promise Keepers a legitimate religious effort to get men together for a spiritual bonding? Or was it the beginning of a larger political platform? Did anybody follow them?

[dems_rightnow]

1. I've only known 1 (that I am aware of)

At least for him, it was a spiritual quest, and no more.

[Buzz Clik]

2. I had a friend who was (is?) a Promise Keeper. For him, it was basically religious with no politics.

[Keith Bee]

3. They were homophobic as fuck, for one thing

Which makes me suspect that---well, you know.

[white_wolf]

7. Also, according to Wikipedia they

have been criticized by the National Organization of Women for teaching preaching inequality in marriage and a form of male-superiority. Also Amy Schindler said: "the discourse of masculinity found within conservative religious movements, such as the Promise Keepers and the Victorian era movement 'muscular Christianity,' is inherently political. Any masculinity project aimed at restoring or reclaiming a 'traditional' male role for privileged white, heterosexual males has a political impact within the tapestry of class, race, and gender power." Dr. Raymond Hartwig, president of the South Dakota disrtcit of the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church said: 'They use the Bible in a very simplistic form, as a springboard to jump into the law.'

[hlthe2b]

12. Yes.. see my experience with them in post 10

Wiki is quite right on this.

[HopeHoops]

4. A bunch of guys abandoning their families to go have a hug-fest for Jesus.

:puke:

[tularetom]

5. I remember the guy who trimmed our trees talking about it

He later got busted for domestic violence for beating up his kid.

So I doubt if it did him any good.

I suspect it was intended to be the beginning of a larger political platform but for whatever reason it didn't take.

But to many of the people who participated it was legit.

[Cirque du So-What]

6. Any such 'movement' is inherently political...not to mention misogynistic

I can't find much on the intertubes about recent activities, however. Guess there's too much competition for the money of fools.

[Ian David]

8. ...

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. LOL!

[hlthe2b]

10. A horrendous bunch of misogynistic, chauvanistic, narcissistic

male pigs. I have worked throughout the ME and I can tell you that Promise Keeper men are every bit as revoltingly contemptuous of women as many (not all) Saudi men.

As to Promise Keepers, I recall staying in a downtown hotel in a city where (unbeknownst to me) they were scheduled to have a convention. My convention was ending and I was checking out late morning when all these boorish men descended on the hotel lobby, treating me as though I wasn't there, pushing me out of the way and shoving towards the counter. Well, fortunately, the front desk staff had already been alerted to this as a potential problem (they scheduled only men to work front desk during the event), and seeing my seething, rising anger, one came out to personally hand me my receipt and accompany me and my baggage out to catch my shuttle to the airport. He even stayed to keep me company out front, talking (quite apologetically) about the PK, as he'd apparently experienced them before. I saw another staffer doing this with another women guest, so the hotel apparently really had planned a strategy around these cretins. Classical RW Xian fundamentalist assholes.

[The Backlash Cometh]

18. I wish I could find an article talking about this.

Because I'm interested in chauvinist trends from the eighties to the present.

[PufPuf23]

11. The worst and most damaging event of my life was deliberately caused by a Promise Keeper leader. nt

The movement was political with lots of legal and law enforcewment and Chamber of Commerce and Rotary croneyism not to mention female and child abuse.

[The Backlash Cometh]

19. More!

Is this personal hand knowledge? What were your experiences with the Rotary Club?

[PufPuf23]

Oops Double post. nt

[PufPuf23]

23. Yes but I don't want to post about it on the internet.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. I'll remember them as fruit loop talibornagains

Next question?

[ixion]

15. indeed...an apt description.

:applause:

[johnfromokc]

14. I remember that group

They were basically a right wing group. Honestly, if it comes from the Southern Baptist Taliban, it's right wing. At least that was my experience being raised SB

[onager]

16. They liked Hooters (the bar).

Author Tom Perotta (Election) went to PK rallies as book research. Interesting read - and yes, they all ended up at Hooter's: http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/10/author_tom_perrotta_goes_from_church.html

Then there's this...

You want hot sex, and you want hot food. You can plead with the escort service to send over a pizza, or you can go out in search of a naked lunch...

To whet our appetites — all of them — we started at Newport Beach's Hooters, the Wal-Mart of T&A.

Hooters exists solely to cater to jowly middle-manager types who are too timid or too snobby to just waddle into a regular ol' strip bar; it's where Promise Keepers go to ogle boobies.

Now, I'm not a picky man (I've been known to eat food I've found, you know, on the ground or something), but if someone tries to pull that gutless but-I-come-for-the-food thing on you about Hooters, smack them in the mouth. Hard...it's a desperate, erotic hell in there.

http://www.ocweekly.com/2001-02-15/food/naked-lunch/


And finally...

The Top 16 things Overheard at the Promise Keepers Rally
Posted on April 2, 2011 by jokeindex
The Top 16 Things Overheard at the Promise Keepers Rally

16 - 'If they make us do one more friggin’ Macarena, I’m converting to Judaism.’

15 - ′You guys up for happy hour at Hooters after we’re done here?’

14 - ′One more chorus of ‘Kumbaya’ and I’m gonna blow chunks!’

13 - ′Man, I see the Washington Monument in a whole new light’

12 - ′Excuse me — When does Minister Farrakhan come on?’

11 - ′I’m more of a Promise Breaker. I just came for the free nachos.’

10 - ′Somebody get some ice, Senator Thurmond’s beginning to decompose.’

9 - ′Say, brother, is that a covenant in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?’

8 - ′One more hug from you, Bob, and I PROMISE I’ll kick your ass!’

7 - ′Billy, have you ever seen a grown man naked?’

6 - ′Promise, Schmomise — where’s all the babes?’

5 - ′Oh great… They bring a million bibles, but only twenty rolls of toilet paper.’

4 - ′I haven’t seen so many men cry since Pam Anderson left Baywatch.’

3 - ′Lord of mercy, all these people and no one to convert.’

2 - ′Hey, isn’t that Waldo?’

and the Number 1 Thing Overheard at the Promise Keepers Rally…

1 - ′FREEBIRD!!’

http://jokeindex.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/top-16-things-overheard-at-the-promise-keepers-rally-pg/

[walldude]

17. I did sound for a PK event once..

It was in a stadium, about 30 or 40 thousand men. Homophobic, Anti-Semetic, Misogynist, what a nice bunch of guys.

When they started talking about how they needed to save the Jews from going to hell I walked out in the middle of the show. No amount of money is worth having to listen to that shit.

[PBS Poll-435]

20. Now they have Craigslist and don't have to meet at Baseball stadiums.

[lonestarnot]

21. Mostly nutjobs, that's all I need to remember.

[blueamy66]

22. Yeah, male promise keepers are the bomb

My co-worker's husband did this....at the same time he wasn't paying child support for his 2 kids....as my co-worker bought, added $ and sent the birthday cards out.

He's now 55 and semi-retired...doing nothing....oh wait, he makes his own bullets for the guns that he cannot afford.

Yeah, he learned alot.

[The Backlash Cometh]

25. Do you think that Promise Keepers were just looking for redemption

for their failures and knew they could get it easier from other men, than they could from an organization that took everyone in account?

[blueamy66]

27. Yes, I most certainly do.

Great point.

[givemebackmycountry]

24. I remember that Bill McCartney who was the head football coach at Colorado...

Retired to play a key role in the organization.

His players were out of control while he was there, so maybe he should have found a better promise to keep.

The only good thing to come out of that program was Sal Anise (a sad story).

[SheilaT]

26. I was living in Boulder at that time.

The Promise Keepers are also big on hypocrisy. You may recall Coach McCartney, the Promise Keeper who was fervently in favor of pre-marital chastity, yet proudly showed off his daughter's out-of-wedlock child.

[customerserviceguy]

28. The fact that your post is the first thing I've seen about them in years

is a good sign. My theory is that they got what they wanted during the last part of the Bush years, so they just up and went away.

[ThoughtCriminal]

29. Men who hope that by joining...

it will help keep their wives from figuring out that they are cheating on them.

[Missy Vixen]

30. Someone we knew is a Promise Keeper

He tried to persuade my husband to join. He and his wife have gone off the deep end of the right wing.

Let's just say my husband decided it wasn't in his best interest.