San Antonio Express-News, 7-15-07:

Promise Keepers draws thousands

Web Posted: 07/14/2007 09:58 PM CDT

Sig Christenson
Express-News

The faithful descended on the AT&T Center from as far away as Tyler and Houston, most of them conservative middle-aged churchgoing white men with potbellies and a love for football.
They came for Promise Keepers 2007, a rally that had the feel of an old-fashioned tent revival and boys-only meeting in the backyard tree house — making it the perfect high-testosterone setting for sharing flatulence jokes and a dark secret or two.

"I don't think there's one day I haven't desired sex with another woman," comic Brad Stine told the audience, preaching on the never-ending war Promise Keepers wage over illicit sex. "I didn't say I did it. What I'm saying is the temptation is real."

The battle to become better husbands, fathers and Christians was joined Saturday as the nondenominational Promise Keepers wrapped up a two-day conference. The group, founded a decade ago by ex-University of Colorado football coach Bill McCartney, calls itself a "conference ministry" that hopes "to ignite and unite men to become passionate followers" of Christ.

Promise Keepers has its critics. The National Organization for Women says the group's call to take responsibility in the home is really a code word for dominating their wives. But one of the few women on hand this day, teacher Donna Tucker, 45, of San Antonio said, "Anywhere where they are going to encourage men to be good men and Christian men and love each other and love their wives and their children, I'm just for it."

Organizers said 6,000 men attended the rally, with viewers logging on to a Web broadcast in more than 20 countries. Like a number of people attending, Jeremy Medley, 30, of Tyler and a friend, Carlos Juarez, came with their church, and had a mission.

"I come here to learn how to be a better father, to be a better Christian, to learn how to be a better mentor and a friend," Medley explained. "God is here, there's no doubt about that."

Asked why a conference is needed to remind people of the obvious, retired Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Wallace Carroll, 44, of Cibolo said stress could sidetrack folks. He wasn't bothered to be among the relative handful of blacks at the gathering, saying, "In the Bible I don't think it says middle-aged and white or young and African American."

Many in the crowd watched a video in the darkened arena as Promise Keepers workers passed plastic yellow buckets to the crowd. The buckets were filled with greenbacks and pledge cards in short order.

Outside, a man on a cell phone told the other person on the line he was at church. But this sanctuary had a passing resemblance to a Barnes & Noble store. A sign just inside the facility proclaimed "Conference Recordings." One of them on a table full of CDs and DVDs was Promise Keepers' "Stand in the Gate — A Sacred Assembly."

It cost $59.

Books were on sale, "Better Dads, Stronger Sons," going for $12. A bumper sticker proclaimed, "I love my wife." On the group's Web site, 1997's "The Making of A Godly Man" best-of DVD set, sells for $135.

A core Promise Keepers theme is retaking the mantle of manhood, to be true Christian family men. Doing that, they say, requires them to band together. Standing with his 10-year-old son, Shane, Jon Estes, 39, of Lufkin said, "As men we can't do it alone. We have to find other people to help us."

Stine drove home the point by telling the audience that while he's always been faithful to his wife, men have been driven by sexual demons from the start.

"That's why the multibillion pornography industry isn't making money off of women," he commented. "We're the ones with the problem, and you cannot survive this one alone."



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sigc@express-news.net