November 27, 2000
Promise Keepers was about revivalism
more than gender, researcher suggests
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___HOUSTON--The Promise Keepers movement was more about revivalism than about gender differences, according to a prominent researcher of religious trends.
___Those who criticized Promise Keepers events as being rallies for social and family dominance by white males missed the point entirely, said Larry Iannaccone, professor of economics at Santa Clara University in California.
___Iannaccone made his comments during a presentation at the annual meeting of the Religious Research Association in Houston. His topic was "Bringing White Guys to their Knees: How Promise Keepers Faked Right, Ran Left and Scored Big."
___Critics of Promise Keepers have been inaccurate in their accusations in part because they do not understand the evangelical context in which Promise Keepers flourished, he asserted.
___"Promise Keepers is a contemporary evangelical movement patterned after revivals," he explained. "It is all about revivalism, not about gender."
___For example, he challenged criticisms that Promise Keepers focused on a "mostly white" crowd.
___At the huge Promise Keepers "Stand in the Gap" rally on the Washington Mall, the crowd was about 80 percent white, Iannaccone confirmed. About 60 percent of the speakers at the rally were white, he added.
___Then he compared those figures with the overall American population, which is 83 percent white, and the rolls of mainline Protestant churches, which are 88 percent white.
___Further, Promise Keepers demonstrated far more racial diversity than its primary critic, the National Organization of Women, he said, saying NOW doesn't report racial backgrounds of its adherents but his research demonstrates the group is "overwhelmingly white."
___Charges that Promise Keepers promoted "anti-women and patriarchal" attitudes also don't hold up under scrutiny, he said.
___"Compared to what?" he asked. "Where would a 22-year-old unescorted female feel least threatened, at the end of a Promise Keepers rally or when a sporting event lets out?"
___Rather than promoting hatred or exclusion, Iannaccone's research found Promise Keepers actually created an "extraordinary blend" of old-fashioned revivalism and new sensitivity for men, he said.
___He compared older evangelical models--such as the Bill Gothard seminars that advocate a strong model of male headship--with this newer model of accountability and sensitivity to wives and children.
___"Take everything women might want their husbands to do better, and in front of it put the phrase 'Real men ...,' and that's what Promise Keepers advocated," Iannoccone said.
___From this perspective, rather than representing a shift of American society to the right, Promise Keepers actually represented a shift of evangelical society to the left, he suggested.
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