AIA, Promise Keepers: An Answers In Action Summary Opinion
It is our opinion that the Promise Keepers Christian men's movement is
an over-all Christian movement attempting to encourage Christian men to
fulfill their biblical potential as individuals and as family members.
We do not condemn the movement, and, in fact, encourage its leaders to
continue modifying its content and presentation to achieve a more
biblically complete and pure focus. However, there are several areas of
concern that restrict us from an unqualified endorsement, and which we
believe must be addressed and corrected by the Promise Keepers
leadership. Additionally, there are some general concerns for any
large, event-oriented movement.
Areas of Agreement
- Strong biblical focus
- Emphasis on individual responsibility for growth in Christ
- Encouragement for discipleship through positive Christian role
models
- Commitment to biblical family leadership and service
- Recognition of the necessity for spiritually mature and intact
families
- Open respect for masculine spiritual and emotional growth
Areas of Disagreement
- Promise Keepers promoted author Robert Hicks, whose teachings
combine common sense advice and psychobabble with Christian
vocabulary and New Age motivational/positive confession ideas.
- Promise Keepers distributed thousands of copies of Hicks' book, The
Masculine Journey, which has serious theological deficiencies.
NOTE: Promise Keepers, to our knowledge, no longer promotes Hicks or
his books.
- Promise Keepers speakers are not always theologically sound,
biblically centered, mature Christian speakers. (For example, they
have repeatedly promoted T. D. Jakes, a United Pentecostal
pastor/evangelist who denies -- along with his denomination -- the
orthodox doctrine of the Trinity and promotes baptismal
regeneration.)
- Promise Keepers has not done a careful job of distinguishing between
white, middle-class American social expectations and true biblical
spiritual discipline and maturity.
Areas of General Concern
- Events such as Promise Keepers tend to feed our unbiblical
assumption that a single event or experience can transform our lives
on a permanent basis.
- Mass audiences tend to enable the individual to lose himself in the
crowd and thus more easily evade personal responsibility.
- Mass events and movements tend to reflect the cultural and ethnic
habits of their founders and leaders and thus inadvertently tend to
exclude those from other cultural and ethnic backgrounds.
- Gender exclusive movements are susceptible to subtle and unintended
promotion of gender division rather than gender unity in Christ.
While we do not without reservation endorse the Promise Keepers
movement, we recognize that many Christian men who attend will be
spiritually benefitted. We do have positive expectations for the
movement as it matures. We will continue to review the movement and
change our summary as necessary.
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