Promise Keepers grew from 4,200 men in 1991 to 1.2 million by 1996.

Evidence

IN THE SUMMER OF 1997, AROUND 700,000 CHRISTIAN men streamed into the nation’s capital to “stand in the gap,” to step up as men of God, to keep their promises to honor and obey God, protect their families, pursue virtue, and influence their world. Six years earlier, 4200 men had attended the first Promise Keepers rally, the brainchild of Bill McCartney, then head football coach at the University of Colorado. McCartney had experienced a personal and religious crisis after his daughter had given birth to a child fathered by one of his players. Realizing that he had failed to prioritize his family, he ended up leaving his Catholic church for the evangelical Vineyard Christian Fellowship. Thinking he wasn’t alone in his struggles, he decided to issue a call for the renewal of Christian manhood. The next year, James Dobson promoted Promise Keepers on his radio program, helping to ignite a national movement. By 1994, 278,000 men were attending PK events held in stadiums around the country. The next year 700,000 participated, and the year after that an estimated 1.2 million. By 1997, the evangelical men’s movement had become impossible to ignore. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 346

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader project on how commercial/consumer culture (here: stadium rallies and radio promotion) transmits militant masculinity within white evangelicalism.