Men’s Group Strives for Racial Harmony

Promise Keepers, the burgeoning Christian men’s movement that has packed sports stadiums across the country with tens of thousands of repentant, prayerful and boisterous men, moves today into the second half of its two-day 1996 conference at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

The Los Angeles conference, the first of 22 such gatherings to be held throughout the United States this year, stands to be a crucial test of how well Promise Keepers is doing in reaching its goal of bringing about racial reconciliation among Christians.

Since its beginning in 1991, the Denver-based men’s ministry has drawn mainly from the ranks of middle-class whites from evangelical and Pentecostal churches. More recently, however, Christians from other faith traditions, including Roman Catholics, Lutherans and Episcopalians, have been showing up.

But the para-church organization, which now has an annual budget estimated at $115 million and a staff of 400, has had more difficulty in attracting men of color, despite the fact that many of the most dynamic speakers at Promise Keepers conferences are Latinos and African Americans.

The Los Angeles conference is expected to draw 49,000 participants from across racially and culturally diverse Southern California.

Promise Keepers founder Bill McCartney, the former head football coach at the University of Colorado, has repeatedly called for repentance by white men for the sin of racism. This year’s theme is “Break Down the Walls.” However, McCartney will not be present in Los Angeles.

Leading African American clergy who have endorsed Promise Keepers say there remains suspicion among black men that it is a white organization. For that reason, McCartney and his staff have tried to involve community leaders in planning conferences, seeking their views and praying together.

In addition, for the second time in Southern California, Promise Keepers is holding its rally at the Coliseum, which is in a predominantly black and Latino neighborhood.

But Steve Chavis, a Promise Keepers spokesman, said the racial mix at the Coliseum this weekend will not necessarily be the best indicator of the group’s progress in breaking down racial barriers.

“We’ve done better this year in explaining the relationship aspect of reconciliation,” Chavis told The Times. “It will happen first brother to brother and then it will happen as churches begin working and worshiping together. The last thing that happens is a guy who will buy a ticket and come to the Coliseum.

“We’re just trying to get people to look at the bigger picture and not trivialize this to become a numbers issues or an integration issue. It’s a relationship issue,” he said.

This afternoon, for example, the conference will focus on several topics that touch upon racial reconciliation, “Uniting Together as Brothers in Christ,” and “Walking in Your Brother’s Shoes: Embracing Diversity in the Body of Christ.”

The sixth of seven promises made by those who embrace the Promise Keepers agenda calls on men to reach “beyond any racial and denominational barriers to demonstrate the power of biblical unity.”

But there are other walls as well, Promise Keepers officials said, including those between men and their wives and children, as well as between men and God.

Although there have been some complaints from women and in media reports that Promise Keepers is restricted to men, wives of men who have attended have been enthusiastic, according to the organization’s officials.

In an interview with The Times two years ago, Connie Schaedel of La Mirada, the wife of a Promise Keeper who has since died, said the ministry improved an already good marriage.

“Our relationship, our marriage, became even more complete, even more whole, as a result of the way he felt he could express himself . . . after a [Promise Keepers] conference. It was an incredible blessing,” Schaedel said.

The conference, which opened Friday, continues at 8:30 a.m. today and concludes tonight. Two other Promise Keepers conferences are scheduled in California this year, on June 28 and 29 in Oakland, and on July 12 and 13 in San Diego.