500 County Men Head East With a Promise to Keep

It wasn’t so long ago, Jeff Morris says, that he lived in the dark, routinely passing his days without purpose or meaning.

But now the 44-year-old Simi Valley resident says he is a changed man, in full knowledge of his place in the world and his responsibilities to it.

Morris, a born-again Christian and a leader of the Promise Keepers organization in Ventura County, is scheduled to join about 500 other county men for the 2,700-mile journey east to Washington for this weekend’s nationwide gathering of males called Stand in the Gap.

When his plane arrives, Morris will join an estimated 700,000 other like-minded men who will be gathering together to atone for their sins and renew a personal commitment to their families, communities, children and God.

For those like Morris, it’s a chance to join a growing men’s movement that has been both praised for mending the fraying fabric of American morality and criticized for ignoring other social ills like gender and class inequities.

“I want to be part of something that will leave a lasting legacy for my children,” said Morris, a father of two daughters. “It’s exciting to know that I’m going to be part of something that might mean so much for mankind.”

And the flavor of the daylong event will not be lost to those unable to make the cross-country pilgrimage. Two churches, Calvary Community in Thousand Oaks and Christian Fellowship in Ventura, will be hosting gatherings beginning at 8:30 a.m. with live satellite feeds from the event in Washington.

Morris, general manager of a car dealership in Simi Valley, is the Promise Keepers’ ambassador to the eastern portion of the county. He said he became involved with the organization five years ago after a tumultuous divorce and years of fruitless soul-searching.

After accepting Christ as his savior in 1990, Morris attended several men’s religious gatherings, which he said got him thinking about how to put the principles of religious brotherhood and integrity into action.

Morris invited 54 church leaders in Ventura County to a meeting to discuss the idea. Affiliating with Promise Keepers, a Denver-based nondenominational organization, was the result.

“I told them that I would have preferred they rebuke my suggestions rather than having to ask God to forgive me for not doing anything,” Morris said. “Luckily, none of that had to happen.”

Ventura County has more than 6,000 men involved in the Promise Keepers movement. Many churches, such as Calvary Community Church in Thousand Oaks, have organized increasing numbers of ministries that target men to help sustain the momentum.

Promise Keepers is a men’s movement based upon the moral tenets and theology of fundamental Christianity that has as its primary goal to challenge modern American men to assume strong and responsible roles within their families, communities and church.

Among the seven promises men must continually strive to keep are commitments to Christ, marriage and family, their church, to remain morally pure and to reach beyond racial and denominational barriers.

For the past several years, Promise Keepers has held mass gatherings in stadiums across the country, such as the one in Los Angeles this spring that brought more than 60,000 men together for two days of prayer and worship. But the Washington gathering is something new that Morris and area pastors hope will send a clear and confident message to the nation that American morality is not bankrupt, but has been reawakened.

“It’s not a statement of power or politics,” said Pastor Steve Gladen of the Calvary Community Church, who is also set to fly to Washington today. “It’s more like a tremendous church revival that challenges men to stand up and be men.”

Stand in the Gap, the theme of Saturday’s massive display of male moral fortitude, was taken from the Bible’s book of Ezekiel, where God asked for men to save the land from moral turpitude and tempestuous impurity.

“I look for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land, so that I would not have to destroy it,” the Old Testament prophet said in Ezekiel 22:30.

For members of Promise Keepers, a similar gap has emerged in America that can only be filled with a unified spiritual commitment.

“This has called forth something in men that they have really responded to,” said Pastor Willis Moerer of Ascension Lutheran Church in Thousand Oaks. “It’s really challenged them and made them think long and hard about themselves, their families and the world they live in.”

But for all the credit Promise Keepers has received for helping to nurse the nation’s spiritual wounds, it has also come under fire from groups like the National Organization for Women for what that group considers to be a chauvinist interpretation of the Bible, kinship with the Christian Right and a staunch message of patriarchal authority.

But individual Promise Keepers members said those concerns are unfounded and that despite their traditional Christian foundation, they recognize the need for gender equality. Group members, however, say they believe men have suffered from a spiritual neurosis that has eroded their sense of identity, place and purpose within the family and society.

That, they say, has led to men withdrawing from responsibility in relationships and an entire generation of males growing up detached from the bonds of family and community.

“I think they [Promise Keepers] have affirmed their belief that men and women are created equal,” Pastor Moerer said. “All they do is encourage men to step up and recognize their roles and responsibilities.”

Despite the controversy surrounding Promise Keepers, Morris and others said they won’t let that detract from their enthusiasm for Saturday’s event.

“It’s going to be wonderful,” Morris said. “My plans could never be as great as God’s. His will always bear greater fruit and that’s exciting.”