Bill McCartney, the acclaimed coach who led Colorado’s moribund football team to a national championship and founded Promise Keepers, a ministry that inspired a nationwide Christian men’s movement and urged believers to confront the sins of racism, died last Friday at age 84 after struggling for years with dementia and Alzheimer’s.
He was praised by religious and sports figures for his passion, his ability to rouse and inspire both young athletes and struggling believers, and for his commitment to following the visions he says God gave him during periods of fasting and prayer, no matter the cost.
A charismatic Catholic who attended a Vineyard church in politically progressive Boulder, Colo., McCartney proclaimed that “a man’s man is a godly man.” He relentlessly promoted his vision of thousands of Christian men united in prayer and watched as attendance at his events surged from 4,200 in 1991 to more than a million by 1996.
Promise Keepers “Stand in the Gap” rally on National Mall in 1997.
Promise Keepers inspired a nationwide Christian men’s movement that saw more men participating in worship and small groups while deepening their commitment to the duties of marriage and family. The movement also led to the flourishing of dozens of national men’s ministries, the strengthening of denominational efforts to reach men, the creation of thousands of church-based men’s groups, and boom times for Christian publishing as men bought more books and Bibles.
By 1997, Promise Keepers had revenue of $87 million, 465 employees and 36 regional offices. But that year’s Stand in the Gap, a “sacred assembly” that brought an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., hastened its decline.
Men form a show of support by placing their arms on each others shoulders for pastor Patrick Styers from Weston, Fla., as they give thanks to their pastors during the Promise Keepers 2002 Conference June 29, 2002. in Miami. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
McCartney had a vision that the event, which cost $9 million to organize, should be offered free of charge. The loss of event revenue led to layoffs in 1997, and in 1998 the remaining 345 employees were told they would not be paid and were urged to continue working as unpaid volunteers while McCartney asked every church in the nation to donate $1,000.
Some 7 million men would eventually attend Promise Keepers events, but today, the ministry limps along as a mostly online $1 million ministry that has grown increasingly politically partisan, harming its efforts to organize successful live events, and condemning as “woke” and “Marxist” the kinds of anti-racism efforts McCartney pioneered.
PK is currently promoting two in-person events for 2025: A college campus tour called Promise Keepers University and a fall men’s event that does not yet have a date or location.
McCartney’s efforts to combat racism sprung from his faith, a profound spiritual encounter, his deep love for his Black athletes, and his experiences on recruiting trips that showed him how economic inequality and unofficial segregation continued to separate the races.
“You can’t say you love God and not love your brother,” he told a crowd of pastors at a 1996 clergy event in Atlanta. Promise Keepers prominently featured Black speakers at its events and hired more Black employees for leadership positions than any other white-led parachurch organization.
While many pastors fully embraced McCartney’s challenge to America’s original sin, others begged off, calling his efforts “divisive” and claiming culture war issues such as abortion and homosexuality remained top priorities.
Christianity Today summarized Promise Keeper’s racial efforts in a 2021 article, “Promise Keepers Tried to End Racism 25 Years Ago. It Almost Worked.” The article observed that “even as Promise Keepers gathered tens of thousands of men, in city after city after city, to repent and reconcile, the ministry ran into its own limits.”
“Too many people left events thinking they had accomplished reconciliation,” wrote Daniel Sillman. “It was complete now, as far as they were personally concerned, and any further issues with inequality and injustice in the country did not involve them. … Men had an emotional experience, listened to a Black preacher and hugged a minority brother. That seemed to be that.”
“The current iteration of Promise Keepers has turned its back on McCartney’s passion for racial justice.”
The current iteration of Promise Keepers has turned its back on McCartney’s passion for racial justice, condemning Critical Race Theory and promoting anti-anti-racism speakers such as retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, executive vice president of the Family Research Council. Boykin claims U.S. military efforts to confront racism and white supremacy are based on Marxism, trading Marx’s conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat for today’s conflicts between whites and Blacks.
Recent surveys show white evangelicals remain outliers on key racial issues and are much more likely than other Americans to believe that:
- White Americans face as much discrimination as Blacks and other people of color
- Immigrants are invading America and “replacing” our cultural background
- White supremacy is not a significant problem
- The killing of Black men by police are isolated incidents, not part of a racist pattern
- Monuments to Confederate soldiers are symbols of Southern pride, not racism
“We white Christians … have constructed and sustained a project of perpetuating white supremacy that has framed the entire American story,” said Robert P. Jones of PRRI.
James Dobson’s Focus on the Family radio show helped McCartney promote Promise Keepers nationally, and McCartney embraced Dobson’s crusade against homosexuals.
McCartney called homosexuality an “abomination” while speaking at a University of Colorado Buffaloes press conference and lent his name to Dobson’s divisive campaign supporting Colorado’s Amendment 2, a 1992 initiative to overturn and prevent gay rights laws in the state. The measure narrowly passed but was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Promise Keepers issued a “Statement on Homosexuality” that expressed “compassion for the men who are struggling with these issues” and said, “We therefore support their being included and welcomed in all our events.” But gays and their supporters didn’t feel the love. More than 100 protesters stood outside a 1992 Promise Keepers event in Boulder chanting as attendees entered: “If you have a name tag, go ahead and kill a fag.”
In recent years, a newly resurrected and increasingly partisan Promise Keepers has seen some planned public events canceled by COVID restrictions while its statements on homosexuality and gender issues have hurt its efforts to reach men.
In 2023, Promise Keepers lined up groups to host its planned fall “Daring Faith” gatherings, but after Promise Keepers issued a divisive statement on sexuality during gay pride month, Belmont University in Nashville, Hope Church in Cordova, Tenn., and The Fountain of Praise in Houston said they would not host the events.
In a statement, Belmont said it canceled the event because Promise Keepers was working to “unnecessarily fan the flames of culture wars and are harmful to members of our community.”
Promise Keepers President Ken Harrison said the events were “canceled not by ‘woke’ interests in the culture, but by self-described Christian churches and universities.”
Harrison is the CEO of Colorado Springs-based WaterStone, a Christian foundation that pioneered tax-deductible donor-advised funds in the 1980s.
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