Promise Keepers offers free global livestream

When Colorado Springs businessman Ken Harrison announced last year that he was resurrecting Promise Keepers, the Colorado ministry that brought millions of men to stadium-sized teaching and worship events in the 1990s, he looked forward to the coming weekend, when up to 80,000 men were scheduled to gather in Dallas.

COVID-19 changed those plans, but the event is going ahead as a live-streaming “Global Digital Experience” that anyone can watch for free this Friday and Saturday by registering at the group’s website. The big stadium event is delayed until next summer.

“Moving our stadium event to 2021 and switching to a global virtual event this year will result in more ministry to more men in more places,” said Promise Keepers CEO Vance Day. “Moving to virtual gives us an ‘online stadium’ with limitless attendance, viewable by men from around the planet.”

The group’s website describes Day, a retired Oregon judge who refused to officiate at gay weddings, as “a modern-day profile in courage” who “became the focus of a sustained, vicious attack.”

PK released its lineup of speakers and musicians July 7, which has continued to expand. Highlights include pastor Tony Evans, counselor Steve Arterburn and musician Michael W. Smith— all of whom participated in PK events in the 1990s.

Additional speakers include:

• John Eldredge, author of the bestselling book “Wild at Heart” and founder of the local men’s ministry with the same name.

• Chad Hennings, former football star for Air Force and the Dallas Cowboys, and author of “Rules of Engagement: Finding Friendship, Faith, and Strength in a Disconnected World.”

• Greg Stier, the founder of Arvada-based Dare 2 Share, a ministry that teaches young people to evangelize their peers.

• Bob Goff, bestselling author of “Love Does for Kids” and founder of the nonprofit organization Love Does.

• Jimmy Evans, senior pastor of Gateway Church in Dallas and founder of the “MarriageToday” ministry and television program.

• Evangelists Andrew and Luis Palau.

Controversial choices

PK founder Bill McCartney, the Hall of Fame coach at the University of Colorado, was a vocal advocate of Amendment 2, Colorado’s 1992 anti-gay-rights initiative that narrowly passed and later was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Harrison said the new PK would “avoid being political but won’t avoid politics.” Two of its speakers are Republican activists and supporters of President Donald Trump.

David Barton, who for decades has taught conservative evangelicals about America’s Christian heritage, has worked for the Republican Party and its candidates. Barton also helped Andrew Wommack’s Charis College develop its school of practical government. Barton has praised the president’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A graduate of Oral Roberts University with no specialized training in history, Barton has a long track record of historical falsehoods. Publisher Thomas Nelson took the unusual step of pulling his bestselling 2012 book, “The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You’ve Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson,” because of its looseness with the facts.

“There were historical details — matters of fact, not matters of opinion, that were not supported at all,” said Nelson executive Brian Hampton. Among other claims, Barton argued that the slave-owning editor of The Jefferson Bible, which omitted all supernatural accounts from the New Testament, was a civil rights visionary and “conventional Christian.”

David J. Harri, a Black entrepreneur and media figure who serves on the board of Black Voices For Trump, is the author of “Why I Couldn’t Stay Silent,” a book about his journey as “a black man, a conservative, a father, a husband, and a Christian.” His website features articles about Hillary Clinton’s emails, the Seth Rich conspiracy, and Antifa. His store sells “Drain the Swamp” T-shirts and “Trump 2020” socks.

Another speaker seems a curious choice for an event promoting morality and integrity.

John Gray is an associate pastor of Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston and senior pastor of his congregation, Relentless Church, in Greenville, S.C. According to an article in ChurchLeaders.com by Lakewood, Colorado writer Stephanie Martin, Gray’s “national profile has risen, but the publicity hasn’t always been favorable. Gray has faced criticism for lavish spending, addressed rumors of marital infidelity, and is now embroiled in two lawsuits.”

As Relentless Church faced financial problems, Gray bought a $200,000 Lamborghini Urus as his wife’s anniversary gift, which he announced via social media. When pressured, Gray responded, “I’m supposed to wait until I’m 70 to live my best life? ... It wasn’t a pastor that bought the car ... Don’t confuse what I do with who I am.”

The speakers lineup also includes the Benham Brothers, two entrepreneur sons of anti-abortion activist Flip Benham. The cable channel HGTV canceled the brothers show in 2014 after Right Wing Watch posted David Benham’s earlier comments linking the fight for gay rights to other “demonic ideologies.”