Oklahoma politicians turned out at a Tulsa event billing itself as a reboot of an evangelical Christian men’s group prominent in the 1990s.
At 9 a.m. Saturday at Oral Roberts University’s Mabee Center, U.S. Senator James Lankford offered a prayer to a crowd of about 1,500 men gathered under the Promise Keepers banner. The group is best known for its march on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 1997. At that event, as many as 800,000 men sang hymns and tearfully embraced in the nation’s capital as they sought to elevate the group’s mission of spreading godly masculinity.
Lankford did not keep things strictly on the topic of manliness as he bowed his head and exhorted God to “whisper into the souls” of state and national leaders.
“God, you raise up, you put down. You’re accomplishing something in us and through the church based on what’s happening in the world, so we pray for the president and vice president. We pray for this election that’s coming. We pray for members of the Supreme Court and Congress,” said Lankford.
At a subsequent panel, Lankford joined Gov. Kevin Stitt to discuss church and politics. In response to a question on whether men should engage politically or spiritually with hot-button issues like transgender rights, Stitt said related policy should be based on religious ideals.
“Our law, in truth, is grounded in the word of God. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Politics change with the whim,” said Stitt. “It was just a couple of years ago we thought it was unheard of, and our state still does, but transgender surgery on minors? I mean, this stuff, and now there’s a whole group of people that say that’s normal, and you can choose your pronouns, you can choose how God’s made you. We think you have to be based on Biblical truths.”
When asked whether Stitt is bothered by being called a Christian nationalist, Stitt shook off the label and said he was inseparable from his faith.
Though some — especially feminists — would say Promise Keepers have always been intense, the group seems to be taking things a step further by including conservative provocateurs Jim Caviezel and Charlie Kirk along with Lankford and Stitt on its roster of speakers. Kirk, who founded the conservative group Turning Point USA, is known for hitting inflammatory “culture war” talking points.
During the first night of the conference on Friday, Kirk repeated a familiar exhortation for more men to be like Daniel Penny, the former Marine charged with second-degree manslaughter for choking homeless Jordan Neely to death on a New York City subway after Neely shouted at “a woman who could not protect herself.”
“[Penny] embodies what is now largely dead in this country and what we need to bring back, which is that if you see an injustice happening in front of you, it is your duty and obligation as a man of Jesus and a man of the Lord to stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves,” said Kirk.
In an interview with Public Radio Tulsa, Promise Keepers CEO Shane Winnings said he understands concerns about promoting violence as a divisive presidential election approaches, but that his main worry is building men who are “meek, not weak.”
“We need men who are willing to say, ‘I don’t care what happens to me, I don’t care if I get hurt in this process, I don’t care if people think I’m crazy.’ We’re not radicalizing men. I think men are so weak today because of society and because of culture, that it is radical to say that you should push back against something you think is wrong,” said Winnings.
Winnings said Kirk was also selected to speak due to his appeal to younger voters.
Young conference attendee and Tulsan Gornie Williams III said Gen Z does need to hear messages like Kirk’s even if things get uncomfortable because, as future leaders, they must be able to withstand controversy.
“I think that’s a good quality for a speaker like that, to kind of make your point known, and stand firm in the face of all the people who don’t like him. He really appreciates the people who do like him and he ignores the haters,” said Williams.
Phillip Billy is an old-school Promise Keeper who remembers the group’s march on D.C. He said he attaches to the message of strength rather than to the message of violence.
“Strong doesn’t mean violence. Strong can be I’m strong enough to go to my neighbor and say, 'Hey man, this is going on, I noticed this,' and try to come to a solution.”
The Promise Keepers conference at ORU will continue until late Saturday afternoon.
