By Max Gromyko
Arizona Daily Wildcat
October 10, 1997

Promise Keepers just looking for 'quick fix'

Editor:

In response to the commentary by Mr. Badeaux concerning the issue of Promise Keepers, I would like to say that I think he missed the point. The issue is not whether they are being attacked by various sources, or that they are all-male, all-Christian. The issue is the plausibility of the whole movement. Take the meeting in Washington, for example.

Here are hundreds of thousands of men who say they are bad fathers, boyfriends, sons. They decide to come back to God. Now, after all the rotten things they have done to, or great things they haven't done for their loved ones, they say that with the help of Lord Jesus Christ they are all of a sudden good. Boom! "We've changed!" Here are people with various problems at their homes. Most likely these problems were caused by the fact that they were not mature, responsible, ready, or fit enough to start their families and relationships in the first place. The lists of their problems possibly include wife-beatings, cheating, child abandonment. Now, these men go to this inspirational meet. Leaving this meeting, just like balloons, they are filled with great ideals. Then they come home and a realization hits them: there is a very long way to go from saying they have changed to actually changing. This is likely to cause much frustration. The frustration will build and then, the balloon will pop, and guess who will have to bear weight of this frustration. Wives, girlfriends, children. Family problems solved?

Promise Keepers are nothing else, but a desperate attempt at a quick fix. It is very symbolic, yet it is nothing more to it than empty words and promises. Of course, there will several people who will eventually change, but their numbers will be limited. In all the rhetoric an important distinction is being lost - that is whether the movement is about coming back to God, or becoming better fathers, brothers, and boyfriends. Whether you like it or not, it is not the same thing. Faith is a good aide in leading a family life, but first, one has to build that family. For the members of the movement it will take much more than crying in a stadium and God's name. By the way, how come these good father wannabes waste their weekends on a meeting instead spending some quality time with their families?

Max Gromyko
Pre-CS junior