‘We see our mission to turn men to God as an urgent one,’ group’s CEO says
The CEO of a Christian group that promotes “Biblical manhood” recently shared with The College Fix why its events, including one canceled by Belmont University, are necessary.
The purpose of the “Daring Faith” tour is “to call men together to worship Christ, hear direct teaching on how to understand current cultural issues through a biblical sense, and to create lasting friendships,” Promise Keepers CEO Ken Harrison told The Fix via a media statement on July 11 about the scheduled event at Belmont, a Christian school in Nashville.
The events “discuss Biblical manhood and the difficulties of navigating the tension between our Christian identity and the often antithetical identities of the culture in which we live,” according to a news release.
The Nashville university agreed to host the Promise Keepers and even advertised the event on its website, Harrison told the media.
However, it unexpectedly backed out after the group posted a statement on its Instagram account disagreeing with gender ideology and “Pride Month.”
“We see our mission to turn men to God as an urgent one. Of the 127 suicides per day in the United States, 80% are middle aged men,” Harrison said. “This is because they have lost their identity and purpose in life, which at its foundation is to put one’s faith in Christ and live for Him.”
“Because of that, Promise Keepers must stay laser-focused on our mission and not be distracted with other fights, which, whether justified or not, do not advance the cause of Christ,” he said, to explain why the group does not plan further action against Belmont.
Belmont University was one of the stops on this tour until the school disagreed with a post made by Promise Keepers.
The post included that “true life and joy is found when we reject sin,” “gender ideology is an idol of our culture and that, as sin, it is poisonous,’ and that “marriage is designed by God to be for one man and one woman.”
The group also stated that “Jesus, the Son of God, will forgive our sins if we repent,” and “the path of following Jesus Christ is difficult and countercultural, but it is the path of life.”
The Fix contacted Belmont University for comments on its side of the story, but the school did not receive a response.
Harrison remains optimistic that Belmont will become faithful to its Christian faith.
“We have met with some Belmont trustees and had a productive conversation about both of our concerns. Based on that meeting, we expect and hope to see some positive changes occur at Belmont, chiefly their turning back to the authority of God’s Word,” he said.
The university’s website gives some insight as to what its stance on gender and human sexuality is.
Under the campus ministry page, there is a list of on-campus faith communities, one of them being Belmont Bridge Builders. This is an affiliated group that “is established for the expressed purpose of fostering community and discussion between the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community on campus and the university at large.”
Other Christian universities struggle to uphold their values, Harrison told The Fix. He said Belmont “is by no means alone in its drift away from the understanding that God’s Word is the only foundation of truth and it cannot be compromised by cultural leanings.”
“This is an epidemic among many Christian schools, who represent strong fundamentalist beliefs to their donors but teach something much different in the classroom… it is incumbent on people to investigate and substantiate a school’s biblical worldview before donating or trusting that school with their child’s education.”
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IMAGE: Promise Keepers/Instagram
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