BOULDER — The return of former University of Colorado football coach Bill McCartney to Folsom Field with his Promise Keepers Christian men’s ministry ended Saturday afternoon with a few thousand faithful donning Stars of David in support of Jewish brethren.
McCartney, 68, said he would celebrate the 20th year of the ministry by honoring women — invited to attend en masse for the first time — and by honoring the poor and also Jewish believers in Christ, who he called Christians’ spiritual fathers in the faith.
In Promise Keepers’ first appearance in Boulder since 1994, McCartney called on men to be warriors in defense of these oppressed groups.
At the climax of the two-day event, McCartney took an emotional oath that he would shelter, protect and stand with Jewish believers “to the death,” and he accepted a yellow star in remembrance of how Jews were marked by Nazi Germany for segregation and, later, deportation to the death camps of the Holocaust.
McCartney said before the event that this commitment would bring the “tangible presence of God” to the field. McCartney was not available for comment afterward.
Speakers Saturday included Rabbi David Chernoff, senior minister at Congregation Beth Yeshua in Philadelphia, and Dr. Daniel Juster of Jerusalem, co-founder of Tikkun International.
McCartney had resigned as Promise Keepers’ president in 2003 to start a new ministry, called the Road to Jerusalem, to support Messianic Jews. He returned as Promise Keepers’ chief executive and board chairman in September to revitalize the men-only movement that, at its peak in 1996, drew more than a million men to 22 stadium conferences.
A Promise Keepers-hosted event in 1997, “Stand in the Gap: A Sacred Assembly of Men,” on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., drew a crowd estimated at a million.
But by 2008, the ministry attracted only 25,000 men to events in seven cities. McCartney returned to reignite Promise Keepers with Raleigh Washington as its new president.
“We’re back because Coach received a clarion call from God to relaunch this ministry. It is recognition of the fact that the church is . . . incredibly divided,” Washington said. “Coach’s heart, his calling, is to heal the divide.”
The division is along gender, racial and economic lines, as well as between gentiles and Jewish believers in Jesus, Washington said.
Amanda Walker, a 30-year-old attendee from Kansas City, Mo., said it was refreshing to hear Christian women, including single women, being honored by the ministry, especially in light of the church’s history of marginalizing women. “Even if nothing changes as a result, it was right and good to hear it,” Walker said.
Promise Keepers spokesman Steven Chavis estimated total attendance at 10,000.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
