[Marxism] Re. Against the liberal-electoralist approach ...

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

IN SEARCH OF MEN WHO ARE IN SEARCH OF COMMITMENT
The Washington Post, Sunday, September 7, 1997
By Stephanie Coontz

At a recent talk in Chicago I gave about the dangers of romanticizing 
"traditional" families, a young man asked me if I didn't think the mass 
rallies of the men's group Promise Keepers in football stadiums across 
the country represented "potential fascism." I argued, to considerable 
skepticism from my audience, that however disturbing the ideology of 
the leaders, the motivations that bring thousands of men together for 
these events are not fascist, or even explicitly right-wing. Men show 
up to promise service, fidelity and humility, not only to God (a 
formula that has historically been all too compatible with abuse of 
power toward mere humans) but also to community and family. The pleas 
they hear for racial reconciliation may not produce much concrete 
action, but are certainly not fascist slogans.

Critics of the Promise Keepers should not fall into the trap of 
demonizing the men to whom these rallies appeal. Many of the men who 
attend are searching for an anchor that will keep them committed to 
their wives in a world where other men are contemptuous of such values. 
They are looking for alternative models of manhood to those presented 
by Rambo or Donald Trump. At the rallies they hear that it is not. weak 
to express emotions, that manliness isn't about power or financial 
success or domination.

Full at http://academic.evergreen.edu/c/coontzs/a3.html
________

Whose Keepers, What Promises?
© 1995 by Kenneth Clatterbaugh
This article appeared in the October 1995 issue of M.E.N. Magazine

"The evangelist, a former star athlete, shouts to thousands of praying, 
crying men,some of whom raise their arms in supplication. 'A man will 
be a Christian if he is decent and if he is not a Christian, he 
forfeits any claim to decency. Do you believe it's right and manly to 
be a Christian? Then come on down. If you don't, stay where you are.' 
The men, having promised to avoid infidelity and other social sins, to 
accept Jesus in their life, to rely on the literal infallibility of the 
Bible, are given cards making them children of God. The scene is 
repeated over and over for thousands of men in dozens of cities. The 
men are generally white and middle-aged. They are not wealthy, nor are 
they poor. They are insecure, caught in a changing world that threatens 
their beliefs. Racial tensions are high. Church attendance, especially 
by men, is down. Women are gaining the vote. Evolution is taught in the 
schools. Liberal Protestantism seems to be winning the day. They seek 
to defend their place in the family, the country, and the proper 
values. Yet they do not claim to be a political movement or a social 
reform movement, firmly believing instead that "'here is no prejudice 
between man and man, between masses and classes, between capital and 
labor, which cannot be driven from the world by the principles of Jesus 
Christ in men.' Finally, after the evangelist declares that 'the 
manliest man is the man who will acknowledge Jesus Christ,' the 
musicians strike up a favored song and the men sing loudly."

You may be surprised to learn that this is not an account of a Promise 
Keepers rally in the 1990s, but a description of a muscular 
Christianity rally in 1917 under the energetic leadership of former 
National League outfielder William (Billy) A. Sunday. Leaving the 
Kingdome in the afternoon of July 7, 1995, my butt numb from sitting 
through the long morning session, I thought of the millions of men who 
had heard Billy Sunday-they would have liked the rally.
. . .
Will this movement last? Will they achieve their stated goals of 
winning the war against culture? Judging from past evangelical 
movements, the answer is "no." Judging from other parts of their 
program, the answer again is "no." Evangelical movements often emerge 
just as the battle is lost; they are not a beginning, but an end. The 
average age of men at the Promise Keepers gathering was probably in the 
low 40s. They want to recapture a bygone day that maybe never was. 
Women's equality may be differently interpreted, but it is here to 
stay. Homophobia has a lot of life left in it, but it, too, is dying. 
Creationism is not science and will not achieve a lasting place in 
science curricula. Even the current Supreme Court is unwilling to deny 
all choice on abortion. Young Christians, notably absent from the 
gathering, have found their own accommodation as men and women without 
"masculine leadership" (a favorite Promise Keepers expression). 
Furthermore, the economic system, which they enthusiastically endorse, 
is working against them. Loss of family-wage jobs, declining real 
income, job insecurity, and long-term unemployment and underemployment, 
all of which are characteristic of our advanced capitalist economy, are 
the very things that force parents, children and grandparents to work 
long hours, to suffer depression, and to be alienated from each other.

Full at http://www.menweb.org/pkclattr.htm

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