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The mainstream media is going after a Christian men’s movement that has been around for decades.
USA Today’s “race and inequality editor” called on the Dallas Cowboys and AT&T Stadium, where Promise Keepers is set to take place this weekend, to ban the Christian men’s group.
Promise Keepers CEO Ken Harrison responded on the Todd Starnes Show Wednesday after USA Today’s Mike Freeman accused him of “anti-trans” hate speech.
Harrison refuted Freeman’s accusations, adding that he started receiving death threats after the op-ed.
“We’re going to preach God’s word, but we are not out to condemn or belittle anybody,” Harrison told host Todd Starnes.
LISTEN TO HARRISON’S INTERVIEW WITH TODD BELOW:
Below is a rushed transcript of the Todd Starnes Show interview:
STARNES: Big event coming up this week, July 16th and 17th. Promise Keepers is back and they’re going to be at AT&T Stadium there in Dallas. On the Patriot Mobile newsmaker line is from Promise Keepers, Ken Harrison. Ken, good to have you with us today.
HARRISON: Hey, thanks, good to talk to you, Ken.
STARNES: Ken, first of all, I’m excited about this gathering. Tell us what’s going to be happening there. AT&T is a very large stadium. You guys are going to fill this thing up?
HARRISON: We’ll fill it mostly up, probably not sold out, but which is pretty impressive considering we’re just coming off of COVID and to get tens of thousands of Christian men together in one place. Pretty cool.
STARNES: Well, it is cool. And there is something about, you know, men gathering together to worship and to hear God’s word. I know my good friend James Robison, one of the speakers. What’s going to be happening and what’s the focus of Promise Keepers?
HARRISON: You know, we really want to preach God’s word in a way that I don’t think a lot of people are hearing it anymore. And so it’s going to be direct scriptural teaching men to men. And I think so many young people are saying they’re looking for father figures. They’re looking for examples of what a Christian man looks like. And we’re just going to give them God’s word. Straight up, no sugarcoating. I had somebody say to me, ‘Well, you know, what are you going to do to reach the young people? What’s your gimmick? What’s your stick?’ And I said, well, our gimmick is we’re going to preach the word of God. And I think that’s all we need. We’re not going to do fog machines and skinny jeans. We’re going to do, here’s what a man of God looks like. And I think the young people will respond in droves because they’re going to see the Holy Spirit really move with unadulterated truth and we’re not going to compromise.
STARNES: Yeah, I think this is so great. And I think we’ve reached a point in the history of the church where I think people are over the skinny jeans and the, you know, the five o’clock shadow, the stubble, all that kind of stuff. And I think they really want to focus on the main thing here. And I’m looking at the lineup. I mean, Jerry Boykin, a good friend of this program, A.R. Bernard, who’s a friend of mine back when I was in New York, as well as Robert Morris, who’s pastor of a great church there in the Metroplex, Gateway Church.
HARRISON: Yeah, and you mentioned to me, James Roberts is like my spiritual father.
STARNES: Isn’t he awesome?
HARRISON: He preaches. I mean, he has no other agenda but the Lord I mean, there is no ego. There is no self-aggrandizement. It is all about, you know, I love, James. Just people saying, you know, did you talk to James? I said, nobody talks to James and James talks to you. And you listen,
STARNES: There is a great story that Mike Huckabee loves to tell. And James will tell the story, too. Mike right out of college, I guess, worked with James and James Robinson bought Mike Huckabee his very first suit. And then the next thing you know, the guy is running for president of the United States. So you never know. It’s the six degrees of James Roberts and not Kevin Bacon. But, you know, Ken, I understand also there have been you guys have run into some challenges there. My understanding is that the mainstream media has been trying to cancel you guys. What’s going on with that?
HARRISON: It’s unbelievable, I really, I mean, you know, when you go into something like this, OK, maybe there’s some stuff I don’t think people realize the level of hatred and vitriol for Christian men. And we had USA Today come out and basically say that AT&T shouldn’t let Christian men get together. They made their excuse that we were going to come out and bash gay people, which we’ve never said, which we’re not going to do. You know, like I said, we’re going to preach God’s word, but we are not out to condemn or belittle anybody.”
STARNES: But let me stop you there. No, that is bashing gay people. That’s what they define as bashing gay people, is preaching the word of God. I mean, it is just unbelievable.
HARRISON: Yeah. You know, and I said as in those first Corinthians six, it says, you know, adulterers, the sexually immoral, alcoholics, these verbally abusive, active homosexuals, those are all on the list of people who aren’t going to inherit the kingdom of God. And we’re going to preach the word of God about all of those people. We’re not going to pull any one group of people out. We’re interested in speaking God’s word, wholly, completely. Yeah, but we’ve been shocked at some of the real extreme gay magazines have come out and made death threats against me, which has been crazy. My assistant was in my office a couple weeks ago just reading all these death threats. We’ve got to find this guy. We’re going to kill him on and on. And she said, Aren’t you scared? And I said, You know, whoever wrote that is in his underwear behind a keyboard screaming at his mom for his meatloaf. No, I’m not concerned that he’s going to be able to hatch a plan against me. But it is interesting, and also we need to exercise grace for those people because whatever got into such a horrific level of hatred, there’s deep wouding in their lives. That is what Christian men need to do, stand for truth, to stand with grace and humility and empathy, that anything that led someone to that level of screaming out for the death of somebody he never met, somebody who’s only talking about the grace of Jesus. That person needs Jesus. And so he doesn’t need hatred. He doesn’t need an argument from us. He needs for us to love him and tell him about Christ.
STARNES: This is some good stuff here, folks. On the Patriot Mobile newsmaker line, Ken Harrison, he is the chairman and CEO of Promise Keepers. And again, I mean, when you look at the culture right now, men under attack, I mean, you’ve got little boys that are being told, you know, they should wear dresses or they may not be a little boy. This is an all out war on gender and specifically targeting men.
HARRISON: You know, it’s funny to and curious to see what you think about this, but I’m speaking to a lot of men’s groups lately all over America, and I’ve been saying I really don’t think the attack in the war is on. I think it’s on women and children. I just think that this is a way of differentiating men, because when men are screwed up, it’s women and children who suffer. And so I really think we need to take a look at getting men together and talking about what we’re talking about right now. This benefits everybody, not just men, because godly men are a great blessing to women and children. And that’s where I think the real focus and the destruction is.
STARNES: You see, I completely agree with you there, Ken. And a couple of years ago that when toxic masculinity was the big controversy and there was the horrible flooding in Houston, Texas, and the images of these huge, muscular men wading into the flood waters and literally carrying women out in their arms. And I’m thinking to myself, this is what the mainstream media hates. They hate to see this, but this is the reality. Men are built this way. This is what we do. We go into the danger zone and we help people and and and ultimately, we need more of that kind of toxic masculinity in America.
HARRISON: Well, and that’s exactly right. Because here’s the thing about how men are wired. If you tell men they’re worthless, nobody needs them, then they’ll go, you know what? I guess they will just go play video games and surf porn and obsess on football all day. But when you tell them, no, it’s not you that’s being attacked, it’s actually your daughters and your wife and they’re using you to do it, that’s what gets their ire up.
STARNES: Yeah.
HARRISON: So if we continue to say men are being attacked, men will continue to act apathetically, but we get the proof out there. No, it’s actually your families are being attacked. That’s what will wake men up and go, oh my gosh, I’ve been asleep at the wheel while they have been eroding the foundation of truth all over the place in this world.
STARNES: All right, Ken, let’s so let’s get to this. Where can folks go if they want to get more information? Are tickets still available and are you guys still letting folks attend this weekend event?
HARRISON: At PromiseKeepers.org. It’ll be Friday night and Saturday morning, 45 percent of the tickets that were bought for Promise Keepers back in the heyday in the 90s were bought by women to send their husbands and their sons and brothers. So I say women tell your husband. The best thing you could do for us is to go to Promise Keepers. Coach McCartney, who started Promise Keepers, used to say all the time a great line. ‘The best thing a man can do for his kids is to love their mother.’ And so I would say absolutely how you can tickets or I don’t even know what they’re like. Ninety dollars. We don’t want anybody to not be able to come because they can’t afford it. This is not about making money. And in fact, we’ll lose millions of dollars on this deal anyway because of the cost of these things. So if you can’t afford it, contact us through Promise Keepers.org, and we’ll get your free tickets.
STARNES: I think this is terrific, Ken. We’re going to drive a lot of traffic your way. Good luck this weekend. I think the nation’s going to be much stronger as a result of Promise Keepers gatherings like this. So I can look forward to hearing how things go.
HARRISON: They start. Appreciate it, man. Thanks for having me on. All right.
STARNES: Ken Harrison, CEO of Promise Keepers. Ladies, if you’re working on the weekend, honey, do list, just go ahead and put one item on that list. Go to Promise Keepers and then get your husband off to the airport or drive if you’re in the Memphis, Tennessee area where we broadcast, it’s a five and a half-hour drive and it’s seventy-five miles an hour, which is eighty-five or possibly ninety, but you’ll be able to get down there lickety-split. It is one of those life-changing moments for men. And I remember back, gosh, years ago when Promise Keepers were happening all over the place. That was a powerful movement that was happening in this country and the men of America. And no doubt about it, men are under attack in the United States of America.
Caleb Parke is a senior correspondent for the ‘Todd Starnes Show.’ Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and connect with him at calebparke.com.