Promises are important; not as important as a vow or a pledge, but important nonetheless.

Promises are statements one makes saying he or she will at least try to follow a clearly outlined course of action. Vows and pledges are a bit more serious in scope as there is usually no leeway for failure to accomplish what is vowed or pledged. One will simply fulfill the goals of the pledge or vow or die trying.

Simply put, brides and grooms don't promise to love one another, they vow to do so. Fresh from boot camp, inductees don't promise to lay down their life for their country, they pledge to do so.

One promises to try and remember to pick up milk on the way home from work - it's not a do or die proposition.

Now we have hundreds of thousands of men who marched on the nation's Capitol promising that they will be good, faithful, decent and Christian husbands and fathers.

Well, at least we know they're going to try.

Of course, they also pledged a few other things on their way to Washington. They pledged to assert themselves as the heads of their families - modeling their little domains on the Bible and its Christian values.

If I sound suspicious about this particular goal of the Promise Keepers, it's probably because they sound very much Eke the deacons in the Berryville Baptist Church.

Remember them? They were the ones who ordered their church-run day care closed because it tempted their good Baptist' wimmen-folk to trod that downward-leading, well worn path of good intentions.

One reason cited by the deacons for closing the day care was that it encouraged women to work outside of the home and by consequence come into daily contact with other men besides their husbands.

In other words, the Berryville Baptists think their wives are untrustworthy - they feel that their spouses cannot be allowed around other men without making fools of themselves or trashing their marriage vows.

Yeah, right!

Another goal the president of the Promise Keepers, Bill McCartney, is espousing, is to make this country a Christian nation.

Hmm.

I wonder what Mr. McCartney and his cohorts plan to do with the First Amendment rights of the considerable number of American citizens who are not Christian?

Our country boasts a large number of Jewish synagogues and temples along with a fair number of Buddhist temples and Moslem mosques - just to mention a few of the many different organized non-Christian religions found in this country. What are the Promise Keepers' plans for these people?

There are hundreds of thousands of Native Americans who worship in their own way. Let's not forget, as we are reminded each Thanksgiving - this country belonged to the Native Americans first.

No matter how much Christians may prate about divine guidance and God "giving" them this country - it simply isn't so. If that were the case, God would have sent Michael, Gabriel, or one of the other archangels, along for the ride when the Mayflower headed for the new world.

Before we allow anyone to declare this country to be a theocracy, we have to ask ourselves a very important question: Do we really want the United States engulfed in religious strife?

America is NOT Bosnia, where Moslems battle Christians. America is NOT Northern Ireland, where Protestants battles Catholics. America is NOT Israel, where Jewish and Moslem forces are still facing off after 2,000 years of bloodshed and anger.

Instead, we have something our forefathers in their great wisdom, called our First Amendment rights. Rights which ensure every citizen freedom of religion. My friends, that has been translated also by the Supreme Court to mean freedomfrom religion. It's because of this ruling that we're not supposed to have moments of prayer in public schools. It's that simple little concept called separation of church and state.

People in this country are free to worship as they please, or not to worship if they don't feel the need - and our constitution protects that right.

Now, mind you, it has been stated by the Promise Keepers' hierarchy that theirs is not a political organization, but a secular one.

Hmm.

Then please explain why they felt compelled to hold a rally comprised of hundreds of thousands of their members in this country's political capital? Why didn't they hold their rally at any one of the more religious locations in this country?

I'm sure Jerry Falwell would have been glad to lend them his Moral Majority headquarters in Virginia; Oral Roberts' his Prayer Tower in Oklahoma; or the leadership of the Church of Latter Day Saints in Salt Lake City wouldn't have minded having their Grand Tabernacle as a backdrop for such a happening.

Seems that any one of those spots would have been the perfect spiritual place for such a mass revival of fidelity and renewed male vows of adherence to the Christian mission.

But for the rally to be held in our nation's capital, and if as McCartney has stated, additional rallies are to be held in the year 2000 at each state capital - then undeniably the Promise Keepers are being organized as a political entity.

Another goal stated amongst the promises these men are asked to make is one to practice spiritual, moral, ethical and sexual purity.

It's nice that these men want to behave themselves and not allow hypocrisy to figure among their actions - but what exactly is meant by sexual purity? If it means that they will remain faithful to their wives and keep themselves pure that way - I'm all for that. But, if it means they will be sticking their noses into everyone else's bedroom and telling them what is pure or not, what is permissible or not - then the Promise Keepers are butting into an area that is none of their business.

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