November 6, 2003 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -

Thomas Fortson, Jr., the newly appointed head of Promise Keepers, is a member of a Southern Baptist congregation (Riverside Baptist in Denver). Founding president Bill McCartney resigned effective October 1.

The widespread Southern Baptist support for Promise Keepers is a loud testimony to the deep spiritual compromise that permeates the Convention in spite of the “conservative renaissance.”

Promise Keepers has promoted the most radical form of ecumenical unity. Promise Number Six states, “A Promise Keeper is committed to reaching beyond ANY DENOMINATIONAL BARRIERS to demonstrate the power of biblical unity.” The official Promise Keepers literature does not list any exceptions to its call for reaching beyond denominational barriers. Catholic priest John Salazar spoke at a PK meeting in Plainview, Texas, in December 1995. That same year, the PK field representative for the upper Midwest was a Roman Catholic. According to the December 1995 issue of the Roman Catholic publication New Covenant, a Promise Keepers group was being formed that year in a Catholic parish in Tallahassee, Florida. In 1996, PK representatives Dale Schlafer and Glenn Wagner spoke at the Roman Catholic Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, a school that promotes prayers to Mary. Roman Catholic Mike Timmis was one of the directors of Promise Keepers for a couple of years. Addressing 40,000 ministers at the 1996 Atlanta Clergy Conference, Bill McCartney said: “No such meeting was held in the past 400 years, and IT IS EXCITING TO SEE THE DENOMINATIONAL BARRIERS COME DOWN AS WE HAVE PROTESTANTS AND ROMAN CATHOLICS HERE TOGETHER. THE PURPOSE OF THIS MEETING IS TO HAVE THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH.”

Where are the Southern Baptists who have lifted their voices to warn plainly of this error?