June 16 1997

ARTICLE TOOLS

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The April meeting hosted by Promise Keepers (PK) focused on Latino-white relations—until the end. Then unexpectedly the focus shifted to divisions among Latinos themselves. "As someone from the Dominican Republic, I want to ask forgiveness for my racism toward Haitians," confessed a Latino pastor. This opened the gates for Puerto Ricans to ask forgiveness for their prejudices against Dominicans, Spaniards for their prejudices against Puerto Ricans, Cubans for their prejudices against Mexicans.

A four-day PK Hispanic/Latino leaders' summit served as the catalyst for the tears and embraces of repentance and forgiveness. African-American Pentecostal pastor Bishop Phillip Henry Porter, Jr., PK's chair, called the summit to allow Latino lay leaders to voice their concerns frankly about PK's racial reconciliation efforts. Separate summits also have been held this spring for Asian Americans, Native Americans, and African Americans (CT, April 28, 1997, p. 84).

For each of the 100 ethnic church and lay leaders who came, PK paid the airfare, room and board, and an honorarium. Repeatedly, PK's leaders, including president Randy Phillips and founder Bill McCartney, urged participants to express themselves candidly. The agenda during the four days alternated between roll-up-your-sleeves working sessions and public relations aimed at getting participants on board the PK bandwagon.

The public relations and recruitment efforts included viewing videos, touring PK's headquarters, hearing from PK's main leaders, and loading the participants with PK books.

The goal of the working sessions was to deliver a report to PK's leadership of what they saw as issues that need to be addressed if the organization is truly going to make racial reconciliation ...