Contesting the Dominant Culture? The Promise Keepers and Aglow International Parachurch Movements

The analysis presented in this article focuses on two contemporary Christian religious movements, which originated in the United States: one (the Promise Keepers) gathering men and one (Aglow International) – women. They share similar goals: spiritual and moral revival through devotion of life to Christ, strengthening of family ties and construction of the community of people sharing similar values. Both Promise Keepers and Aglow oppose the phenomena they consider dangerous in contemporary culture: excessive individualism and decreasing importance of local communes and the traditional family, declining morality, racism, negative media influence, and the decomposition of the traditional models of femininity and masculinity. As an antidote against these threats the two movements propose the return to Christian principles, traditional values, and roles of sexes, which makes them often perceived as an example of conservative reaction towards the liberal culture dominant in the United States. Nevertheless, in some aspects of both doctrine and concrete social practices both Promise Keepers and Aglow markedly succumb to the very culture they seem so stalwartly to contest.