How We Believe_ Science and the Search for God - Michael Shermer [26]
In addition to God and the afterlife, miracles are staging a comeback. A recent Canadian poll reveals that more than half the respondents reported a belief in angels, and nearly as many said they had personally experienced a miracle or divine intervention (again, women were almost twice as likely to believe as men). Some miracles involved petitionary prayer, such as asking for a loved one to be saved from a serious illness, while other miracles were attributed to chance encounters and good fortune. One person noted that he had stopped his car to take a photograph, thereby missing a fatal accident by three minutes. Another reported: “My aunt was on a life support system and the doctors told my family that she was dead and they were going to turn off the life support system. They forgot to turn it off and the next morning they found her alive, breathing, and talking.” Other miracles were more mundane: “I was talking to somebody telling them I was broke and someone heard me talking about it and they came to my door and took me shopping for groceries.” Still others held rather low standards for what constitutes the miraculous: “I went to someone’s house and got a good deal on a power tool that I wanted for a long time.”
Perhaps the most significant religious cultural phenomenon of the 1990s was the Promise Keepers, a well-organized group of men who “promise” to take responsibility for their lives through the Seven Promises of (1) “honoring Jesus Christ,” (2) “pursuing vital relationships with a few other men,” (3) “practicing spiritual, moral, ethical, and sexual purity,” (4) “building strong marriages and families through love, protection and biblical values,” (5) “supporting [the] church by honoring and praying for [one’s own] pastor,” (6) “reaching beyond any racial and denominational barriers to demonstrate the power of biblical unity,” and (7) “influencing His world, being obedient to the great commandment (Mark 12: 3031) and the great commission (Matthew 28: 1920).” Openly antigay, antiabortion, and antifeminist, Promise Keepers members rally against the standard targets the Christian right loves to hate: atheism and evolution, and the perceived moral degradation of America that comes with them. Begun in 1991 with a fledgling 4,200 members, by late 1997 the group had grown to 1.25 million, with an annual revenue of $87 million and a paid staff of 452 working out of its Denver headquarters. Expanding their ranks (Promise Keepers often speak in military terms, such as the “army of God” and “wake-up calls,” and they have even hired retired military officers), founder Bill McCartney explains their long-term plan: “The goal is to go into every church whether they like us or not.” McCartney told 39,000 pastors in Atlanta to “take this nation for Jesus … whoever stands with the messiah will rule with him.” When half a million men blanketed the Washington, D.C., Mall on October 4, 1997, it was the largest religious rally in American history.
Even television, that quintessential morass of moral decay, has been heeding this trend. At the start of the 1997 season, viewers, accustomed to the likes of such sinfully tantalizing shows as Baywatch and Melrose Place, were treated to an unprecedented eight programs with religious or spiritual themes. According to a March 1997 TV Guide poll, 61 percent of those surveyed indicated they wanted to see more references to God