American Atheists Pickets
Promise Keepers founder “Coach” Bill McCartney

by Jim Senyszyn
Feb 10, 2020

A dozen protesters participated during the course of our two hour American Atheists picket in front of Calvary Church in Charlotte yesterday where Promise Keepers' founder "Coach" Bill McCartney spoke. Early on there were about a half dozen picketers, peaking at ten at any one time. Television crews were there in full force with three trucks parked across from the picket site. About a half dozen members of Calvary Church came out to offer us hot coffee and cookies and banter about religious issues.

Afterwards, Wayne Aiken, NC director of American Atheists, was a guest speaker at a discussion of the Promise Keepers at a local coffee house. Jerry Klein, a local alternative newspaper columnist and former radio talk show host (who was fired from his radio job due to pressure from the Christian right,) and Aiken gave a one hour presentation about Promise Keepers. A crowd of over fifty participated in a lively follow up discussion of atheism for another hour.

NOW, PFLAG, and some liberal clergy also held a discussion of Promise Keepers at a local Unitarian Church. They reported that about 70 persons attended.

While the write up in the Charlotte Observer focused on the NOW event, the picture of the opposition which was carried with the story showed American Atheists' picket. Also, the television media picked up our visuals from the picket and gave the picket the lion share of the coverage of the opposition. They were still very generous in coverage of McCartney's talk itself. But the protests and discussions got equal play and effectively cast doubts on McCartney's message.

Local atheist activist Jim Senyszyn, and state director Aiken did advance work earlier that day at University of North Carolina at Charlotte where they handed out over five hundred fliers explaining "Why is American Atheists Picketing the Promise Keepers." The fliers also cited the availability of in-depth articles from the picket's web page and its link through the American Atheists FLASHLINE page. Copies of articles by Wayne Aiken were included in information packets prepared for the media.

Earlier in the prior week Atheist Viewpoint television shows "The Promise Keepers Cult" and "Christian Reconstructionism" aired on the cable television public access channel, Local activist Jim Senyszyn also placed and paid for some newspaper advertising to build audiences for the shows.




AMERICAN ATHEISTS challenges "Coach" Bill McCartney, Founder of Promise Keepers, during Monday's demo in Charlotte, N.C.


PROMISE KEEPERS -- MEN BEHAVING BADLY. American Atheists North Carolina State Director Wayne Aiken (left) warns of the cult-like nature of the PK's. To the right, AA community activist Jim Senyzsyn, and fellow member DALE HICKS holding his "No Submission" poster.

Wayne Aiken, Jim Senyszyn and Dale Hicks at the Charlotte demo.


A dozen members and supporters joined the American Atheists demo in front of the Calvary Church where McCartney was speaking.

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