Over half a million followers of the Promise Keepers religious group converged on the Washington mall this Saturday.

Their message: that the men of America stand up for their families and try to live their lives by the ideal, not by realism.

The group was started in 1990 by University of Colorado football coach Bill McCartney. He envisioned a stadium of Christian men together praying and keeping themselves away from the evils that have befallen too many men.

The main purpose of Promise Keepers is to take responsibility for the wrongs committed by men, and to take spiritual responsibility for their families.

Members of the group say the reason only males attend is because it is men who have perpetrated the majority of evils today.

I consider myself neither a Christian nor a religious person, but I can see overwhelming benefits in large groups of men getting together to preserve their moral beliefs and to help support their families.

Unfortunately, some don’t see the group’s positive message, but see it as an attempt to dominate and exclude women.

The National Organization for Women protested the event on Saturday, saying it was anti-gay and anti-woman.

Seeing that the religious beliefs of Christians prohibit homosexuality, obviously the Promise Keepers would be considered anti-gay, but that wasn’t even the main thrust of the group.

As for being anti-woman, that notion couldn’t be further from the truth.

The Promise Keepers see men as a part of the family, not as the head. Since it has been men who have neglected and beat their wives, it is men who need to deal with those problems.

Obviously, Patricia Ireland (President of NOW) and her comrades at NOW don’t seem to be getting the picture. Men are taking responsibilities for their actions, and the feminists are against that? They should be supporting it.

Yes, women are not a part of Promise Keepers. That doesn’t mean they don’t support it, however. Many of the wives of Promise Keepers are their biggest supporters.

Many of those women have started holding their own rallies, getting women to pay more attention to their families as well.

I can see why Ireland would be upset with the Keepers. These rallies are pro-family, not pro-women. This would lead one to believe that NOW has a definite anti-family stance.

It wouldn’t be the first time NOW didn’t support families. Women like Ireland have insulted housewives for choosing to stay at home with their families instead of having a career.

NOW doesn’t even follow its own beliefs. Even though NOW says it is vehemently against sexual harassment, that view is also suspect. In 1990, they came to the aid of Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings.

During the recent Paula Jones/President Clinton controversy, NOW supporters have remained oddly silent. When you look at the fact that Hill is a liberal law professor and Jones was a lowly government secretary, you wonder how sincere they are.

Ireland and her followers have also been quoted as saying that all sex is rape. That’s right.

They have said that sex, even between two married persons, is rape because the man is invading the woman.

You would think NOW supports women running for office. They only support Democratic female candidates. They continually campaign against conservative women running for political office.

NOW supports sex-segregation of children in education, though it is a violation of federal law.

They say separating girls from boys is the only way those girls can learn effectively, since girls are sexually harassed by boys starting in preschool!

NOW is an organization that is no longer a voice for the reasonable woman. Their ranks are now populated with left-wing, radical feminist ideas.

The National Organization of Wackos would be a better title.

Patricia Ireland and her minions do not support the American family, nor do they speak for a majority of American women. They support extremist initiatives that come at the expense of the family.

The women of America would be better served by starting a new organization that has moderate-minded people running the show instead of leftist, radical, bra-burning throwbacks to the 1960s.

The National Organization for Women no longer serves as an effective voice for the American woman. They serve as a voice for the liberal extremist American woman.

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Robert Zeis is a senior in finance from Des Moines.