SACRAMENTO, CA -- Sometimes the calendar plays funny tricks on us, and this coming Saturday is one of those times. As everyone paying attention knows, on Saturday the Promise Keepers descend on Washington for their “Stand in the Gap” assembly. Much less publicized, except for a small squib in Barron’s, is that there will be a much smaller gathering in Washington Saturday to mark the 40th anniversary of the publication of Ayn Rand’s novel, Atlas Shrugged.

This juxtaposition is just too juicy to let pass, even though I know this will get me in trouble with my friends (some of whom are attending the Rand event) and many of you readers. While the small band of Randians will be celebrating a book whose last page has a character tracing the Sign of the Dollar “over the desolate earth,” across town on the Mall 700,000 men will be making the Sign of the Cross, the substance behind which Miss Rand had hoped to replace with her philosophical materialism. Rand, after all, celebrated “the virtue of selfishness” (one of her book titles, in fact), while the Promise Keepers are retailing what might be called “the unselfishness of virtue.” The disparity in numbers between the two gatherings Saturday is good evidence of which creed has more staying power.

The Promise Keepers are not quite to my liturgical tastes - that much hugging and weeping among grown men should be confined to the football field (but only if you win). The PKs could easily be taken for SNAGs (Sensitive New Age Guys) by this behavior. But the PKs are a bit like Nixon: They deserve to be defended because of the enemies they have made. The Left, especially feminists, hate the Promise Keepers because they think it is some kind of patriarchialist, right-wing plot. Sure, the PKs are nondenominational sectarians, but so what? What really has the feminists upset is the PKs’ call for men to take greater responsibility and exert more leadership in their families. In other words, to act like men. This, more than the sectarianism of the PKs, is what really rankles the feminists.

On the other side of the ledger, there is much truth in Miss Rand’s writings, but little charm. Whittaker Chambers may have gone too far in his infamous review of Atlas Shrugged (the review infuriated Rand) - which suggested that Rand’s right-leaning philosophical materialism was no different from left-wing materialism - but he was right about the clanky tone of Rand’s writing style. Rand’s prose has always conveyed the character of a German rock music video (or think of “Sprockets” on Saturday Night Live), which is why I think in the fullness of time Rand’s works will become, like Edward Bellamy’s wildly popular socialist novels of 100 years ago, more a literary curiosity than a vibrant creed.

A prior engagement on the Left Coast keeps me out of Washington this weekend, but were I to choose, I think I’d throw in my lot with the Promise Keepers.

--By Steven Hayward