General (ret.) Jerry Boykin First Recipient Of "Men Of Great Courage Award"

Promise Keepers, empowering men to live out their God-given identity and purpose, announces that William G. Jerry Boykin is the first recipient of the Men of Great Courage Award. During Promise Keepers’ 2021 Men’s Conference held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the PK Board of Directors conferred the honor to the retired three-star general for making exceptional contributions to his nation and being an exemplary Christian man in serving his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Stu Weber, the decorated Army Green Beret, pastor and author, represented the Promise Keepers board in presenting the award. He stated, “The Bible is replete with the vocabulary of strong masculinity that produced great joy among the population.” Quoting from the book of first Chronicles, Weber spoke of General Boykin scripturally as one of the “leaders of mighty men, men of valor, who took a stand, who trained for war, who handled shield and spear, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and who were men with undivided hearts.”

General Boykin has been an outspoken Christian leader during and after his thirty-six years of serving in the United States Army. He founded the Delta Force and took part in numerous high-profile missions, including the 1980 Iran hostage rescue attempt. Boykin served for seven years as the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence under President George W. Bush. Following his military career, Boykin became the executive vice president at the Family Research Council.

Promise Keepers CEO Ken Harrison stated, “I’m proud to salute General Jerry Boykin. He founded the finest fighting force in the world. He chased down narcoterrorist Pablo Escobar and took the drug lord and dictator Manuel Noriega into custody. He was the commanding officer of Black Hawk Down in Mogadishu. And General Boykin is one of the few men in the world to take a fifty-caliber machine gun bullet through his torso, almost blowing off his arm, yet was completely healed. The general attributes his personal healing and his distinguished career to the Lord Jesus Christ. And for that, we honor him.”

On receiving the award, General Boykin stopped first to pray for our veterans and first responders. He asked God to bless and heal them, and cause the difficult things they saw and heard in their service to others to fade, and for God to become more of a focus in their lives.