theophiles.org - Christian Mixed Martial Arts Team

Written by laika

Wednesday, 03 February 2010 16:29

At The New York Times:

In the back room of a theater on Beale Street [Memphis], John Renken, 42, a pastor, recently led a group of young men in prayer.
“Father, we thank you for tonight,” he said. “We pray that we will be a representation of you.”
An hour later, a member of his flock who had bowed his head was now unleashing a torrent of blows on an opponent, and Mr. Renken was offering guidance that was not exactly prayerful.
“Hard punches!” he shouted from the sidelines of a martial arts event called Cage Assault. “Finish the fight! To the head! To the head!”

Comments

patronpeter

|2010-02-24 16:21:36

martial artist christians? reminds me of Jesus Christ: In the Name of the Gun
http://www.lousycanuck.ca/wp-content/uploads/20...

emperorbma

|2010-02-25 00:05:40

Oddly enough, Chuck Norris is an evangelical... it's not as strange as it seems.

manhattan42 - Not Possible

|2010-02-27 00:03:25

It was not possible for a 'Christian' to partake of the gladiator or colleseum games in ancient Rome any more than it is possible today for a Christian to partake in 'martial arts' as a Christian.

Martial Arts and Christianity are not now nor ever have been compatible.

Chuck Norris, as misguided as he is, notwithstanding...

emperorbma

|2010-02-27 18:09:33

manhattan42 wrote:

It was not possible for a 'Christian' to partake of the gladiator or colleseum games in ancient Rome any more than it is possible today for a Christian to partake in 'martial arts' as a Christian.

The equating of martial arts and gladiatorial games is very inaccurate, however.

The intended purpose of the gladiatorial games was wanton violence for the amusement of others. The purpose of martial arts, however, are to encourage self-discipline and to teach techniques that are designed to subdue, rather than kill, an opponent. The basic premise of nearly all martial arts is that one should subdue one's opponent without killing them. Death as a result of a martial art is nearly always a mistake and very few martial arts are actually fatal when they are employed as designed. While they can certainly cause injuries, martial arts do not exist to end lives. Hence the comparison with gladiatorial games rather spurious.

As a Christian, one could argue that subduing a bandit who is attempting to kill people is a less violent act than letting the police simply kill the bandit. A common misconception of "turning the other cheek" is that it is saying to let other people wail on you. The purpose of turning the other cheek is to de-escalate a situation before it becomes violent. In fact, most martial arts teach exactly the same thing. The purpose is to avoid conflict, but to be able to respond effectively if it does come up. That's one reason why police are taught martial arts, in fact. The basic point is that one should avoid killing if it is possible and use the minimum necessary to bring a situation to a peaceful ending with minimum of bloodshed. In fact, a rookie who doesn't know martial arts is far more likely to kill because they do not know how to deliberately limit their attacks and keep them from killing. Movies don't really do it justice and if you are witnessing people engaging in the art willingly, it is probably a practice match or a tournament; neither of which consider fatality a viable conclusion.

If you think about it, martial arts are the exact opposite of gladiatorial games. Unlike with gladiators, force is never met with force. If someone punches, you redirect the force so that it does not injure you and then you use the attacker's own force to subdue him. If you met a punch with another punch, you'd break your own hand in the process.

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Our valuable member laika has been with us since Thursday, 03 April 2008.

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