Was Jesus Christ a grappler or a striker?
(above link from Jesus ROI. Great site, btw.)
A while back, I blogged about how pastors in Brazil were using Brazilian Jujitsu to pull people into the their church services. It didn’t surprise me. Back when I was a young student in Sunday school, they used pop music to pull us in. They would rewrite secular music with “Lord is my Savior” lyrics, and they would get us to sing these new Jesus-focused songs. I remember bringing up copyright issues, and our teacher assured me that it was okay for two reasons: non-Christians did the same thing with Christian music (I hadn’t heard of this happening, but I took his word for it) and there was nothing under heaven that didn’t already belong to God.
Now it’s come to our country. There was a funny article in the NY Times yesterday that talks about how Mixed Martial Arts has become the latest recruitment tool for evangelical Christians in the U.S. According to the article, evangelicals are embracing MMA because it’s helping them recruit young men, a demographic that has been underserved by the Church. Apparently, this movement is pretty strong and deep. They even got a quote from Ryan Dobson, who is the son of Dr. James “Big Evil” Dobson, the demagogue behind Focus on the Family.
The goal, these pastors say, is to inject some machismo into their ministries — and into the image of Jesus — in the hope of making Christianity more appealing. “Compassion and love — we agree with all that stuff, too,” said Brandon Beals, 37, the lead pastor at Canyon Creek Church outside of Seattle. “But what led me to find Christ was that Jesus was a fighter.”
The outreach is part of a larger and more longstanding effort on the part of some ministers who fear that their churches have become too feminized, promoting kindness and compassion at the expense of strength and responsibility.
“The man should be the overall leader of the household,” said Ryan Dobson, 39, a pastor and fan of mixed martial arts who is the son of James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, a prominent evangelical group. “We’ve raised a generation of little boys.”
“The man should be the overall leader of the household?” And they say Asian guys are sexist? Aiya. I love it how Ryan Dobson (he should pronounce it “High-in” since he’s into Brazilian Jujitsu) calling out his own flock on their manhood. Looking at his dad James, though, it makes sense. His dad is hypermasculine in that he hates on gays, nonchristians, and puts his foot down when it comes to a woman’s right to choose. You know, men have to set the rules in the household, know how to strike thy neighbor, and pee standing up…haha…you HAVE to check out this sermon on how men should pee:
["I will destroy him who pisseth against the wall." You see, we leave the seat up only because we're faithful to the Word of God. Anyway...]
Also check out the comments on the Times article…they can be quite funny. There was one that said something along the lines of “if they neighbor striketh you, turn the other cheek and hit him with a spinning backfist.”
Apparently this movement is becoming widespread. In addition to Jesus Didn’t Tap (click to hear an awesome rap song) and Anointed Fighter mentioned in the article, I also found Jujitsu for Christ and Divine Intervention Apparel. Right now I’m kicking myself for being an atheist. I could’ve made a fortune if I were into MMA and Christianity. I don’t yet see an atheist clothing line (and I don’t think it would sell).
On a somewhat more serious note, I’m not too crazy about evangelicals using MMA as a tool to pull people in. You have young and impressionable young men, and the last thing they need is something that offers them hope in sports only to switch it from a sports focus to a “spiritual” focus. Plus, there’s something grizzly about glorifying violence and then linking it to Christ. Other than chasing the moneychangers out of the temple, I don’t recall Jesus playing sports or fighting in a ring…although God did wrestle Jacob in the form of an angel…okay, maybe they’ve got a point. With God vs. Jacob, though, that fight lasted a really long time. One of them should’ve used a submission technique. Then again, that was probably before jujitsu was invented.
Maybe they should just keep competitions among themselves. If anything, it’ll bring up some funny Christian-style trash talk. You probably won’t get gems like the stuff that comes from Rampage Jackson, but you might get some funny stuff anyway:
“I’m gonna crucify him in the first round!”
“I’ll serve his head on a silver platter!”
“Thou shalt perish by my hand!”
“I am the Way, the Champion, and the Life. No man gets the belt except through me!”
Related posts:
I’ve been to Germany and although I have not been in a men’s WC I have been in many peoples houses. I have to call BULL SH*T on that preacher.
http://www.urinal.net/autobahn/
Back when I was a young student in Sunday school, they used pop music to pull us in. They would rewrite secular music with “Lord is my Savior” lyrics, and they would get us to sing these new Jesus-focused songs. I remember bringing up copyright issues, and our teacher assured me that it was okay for two reasons: non-Christians did the same thing with Christian music (I hadn’t heard of this happening, but I took his word for it) and there was nothing under heaven that didn’t already belong to God.
That is hilarious. Asking about copyright issues for these rewritten Jesus songs.
Even as a young kid you were stirring things up!
AG,
Were there chairs in the bathroom? Maybe the guys sat down while using the awesome German engineering?
Larry,
I will give that one teacher credit. He just said what he said and let it pass. For some of the others to whom I mouthed off, there was eternal hell to pay…
i find it really funny that Christian groups are trying to capitalize on MMA because…well, have you seen some of the MMA holding positions? talk about homoerotic and ironic!
LOL! What a joke! Talk about a righteous beat down!
As the token AA Christian commentator, I’ll refrain from making jokes about how white Christian churches seem to try solve their declining memberships with marketing gimmicks like MMA night, and instead refer folks to the blog of Pastor Eugene Cho who had similar criticisms of the trend:
http://eugenecho.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/i-dont-live-for-the-jesus-who-eats-red-meat-drinks-beer-and-beats-on-other-men/
I think Byron already peeped it.
And damn, that rap song is crunkalicious. Catchy. Hahaha.
Gar,
I’m not religious, but I’ll admit that I actually go to that site just to hear that rap song! Awesome song, man. I think it would be a great song to play as an entrance theme for a fighter.
I liked what Eugene Cho had to say, although, like some of the commenters, I didn’t see why he’s against porn. Oh my…I just checked the comment section, and it looks like quite a few people responded to my post about porn. Aight, gotta check it out…
B.
I’m pretty much against porn myself, for practical reasons. It always seems to end up doing more harm than good.
I wonder if Christians realize Samson and Delila fornicated, some may argue he was merely courting her, but come-on, he fell asleep at her house at least three time. God did not smite Samson for fornication
Most definatly Judah fornicated and probably committed adultry against his wife/wives with his several times widowed daughter-in-law Tamar. Judah and Tamar were not punished, in fact, Judah was rewarded for confessing to fathering Tamar’s twins, only after she proved she was not a slut.
Fornication is not prohibited by the ten comandments and like you Jae, I never came across anything in the bible against it. The main offenders are adultery, beastiality, and consanginuity with anyone closer than first cousins.
I think Onanism is misinterpreted. I think Onan’s sin was the withdrawl method, not masturbation. So all you unmarried Christians out there, stop beating yourself up. Nothing refers to mastubation, but he was using his wife/sister-in-law to jerk it then he would pull out. If masturbation was a problem, God probably would have smote every 12-year-old male and there would be no humans.
I’d find other instances, but I have other things to do.
I’m sure if there were camera’s in biblical times, God might have said something about porn. But I guess maybe some people could have been drawing lewd pictures. The Romans did (this way to the whore house) and I did not see Jesus or god speak against that . . .
I should clarify that I don’t mean that I’d like to somehow outlaw porn, just that I think it tends to be counterproductive.
I agree. I wouldn’t outlaw it either, and I also think it’s quite counterproductive. People usually aren’t thinking deeply and constructively while watching it. It’s quite different from reading novels. Or even blogs.
I think video games are counter productive. At least with sex it’s over in a few minutes and no guy can last hours. You can get up and do something else, such as writing a book or at least comment on a blog. Video games are the devil!
I once did 12 hours straight playing Civilization. I don’t think I could’ve done that with porn. They really are the devil.
Where’s you stamina?!!!
@ Jaehwan/AG,
Totally agree! computer games are 100 times worse than Porn!!
I used to be soooo addicted to this rts game called StarCraft, used to play it almost everyday, 4-5 hrs, even dream about it at night, and I’m sure stuffed a few big exams because i (in hindsight,stupidly) played that game instead of studying.
Once played friggin StarCraft over 24hrs non stop, just breaking for bathroom, and eating rameon at the computer while playing……..god it was awful.
Its still very hard for me to walk past an internet cafe without being tempted to go in and play StarCraft, I try to walk on the opposite side of the street when I walk close to the internet cafes, because I still have the urge to play, and I’m scared I wont be able to control myself…………;(
Although nowadays, when i lose the will to suppress the compulsion to play StarCraft on occassion, I always try to rationalise it by saying to myself…. “well at least its better than gambling at star city (a big casino around my town here)…” coz even though I lost alot of my life through playing StarCraft, Ive lost even more money and time gambling away my earnings ;(
Compared to Porn, Gaming and Gambling are terrible addictions that will destroy your soul…….devilish and soul destroying, a long and painful torture path straight to hell, filled with nothing but darkness and the dying screams of your hopes and dreams;(….lol
anna>
I guess I shouldn’t tell you then that Starcraft 2 is supposed to come out this year…
MY LIFE FOR AIUR
heh heh.