USA Today has a story about a Christian mixed martial arts organization in New York, where people try to kick the crap out of each other for Christ. Turn the other cheek with this group and you’re gonna get a knee to the face.
Finally, someone is making a movie that answers an important question:
“Can you love your neighbor as yourself and at the same time knee him in the face as hard as you can?”
That’s a direct quote from Paul Burress, a pastor in Rochester, N.Y., who believes mixed martial arts can help bring people together. He and fellow fighters are profiled in Fight Church, a doc from directors Daniel Junge and Bryan Storkel.
You can see the trailer here.
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Dennis N
June 27, 2012 at 12:38 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
All this tough talk and yet they’re still too soft and afraid to face cold hard reality without a celestial parent.
d cwilson
June 27, 2012 at 12:43 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well, I happen to agree with him on this point.
I’ve actually seen articles stating the opposite: Christians shouldn’t study martial arts because they’re a gateway to the evil pagan religions of Asia.
No, seriously.
laurencocilova
June 27, 2012 at 12:46 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Mixed martial arts? Sure. Mixed martial arts for Jesus? Terrible. The last thing I need is the door-to-door Bible-pushes actually able to rear naked choke me… Good thing I never actually built that octagon in my backyard.
Oh, Rochester. Aren’t salt potatoes and lilac festivals enough for you?
democommie
June 27, 2012 at 12:52 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
This could be LOTS less degrading than bum fighting and more fun to watch. I want the popcorn concession.
Marcus Ranum
June 27, 2012 at 12:58 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It’s not at all homoerotic. Not even a bit.
fifthdentist
June 27, 2012 at 1:06 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Poor Jesus. He’s already helping certain NASCAR drivers win and keeping Tim Tebow’s NFL career on life support single-handedly. Now he’s going to have to start helping his favored Christian martial arts idiots? The big dude’s never going to get around to do anything for those starving kids in Africa.
Loqi
June 27, 2012 at 1:09 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’m all for it. In fact, they should take it a step farther: KNIFE FIGHTS FOR JESUS!
laurencocilova
June 27, 2012 at 1:11 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
At least there ARE some atheist MMA fighters. I’m still waiting for an atheist NASCAR driver. Of course, such an admission would probably be career suicide…
Kaintukee Bob
June 27, 2012 at 1:27 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Of course if a muslim group did this, it would be a terrorist training camp, hellbent on indoctrinating youth into their violent religion.
Honestly?
It kinda looks that way.
ericthered
June 27, 2012 at 1:29 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’ve always had a hard time with the term Mixed “Martial Arts.” The explicit purpose of this activity is to beat the crap out of someone. I’ve spent more than 20 years studying tradtional forms of martial arts where the goal is the peaceful resolution of conflict. That the way to this is through learning how to maim or kill someone may seem a bit paradoxical, but, in the schools that I have been associated with, there has always been a focus on recognizing our positive moral responsibility to the community at large. The MMA guys are serious badasses, of that I have no doubt, but I see more bravado and ego than a sense of moral responsibility in their chosen pursuit. So, I guess this just strikes me as another ironic display of morality by the “church.” lol.
scienceavenger
June 27, 2012 at 2:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Turn the other cheek with this group and you’re gonna get a knee to the face.
More likely you’re going to get choked out. :)
Personally I hope these ass-kickers for Jesus revive an old tradition practiced by an early UFC clan who would drag a lifesized cross into the ring with them. Oh, and they were by far the most dickish guys, go figure.
@10 Ericthered: Actually, compared to other combat sports, particularly boxing, you’ll find far more respect for their opponents, humility, and basic intelligence in MMA. Part of the reason is that to become a competitive well-rounded fighter, one must submit to multiple training sessions getting one’s ass thrashed by a specialist at whatever skill one lacks. The egomaniacs who think they are IT and have nothing to learn rarely last. Another reason is everyone loses. One MMA Champ put it this way: “If you’re undefeated, you’re fighting the wrong people”.
There also remains a bit of resentment towards MMA in the traditional martial arts community because it has demonstrated beyond a doubt that no master of the traditional romantic striking forms (karate, kung fu, boxing, tae kwon do, etc.) stands a chance against even a modestly trained ground fighter (see James Toney vs Randy Couture for a grotesque example). As one MMA announcer and former Tae Kwon Do champ put it, and I paraphrase from memory: “After being exposed to MMA, I realized I had spent years of my life getting really good at something stupid”.
a miasma of incandescent plasma
June 27, 2012 at 2:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Someone didn’t actually read Fight Club or anything else by Palahniuk before deciding on that name… just a few choice quotes from the original:
Good choice for the oblivious!
laurencocilova
June 27, 2012 at 2:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@scienceavenger: Well put!
Ben P
June 27, 2012 at 2:24 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
True, but the martial arts as practiced by most MMA fighters are very far removed from their more “spiritual” Asian predecessors. The techniques that most of them are trained in were refined away from the original arts into arts designed for sport competition, more like boxing.
I played Judo for a long time, Judo was derived from jujitsu to be the essence of the art and focus on using a more powerful opponent’s motion against him.
Gracie (Or Brazillian) jujitsu refined Judo to specifically focus on self defense and full contact sport competition. Many of the more arcane elements and zen buddhist overtones of the original Japanese art were eliminated.
Likewise the core of most MMA fighters striking technique is derived from prize ring boxing and Muay Thai. While Muay Thai may have began as a more spiritual art in its modern form it is devoted much more heavily to combat and sport.
In a sense those arts are more kin to Krava Maga, Sambo and MCMAP. They all derive techniques from more traditional arts but strip them of a lot of the philosophical underpinnings.
oranje
June 27, 2012 at 3:37 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I guess the difference is that they promote their religion instead of holding to it personally? I think the one that confuses me more is Christian professional wrestling. Where they pretend to beat each other up for Jesus.
kagekiri
June 27, 2012 at 4:47 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
d cwilson
I can definitely confirm this.
I went to a Chinese church, and our head pastor (while also being crazy into the “Holy Spirit is magic” crap) believed that chi powers were real, but actually demonic powers that people sold their souls to demons for.
So yeah, he believed stuff like just touching people with chi to knock them out, running on walls and flying like in kung-fu movies using chi (he claimed to have witnessed this), not bleeding when cut, and so on.
As such, our church would pray to remove any demonic influences caused by participation even in entirely unspiritual martial arts. Even doing basic horse stance or punches and kicks that might be named after dragons was opening your soul up to demons. Meditation of any kind (besides on Bible verses) was even considered very dangerous, as you’re emptying your mind and letting any passing demons in.
scienceavenger
June 27, 2012 at 5:32 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Chi Master vs MMa fighter
beezlebubby
June 27, 2012 at 6:06 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well, besides salt potatoes and lilacs, we DO have the Garbage Plate. But that is about it beyond being the final resting place of Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, and, fairly soon, Kodak. The entire area has always fomented weird religious and spiritualist movements. Palmyra is only 30 miles ESE, and you know what cult came from there!
Area Man
June 27, 2012 at 6:22 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
The name appears to be an invention of the documentary makers and not of the Church people themselves. And what they’re doing is a form of MMA (which is ironically illegal in New York), definitely not bare-knuckle brawling by group of crazed anarcho-primitivists.
I’m not at all surprised about this. Certain Christians, usually of a right-wing bent, have an unhealthy obsession with power and traditional views of masculinity (maybe they’re compensating for something). The only difference is that, unlike say football, NASCAR, or the military, which they also worship, MMA is new and hip, and therefore automatically an object of suspicion. But give it time.
brianl
June 27, 2012 at 6:33 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@11 Yes, that exactly.
@5 Only if you make eye contact.
laurencocilova
June 28, 2012 at 8:33 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@beezlebubby: Ah, the Burned Over District… At least we also have the Freethought Trail.
John Hinkle
June 28, 2012 at 10:48 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Well, vegetable gardening also brings people together. Ok tough guys, let’s see you do battle with the Japanese beetle, clubroot, cucumber beetle, leaf miner, and fusarium wilt.
Fighting and church, gardening and church, bingo and church. Correct me if I’m wrong, but couldn’t you subtract church from all these and still have the original activity?
First Rule of Fight Church: Talk About Fight Church | Dispatches … | Christian Dailys
June 27, 2012 at 7:25 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
[...] as you're emptying your mind and letting any passing demons in. … Read this article: First Rule of Fight Church: Talk About Fight Church | Dispatches … ← Faithlife: Build a Community Wrapped Around the Word | Logos Talk … Present Day [...]