Christian Martial Arts
Saturday November 15, 2003
Some might argue that there is a conflict between Christianity and Martial Arts. First, Martial Arts are commonly used to hurt people - even if in self-defense, that is contrary to "turning the other cheek." Second, Martial Arts are closely connected to Eastern religious beliefs, many of which are contrary to orthodox Christianity. So what's a Christian to do? Why, redefine things of course!
The Fayetteville Observer reports on the Academy of Christian Martial Arts
"It's kind of an oxymoron, isn't it?'' said David Sgro, owner of the martial arts school on Reilly Road, of the idea of Christian martial arts. ... Sgro said his idea was to teach martial arts without bringing in the Eastern philosophies that are sometimes taught as a part of the disciplines. "As a Christian, I believe that martial arts didn't originate in Korea or Asia,'' he said. "It originated in biblical times.''
In other words, "as a Christian" Sgro simply redefines history and ignores facts in order to accommodate his religious beliefs. For some Christians, that's quite normal - so I guess there is nothing new there. Sgro is also described as teaching violence as a last resort - but I guess I missed the part of the Bible where Jesus explained that this was acceptable.
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“Martial arts” literally means “combat arts,” and have been part of every culture in world history, including Biblical Jewish culture. Boxing, wrestling, stick fighting, swordsmanship, archery, and fencing are all “martial arts” as much as karate, kung fu, tae kwon do, and other Eastern “martial arts.”
Police use “martial arts” to protect citizens, and military forces use “martial arts” to protect their nation from invasion.
The Bible is full of “martial arts,” but also provides a moral framework that limits their use to just causes.
Western societies, built upon Jewish and Christian philosophies taught riflery, boxing, wrestling, fencing, and other Western martial arts, which is the reason why Muslim armies did not overrun Europe(they tried to do so on several occassions) and why nations with Jewish and Christian moral backgrounds were able to stop the insane Occultist Adolf Hitler and his Blitzkrieg in World War II. Hitler intimidated the German churches into silence during the war, threatening them with the gas chamber and the gallows if they tried to speak out against him. He was no “Christian.”
Atheists and agnostics like it when Jews and Christians do not study “martial arts” because then they cannot defend themselves. But atheists and agnostics are free to study martial arts as much as they want to, so that they can bully and beat up Jews and Christians any time they want to, don’t they?
That is called a “double-standard.” Atheists and agnostics cannot stand Jews and Christians who can fight and defend themselves. That is no fun at all.
Too bad for atheists and agnostics that Jews and Christians are not dumb bunnies and easy targets. Evander Hollyfield and Lee Haney(8-time Mr. Olympia) are evangelical Christians. Go make fun of their faith, tell them to keep their mouths shut or you will give them a beating, and see what happens.
“Turning the other cheek” refers to ignoring an insult and a challenge to a fight, not refraining from self-defense. To slap someone on the cheek was to insult them and to challenge them to a fist fight for no legtimate reason. Therefore, this admonition was similar to telling one’s children to walk away from a fight in school or on the street. The law also requires adults to avoid a fight unless absolutely necessary for self-defense.
The Bible does not forbid the study of “martial arts” or “combat arts” as long as they are only used for legitimate self-defense, law enforcement, and national defense.
But then atheists and agnostics cannot whip the hide of those looney religious Jews and Christians whenever they feel like it.
Oh, well, they will have to pick on each other instead, I guess.
The New Testament? If so, where?
This doesn’t mean that they are really compatible with Christianity.
Christian churches eagerly joined and supported Hitler. The Nazi Party’s platform explicitly endorsed and promoted Christianity.
The “double-standard” is when Christians re-define things to allow them to do what they want, but hold others to the original standards.
Prove it.
Prove that the New Testament says this.
Anyone who has studied Aikido, for instance, knows that it takes years for the art to become truly practical, and even then it is unnecessary because the practitioner is too busy practicing to hang out in potentially violent places.
Christians are now exhibiting the same cowardly paranoia that the Jews have exhibited for years. Boy, are we in trouble.
My response to comment #2, which was a response to comment #1:
A.) You seem to make the mistake that either the Old Testament is the Jewish Bible and that the New Testament is the Christian Bible, or that the New Testament replaces the Old Testament. Christians believe in BOTH the Old and New Testaments. The Six Day Creation is not in the New Testament, yet Christians believe in it. Likewise, the complete Ten Commandments are not given in the New Testament but in the Old Testament, yet Christians still believe in them.
The New Testament writers constantly refer to the Old Testament to validate their points or teachings. You cannot separate the Old and New Testament.
Christ said in Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law (which is the name given to the first five books of the Jewish Bible, also called The Torah) or the Prophets(the books written by the major and minor prophets); I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
To Christians, the Old and New Testaments are inseparable and equally important.
So, to say that martial arts are not found in the New Testament misses the point that the Christian faith is made up of BOTH Old and New Testaments. And martial or combat arts are found in the Old Testament extensively.
B.)In reference to my statement that Jewish and Christian societies throughout history practiced Western martial arts, such as boxing, wrestling, fencing, and riflery: I think that your allegation that these were not necessarily compatible with Christianity is a bit illogical.
Every nation upon the earth has needed police forces and military forces trained in some kind of martial art in order to protect its citizens from criminals and enemy nations. What you are basically saying is that Jewish and Christian nations were supposed to exist without any police or military protection whatsoever, and to lie open to any criminal or military attack. Atheists sometimes accuse Christians of being “too other worldly and impractical,” but to suggest that Jewish and Christian nations should be totally defenseless and pacifistic seems extremely impractical.
Do you really believe that Jews and Christians have no need or no right to defend themselves? What about blacks, women, handicapped people, asians, Buddhists, Hindus, and atheist? Do they have the right to defend themselves against criminals and invasions from other nations?
Of course they do; so do Jews and Christians do! Basic fairness and common sense bear witness to this.
C.) Your stereotype of German churches is not based on fact or history. Reverend Dietrich Bonnhoeffer led the German Christian church’s resistant movement to the Nazis and he paid for it with his life. The Nazis told him to stop preaching against the Third Reich or to face the gallows. Bonnhoffer told them that he would accept the gallows and he was hanged. Would you have made the same choice? Many German Christians helped Jews and resisted Hitler; but they had to do so underground, like the underground railroad during the U.S. Civil War, in order to succeed in their mission.
As far as Adolf Hitler’s personal religious habits are concerned, he was a practitioner of the occult, which is completely forbidden by Judaism and Christianity.
Hitler was also a murderer. What does the New Testament say about murderers?
I John 2:9 : “Anyone who claims to be in the light(who says he is a Christian) but hates his brother is still in the darkness(outside of the faith of Christ).
I John 2: “But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in darkness; he does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded him (darkness refers to sin and aliention and separation from God).”
I John 3:15 “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.”
I John 4:20 “If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, HE IS A LIAR. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.”
According to the New Testament, anyone who hates is the equivalent of a murderer (because hatred is the cause of murder), and no one who hates (and who murders) can be considered a Christian, no matter what he or she claims to be.
Christ said in Matthew 7:15-16, “Watch out for false prophets (ie:false Christians). They come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit (behavior and lifestyle) you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?”
The New Testament has many warnings about phoney Christians: Matthew 24:11, 24:24; Luke 6:26; Acts 13:6; 2 Corinthians 11:13, 11:26; I Timothy 1:3; 2 Peter 2:1; I John 4:1; and Galatians 2:4.
So, according to the New Testament, even if someone carries a Bible, goes to church seven days a week, quotes Bible verses, wears a cross, and says, “I am a Christian,” unless his or her deeds match up to that confession, he or she is not a Christian at all.
Even if Hitler did go to church, he would have no claim upon Christianity due to his deeds.
Many Christian pastors say, “Many people who say or think that they are Christians on the way to Heaven are NOT!” and this is taught in Matthew 25:31-46, where Christ tells those who called Him, “Lord,” that they had never done anything for Him and they had no place in His Eternal Kingdom.
Just because some says that he or she is a Christian means nothing to Christ; He says, “Show Me!”
Many German Christians risked their lives, both openly and secretly to save Jews from the Nazis. And many went to the concentration camps with them.
D.) Double Standard (def.): “A set of principles that applies differently and usually more rigorously to one group of people or circumstances than to another; especially a code or morals. (Merriam Webster Online Dictionary)
D.)Your comments about the term “double standard” are very confusing. You started this debate about martial arts. You alleged that it is morally acceptable for Buddhists and, it is reasonable to assume, atheists and agnostics, to study and practice martial arts. But you stated that it is morally unacceptable for Jews and Christians to study and practice them.
You say that “double standard” is “when Christians redefine things to allow them to do what they want, but hold others to the original standards.”
I simply cannot make any sense out of this sentence. You first took issue with Christian martial arts teachers who said that martial (remember, that means combat) arts originated in Biblical times and teach martial arts with Christian religious and moral emphasis.
According to Black Belt Magazine, America’s leading martial arts magazine, martial arts have been practiced in all nations since the beginning of time, including in Biblical times. Since the Bible chronicles the beginning of time through the first century B.C., the statement of these Christian martial arts teachers is consistent with their faith in the Bible and the historical record identified by Black Belt Magazine, that every nation and culture has practiced some form of martial arts.
You do not have to agree with these teachers, as you are free to disagree with any part of their theology, but it is you who are telling them that as Christians they have no business practicing martial arts, not vice versa.
Christian martial artists have no problem with atheists and agnostics practicing martial arts, so they cannot be the ones applying a double standard to you. It is you who are applying a moral standard to them (no martial arts for Jews and Christians) but not applying the same standard to yourself (it is okay for atheists and agnostics to study and practice martial arts).
You are telling Jews and Christians NOT TO PRACTICE MARTIAL ARTS BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO VIOLENT, while you allow atheists and agnostics TO PRACTICE MARTIAL ARTS. The only one who can be applying a double-standard here is you, because these Christian martial artists have no problem with you practicing martial arts.
E.)In reference to “turning the other cheek,” I found a good analysis on “Biblebell.org,” (”Should Christians ‘Turn the other cheek against terroritsts?’”)
In Leviticus 24:19-20, the Mosaic Law taught, “If a man causes disfigurement of his neighbor, as he has done, so shall it be done to him: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; as he has caused disfigurement of a man, so shall it be done to him.”
The commentator points out that this was a legal statute to be used by official judiciary power, but that citizens of the nation of Israel had started to apply it to their own personal quarrels and vendettas.
In Matthew 5:38-39 Christ taught : “You have heard it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” but I tell you not to resist and evil person. Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn him the other also.”
The commentator points out that this passage teaches against taking personal revenge. It teaches that if one slaps another on the cheek (a very mild assault, with no serious injury), the one slapped should refrain from revenge, and simply exercise forgiveness and “turn the other cheek.”
Christ used the example of being slappded on the cheek, not of being beaten with a club, stabbed with a knife, slashed with a sword, or other forms of life-threatening assault.
At the same time, in Romans 13:3-4, the role of government, police, and military officers, who protect citizens from evil is affirmed.
And in Acts 10:1, and 10:44 a Centurion, a soldier, who had faith in God was saved and received the Holy Spirit. Luke 3:14 John the Baptist, the one who was sent to prepare the way for Christ, told soldiers who came to him to be baptized, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely-be content with you pay,” but did not tell them to throw their swords away and to stop being soldiers.
In Luke 22:36 Christ told His disciples, knowing that He was soon to die, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and IF YOU DON’T HAVE A SWORD, sell your cloak and BUY ONE.”
In Luke 22:28 and 22:49, Mark 14:47, and John 18:10, the disciples are shown to have SWORDS in Christ’s presence and He did not tell them to get rid of them.
When Peter hit one of the men who came to arrest Christ and cut his ear off, Christ told him to PUT HIS SWORD AWAY, not to get rid of it. So, Christ had no problem with Peter having a sword, but that he was interfering with Christ’s destiny with the Cross.
Interestingly, martial arts teach students to “turn the other cheek,” as well. At any reputable martial arts school the first lesson that students are taught is not to fight, to talk their way out of and to walk away from a fight as much as possible. There is no good martial arts school that teaches that if someone slaps one on the cheek, one should “clobber” them.
They all teach that a great martial artist is one who seeks to NEVER have a fight and that one’s training is only for the most dire circumstances when one faces serious physical injury.
Self-defense laws are the same. If one engages in a fight and police are called, one must be able to demonstrate that one sought every possible opportunity to talk the aggressor down and/or to remove oneself from the situation. One must be able to show that violence was used as a desperate last resort when “talking and walking” had both failed and physical injury was imminent.
So, both martial arts training and our legal system expect people faced with an aggressor to “turn the other cheek” to threats, insults, and minor physical contact.
F.) To answer your last challenge, to my assertion that the Bible does not forbid the study and practice of martial arts, as long as they are used strictly for self defense, law enforcement, and national defense, I will point out the following.
As I showed in the previous answer, Jesus saw nothing wrong with His disciples carrying swords, and even told them to buy one if they did not own one (Luke 22:36, 22:38, and 22:49; John 18:10, Mark 14:47, Matthew 26:52, and John 18:11).
Romans 13:3-4 says, “Rulers(governments) are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise of the same. For he is GOD’S MINISTER to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the SWORD in vain; for he is GOD’S MINISTER, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.” This verse refers to all government law enforcement and military authority. It says that the police and the military are GOD’S MINISTERS who’s duty is to protect people from evil and harm.
What does the Bible identify as sin, or evil? Galatians 5:19-21 defines sin as, “…sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”
Where did it say that self-defense, law enforcement, and military action were sinful or evil? Nowhere.
It goes on the say, in Galatians 5:22-26, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”
As I said before, basic common sense would tell us that “goodness” would call one to defend oneself and one’s loved ones from vicious criminal assualt, to enforce just laws that protect citizens from such assaults, and to organize military forces sufficient to protect a nation’s population from invasion.
Have there been some very bad people who claimed to be Jews and Christians? Certainly. But I showed from the book of I John that the Bible condemns these people.
Have there been some very bad atheists too? Absolutely yes! Joseph Stalin slaughtered 25 million people, Mao Tse Tung murdered 14-20 million, Pol Pot killed two million, the North Vietnamese forces killed one million South Vietnamese people after the U.S. left Vietnam, and North Korea has killed about one million of its citizens. These people were/are all devout atheistic Communists. They oppressed anyone who opposed them, especially those who practiced organized religion.
But I do not generalize and say that all atheists are mass-murderers like Stalin, Mao, Pot, the North Vietnamese, or the North Koreans.
It is easy to stereotype and to generalize. You should try to meet more Jews and Christians and get to know them.
In many cases, you will disagree with them, for instance on theology. But in many cases, you will find yourself agreeing with them, such as on desiring a successful and prosperous life, pursuing education, finding meaningful employment, having a loving family to come home to, achieving financial stability, and, yes, being protected from violence, whether it be from domestic criminals or foreign armies or terrorists.
Yes, Jews, Christians, Atheists, and Agnostics all have a right to live in peace and safety here in America. You can study martial arts to protect yourself and they can do the same. Hopefully, as Americans, we can respect each other, “disagree without being disagreeable,” and seek each other’s welfare and safety. And sometimes, that means resisting evil and violent people with necessary violence.
My friend, you are clearly an intelligent and inquisitve person. I hope that this lengthy response is helpful to you.
I wish you the best always. Please forgive me if I have said anything to offend you. I never meant to do so in any way.
Take care and be well always.