SHOULD Christians do MA?

[Little Dragon]

Bruce Lee was a christian.And im pretty sure some or most of the amrtial artists action stars are too.

 

My grandmaster is a christian,he goes to my church and sings in the choir.There are times in peoples lives where they will encounter conflicts.Its better for a christian man to defend himself rather than get beaten up and robbed.

[kchenault]

As much as I would like to believe those statements, I would need some form of proof on the Bruce Lee comment. Chuck Norris is a Christian. He has talked about his faith quite openly in these last few years.

[Little Dragon]

As much as I would like to believe those statements, I would need some form of proof on the Bruce Lee comment.

Linda Lee Cadwell mentions it in Bruce Lee:Warrior's Journey.

[kchenault]

Just to be a pain in the butt, get me an excerpt....

[Shorin Ryuu]

Really looked at this thread for the first time. I don't know how many of you have read the works of St. Augustine (regardless of whether or not you are Catholic, he was an early church writer and it is a good read, even if just for its political science/philosophy implications).

 

He was (after a rather wild youth) a big early thinker in Christianity and wrote a lot during the time of the fall of the Roman Empire. One of the famous stories about him is that once, a Roman general (a Christian) wrote him that he was concerned about being a Christian and fighting battles and killing others. Augustine's response (and you can see things like this in his City of God, an interesting work on government) was that basically, we live in an imperfect world, the city of man. The soldier should not quit being a soldier. There is evil in this world, and sometimes it is necessary to fight this evil (in this case, fending off barbarians that were threatening to destroy civilization).

 

I don't mean this to become a discussion on Just War Theory (and indeed, that draws a lot from St. Augustine), but I think the parallel between being a Christian in the military and studying martial arts is somewhat useful. St. Augustine's ideal of the "reluctant soldier" and the principle of never fighting unless it is absolutely necessary in many traditional martial arts are very similar and I see no conflict between the two.

 

 

 

Please don't attack this on the basis that St. Augustine is not the bible, etc...I have my arguments against sola scriptura, but here is neither the time nor the place...

[wrestlingkaratechamp]

I'm a devotted Catholic all my life and I take MAs.

[Vito]

i dont think jesus said when in rome do as the romans do. at least not in that way, because im pretty sure he was against massive orgies. (what a loser!) anyway, i say no! christians need to spend their time praying, protesting stemcell research so my disease cant be cured, persecuting homosexuals, and riding bicycles around with little nametags on. with all that plus memorizing the bible, who has time to learn how to fight?

[Jbone1]

Vito we don't need that crap from you. This board is one board we shouldn't have any type of talk like that. In a martial arts board I expect honor to all who come here.

 

I am a Christian and I know God's power. I practice this with the gifts God gave me physically. I praise him for the opprotunity to have the time to train. So yes, we can and I don't see why it was asked in the first place because the only difference between a Christian and someone who isn't saved is Jesus' blood covering us.

 

Oh Bruce was not a Christian. His philosphy was about having your own light and not needing to lean on anyone or have anyones help. In an interview he mentioned he doesn't need the light of Christ because he has his own. But who knows he could have meant it in a totally different way. But the fact remains is we do need Christ' light in order to see in this dark world.

[Shane]

Everyone has the right to learn to defend themselves

[scottnshelly]

i admit, i haven't read this entire thread, but wanted to through this into the pile.

 

at one school that i taught at, the school shirt featured a yin-yang with red and blue colors because it was primarily Korean-based.

 

A couple of the students weren't allowed to wear the shirts to their Catholic schools becuase of the yin-yang.