XTREME Ministries, a small church near Nashville, Tennessee, has developed a brutal way of making Christianity more manly – by staging “cage fights” incorporating martial arts.
Pastor John Renken, 37, founded the church which doubles as a mixed martial arts academy. Its motto is:
Where Feet, Fists and Faith Collide.
This fella, Mr Penn, defeated his opponent, Mr Sanchez, at the conclusion of an Xreme Ministries fight
According to The New York Times, Renken’s ministry is one of a small but growing number of evangelical churches that have embraced mixed martial arts – a sport with a reputation for violence and blood that combines kickboxing, wrestling and other fighting styles – to reach and convert young men, whose church attendance has been persistently low.
Recruitment efforts at the churches, which are predominantly white, involve fight night television viewing parties and lecture series that use ultimate fighting to explain how Christ fought for what he believed in. Other ministers go further, hosting or participating in live events in cages.
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.
Said Brandon Beals, 37, the lead pastor at Canyon Creek Church outside of Seattle:
Compassion and love – we agree with all that stuff, too. 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 feminised, promoting kindness and compassion at the expense of strength and responsibility.
Said Ryan Dobson, 39, a pastor and fan of mixed martial arts who is the son of lunatic James C Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, a prominent evangelical group:
The man should be the overall leader of the household. We’ve raised a generation of little boys.
These pastors say the marriage of faith and fighting is intended to promote Christian values, quoting verses like “fight the good fight of faith” from Timothy 6:12. Several put the number of churches taking up mixed martial arts at roughly 700 of an estimated 115,000 white evangelical churches in America. The sport is seen as a legitimate outreach tool by the youth ministry affiliate of the National Association of Evangelicals, which represents more than 45,000 churches.
Sanchez v Penn
Fighting as a metaphor has resonated with some young men.
Mike Thompson, 32 – fighting name “Fury” – is a former gang member and student of Renken’s who until recently had struggled with unemployment. He said:
I’m fighting to provide a better quality of life for my family and provide them with things that I didn’t have growing up.Once I accepted Christ in my life I realized that a person can fight for good.
The trend, though, has its critics. Said Eugene Cho, 39, a pastor at Quest Church, an evangelical congregation in Seattle:
I don’t live for the Jesus who eats red meat, drinks beer and beats on other men.
And Robert Brady, 49, the executive vice president of a conservative evangelical group, the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, agreed, saying that the mixed martial arts motif of evangelism:
So easily takes away from the real focus of the church, which is the Gospel.
Many black churches have chosen not to participate.
Men ages 18 to 34 are absent from churches, some pastors said, because churches have become more amenable to women and children. Said Tom Skiles, 37, the pastor of Spirit of St. Louis Church in Arnold, Mo:
We grew up in a church that had pastel pews …The men fell asleep.
In focusing on the toughness of Christ, evangelical leaders are harking back to a similar movement in the early 1900s, historians say, when women began entering the work force. Proponents of this so-called muscular Christianity advocated weight lifting as a way for Christians to express their masculinity.
Paul Burress, 35, a chaplain and fight coach at Victory Baptist Church in Rochester, said mixed martial arts had given his students a chance to work on body, soul and spirit.
Win or lose, we represent Jesus. And we win most of the time.
The Freethinker was founded in 1881 by GW Foote, an outspoken critic of religion. After the publication of 
February 7th, 2010 at 11:04 am
I practiced traditional karate for about twelve years. Had a great time and mixed with a great bunch of people and gained a lot of self confidence on the way. Can’t really see what it could possibly have to do with Christianity though, I imagine that trying to introduce karate students to Jesus would have resulted in a stampede for the exit.
February 7th, 2010 at 11:12 am
Yeah – Jesus was a cruier weight wasn’t he? He scored 3 TKO’s against the pharisee’s and only lost to a split decision when grappling with judas over the last crust of bread over supper.
FFS!
You can twist the flimsy nonsense in the bible to fit anything. I could say christ was a death metaller – he is certainly the influence for much of the lyrical content* – because he had long hair, sported a brutal spiked headband, and his most famous routine was screaming while nailed to a bloody great cross.
*The scifi death metal band Nocturnus, wrote a song about devising a time-machine with the sole purpose of going back to kill the baby jesus in the manger LOL!
February 7th, 2010 at 11:19 am
“Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,
This cage fighter is quite wild:
Pity his simplicity -
He has got brain injury.”
February 7th, 2010 at 11:23 am
I take it these are the same type of christians who made ‘kill a queer for christ’ bumper stickers.
February 7th, 2010 at 11:31 am
…proving once again that there are no boundaries to how one can interpret the Bible. Sure, learning self defense is probably a good thing. I just have my doubts about any sport where the whole point of the competition is to leave the other guy a blood mess.
February 7th, 2010 at 11:39 am
Men aged 18-34 are absent from churches because they know what a load of cac it all is. The establishment of cage fighting churches is just another fad in the “trendy vicar” genre. It doesn’t work.
If the participants want a macho religion they should’ve become muzzies.
Shargraves, love your idea of a death metal christ, and Stonyground, here are some karate vicar links, they’d have shown you “the way”.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_sQ9n.....eacher.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfkHkdu5IEI
February 7th, 2010 at 11:49 am
This sort of thing has been going on for years, though not in such an extreme form. Roy Rogers used to put on a Rodeo Show, and give a litle “Christian Talk” for the kids at the close; and in this country, before the age of television, churches had sewing classes for women, and woodwork classes for men – all with a hidden agenda! The churches that I belonged to had all sorts of “youth activites” which were unashamedly organized with a view to the indoctrination of local children: they would never have been countenanced for any other reason, as all the Christian leaders that I knew were adamant that “it’s not the business of the Church to entertain sinners on their way to Hell”!!
February 7th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
I suppose if you are brought up on the sadism of Christ being “scourged” – i.e. flogged till you will be lucky to have a square inch of skin left on your back; the same man (he was one tough sucker I’ll give him that) nailed to a cross and left there to die for the somewhat unlikely objective of suffering for the rest of us then a bit of brutality from these dopes seems quite mild.
What will they think of next?
February 7th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
I suppose this is mild if you are brought up on a religion where the three-in-one god (no, I can’t explain this either) returns as a human so that he can be scourged (flogged till he hasn’t an inch of skin left on his back), followed by nails through hands (technically wrists, I think) and ankles (despite his dad, who is also him), ignoring his pleas for help (the third of the trio, the Holy Ghost, is also around somewhere, and he is left to die. A spear in the side adds another touch of sadism. All this for the somewhat unlikely objective of suffering so that our salvation may be available.
Unfortuneatly, and here we come to emotional agony bit, the torture does not save anyone unless they have accepted Jesus. Imagine, there he is, after going through that lot, only to discover that only a partial success has been acheived. I can imagine the discussion with his dad:
Jesus. “So, just to be clear, after all that suffering all those who died before me, and all the atheists, muslims, bhuddists (names fifty other sects because he is omniscient) get no benefit. I think you have screwed up bigtime.
Dad (god): “You are just as much to blame as me. Think on, son. As for that bloody Holy Ghost he is a waste of time. Does sod all and gets a third of the credit. I’ve had a gutful of all this.
February 7th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
How arrogant of these people to say that “We represent Jesus”! It is akin to Stephen Green’s claim that peers who voted in a way of which he, personally, approved, were casting a vote that was “favourable to Jesus Christ”!!
February 7th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
What with scourging, nailing to the cross, innocent old women drowned as witches, burning alive, hot tongs, wracking and the rest I guess this must all seem rather tame.
February 7th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
When I read that article, it justified what I have always believed that education in the United-States has been retarded by religious beliefs which are based on a book written 2000 years ago and millions take at face value what ignorant preachers with store-bought “Doctors of Divinity” diplomas teach them as divine truths. This is why millions still believe in a blathering uneducated, uninformed bimbo like Sarah Palin who believes the Earth was created a few thousand years ago and who uses God to push her political agenda to red-necks who use God as an excuse to victimize anyone who thinks differently. Unfortunately it is getting worse. What’s next? Feeding atheists to lions to increase church attendance? Seriously, I don’t know if I should laugh or cry!
February 7th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
@Normand: You have to wonder at what is going on in the “brains” of those republican Tea Party clowns. Sarah Palin, as thick as a plank and twice as nasty, spouts 40 minutes of deranged garbage and charges $100,000 for the speech. That is crazy. Even crazier is that these dumbfucks, many struggling to survive financially, pay the fee. On top of that, Obama tries to persuade them that the USA costs seven times as much per head as the UK in health costs, with most of the money funding private jets and luxury living for the private insurance execs, they accuse him of wanting “death committees” and socialised medecine.
Obama can never persuade anyone with details and facts. The hit the head and not the emotions. What he needs are stories and personal tales. But even allowing for all that Palin is deranged and utterly shameless. She deserves only loathing and contempt. But if you want to gullibilise the gullible then look no further than the fundy christrian. Reminds me of that master of bullshit Mr T. Blair.
February 7th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
cage fighting at church I think I’ve seen it all now, I’m quite partial to watching cage fighting on the tellybox but even that won’t get me going to church even as a hardcore metalhead christian metal doesn’t make me want to beleive.
But seriously I think I have more tolerance for the old fashioned or “orthodox” types than I do for these morons who try and remarket christianity as being cool to try and gain more converts, there’s nothing cool about christianity
February 7th, 2010 at 6:17 pm
Re the bit about a time traveller killing Jesus as a child: I wrote a story in which a time traveller did exactly that, only to learn that he had achieved nothing because Jesus was a historical nobody and, in a world with no Jesus, the creator of Christianity, Paul, simply picked another of the many crucified messiahs to be the figurehead of his new religion. So when the time traveller returned to the 20th century he found that nothing had changed. For fans of science fiction, the story can be found in His Omnipotence Flashman And Other Stories (Booksurge, 2007).
February 7th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
Thanks for the karate links Broadsword, most entertaining. The “Trendy Vicar” remark has me worried though, whenever trendy vicars appear on the local news they often appear dressed in leather and on a motorbike, usually a Honda or a Triumph. In the past I have owned several Hondas and at present own a Triumph, although the modern biker tends to dress in kevlar rather than leather. If they start using progressive rock as a lure I am going to start thinking that they are out to get me.
February 7th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
Didn’t have you down as a fan of Earache records or the Floria Death Metal scene Doc… *Ahem*
Ah well – great minds think alike eh?
Destroying the manger was the tune if memory serves – it was abuout 20 yrs since I heard it!
February 7th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Barriejohn – this actually reminds me of Green’s statement a few years ago about how the church should tackle the perception of Christianity as being for ‘women and wimps’. Grrr! Wasn’t it also just last week that some church(es) had loose ideas about decking the interior with medieval swords ‘n sorcery images to appeal to young men? A certain quarter is getting a real chip on its shoulder about looking unmanly.
February 7th, 2010 at 7:35 pm
I can’t help thinking this would open the way to interfaith MMA tournaments – a sure fire way to find out whose god is best!
February 7th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
Oh the insanity! Let’s hope Alex Reid doesn’t hear about this. It could be start of something worse.
February 7th, 2010 at 8:44 pm
Sound more like a bunch of con men have figured out a way to have gambling and cage fighting without paying the taxes.
But then we know that the holey men would never allow gambling and fighting in g0ds area….Bingo anyone????
February 7th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
This actually reminds me of another (very) old joke!
How do we know that Jesus approved of boxing?
Because he said to the apostles:
‘It ‘is eye: be not afraid!!
February 8th, 2010 at 1:07 am
A funny aspect of this is that MMA is softcore bi/gay male porn.
February 8th, 2010 at 1:38 am
@libhomo: There is a LOT of homoeroticism involved in this sport!
February 8th, 2010 at 2:15 am
Unless I’m missing a joke, the pictures for this post are erroneous. They’re from the UFC [which has no religious affiliations that I'm aware of] and Sanchez, pictured first, lost the fight to Penn.
As for the text of the post, spot on.
February 8th, 2010 at 6:48 am
Make sure you check out Eugene Cho’s blog. He expounds on his quote:
http://eugenecho.wordpress.com.....other-men/
February 8th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
As Baptists are so keen on total immersion in water, wouldn’t they be better off taking up synchronised swimming instead of beating the other half of their collective wit out of each other?
February 17th, 2010 at 1:03 am
Sounds right up the alley of right-wing Catholic ex-boxer and Leader of the Opposition in Australia, Tony Abbott.