[FingerBang]

Faith.... lol

You'd have better luck posting on a WWE forum, those people eat fantasy up like primitive peasants.

[DeathNTaxes]

Who cares?

Faith will always be used to justify/support what the believer wishes it too.

[Volund]

I'll take jesus in the octogon.

[MarcusA]

Fighting for Jesus is the new form of going on a crusade.

[gonekimuraing]

wow . . this went downhill quick

hey: if no one here is interested and no one reads the article, fine, but please don't judge . . i was really writing for christians who also are into mma, like me . . if that's not you, sorry . . . if your faith is such that you can't even hear someone else talking about their faith without slamming them, sorry . . . and if you want to *really* talk about christianity itself--which i wasn't inviting, but those old chestnuts like the crusades et. al. brought up--that's another story . . .

for the person who claimed to have read the article: there weren't any biblical passages taken out of context, friend, and "put on the full armor of God" doesn't mean "go kick some ass" or whatever you said . . that's not what i said at all . . . what i did say was that the bible positively uses sports/struggle ****phors to illustrate spiritual truths, and that since it does, it implicitly supports the validity and usefulness of sport in everyday life, and to understand everyday life . . . this was just one of *many* points i made in the article . . . but like i said: if it's not for you, okay

finally: i also posted about this article at mmaweekly and proelite and even the outspoken athiests there were quick to talk constructively about the article, quick to not judge . . . take that for what it's worth . . . maybe there are other ways

[GracieMMABarra]

" It is my hope that Mixed Martial Arts has here been shown to be relatively safe when compared to other similar sports, ethical in terms of its goals, and even spiritually positive, beneficial, and useful in light of the Bible itself."

Wishful thinking. MMA is a business and like many business ethics and positivity don't make money. Also explain what jesus had to do with the forest/jackson fight?

"But for those who did, myself included, it’s gratifying to know that Mixed Martial Arts and faith definitely do mix."

[gonekimuraing]

right, mma is a business and positivity, unfortunately, doesn't "sell" . . the article--which you quote, so hopefully read--really was just a defense of mma from a spiritual perspective . . . i just wanted to see if the sport could be "okay" to be into, ethically speaking . . . my conclusion was that it's not only ethical, but positive in lots of practical, and even conceptual/spiritual ways (which the article describes)

as for jesus and griffin/jackson, in some large sense, i think God has to do with everything, but i'm not here talking about God being specifically involved in certain fights or with certain fighters--which some other posters seem to think . . . but since griffin/jackson was an mma match, the thoughts behind the article to apply to it and so i do think that a big sporting event like that is spiritually meaningful, etc. . . .

btw: jesus thinks forrest did really, objectively, win it . .

[GracieMMABarra]

Originally Posted by gonekimuraing

right, mma is a business and positivity, unfortunately, doesn't "sell" . . the article--which you quote, so hopefully read--really was just a defense of mma from a spiritual perspective . . . i just wanted to see if the sport could be "okay" to be into, ethically speaking . . . my conclusion was that it's not only ethical, but positive in lots of practical, and even conceptual/spiritual ways (which the article describes)

as for jesus and griffin/jackson, in some large sense, i think God has to do with everything, but i'm not here talking about God being specifically involved in certain fights or with certain fighters--which some other posters seem to think . . . but since griffin/jackson was an mma match, the thoughts behind the article to apply to it and so i do think that a big sporting event like that is spiritually meaningful, etc. . . .

btw: jesus thinks forrest did really, objectively, win it . .

Fair enough. Maybe it's just me, but I really don't think God has anything to do with one man punching and kicking another man in the face/body.

[I Am Korean]

I am not a Christian. Many here will vouch that I'm one of the most vocal anti-Christians on these boards.

That being said, I believe that Christianity and MMA can go hand in hand. What is wrong with a fighter thanking God after his fight? When two men enter the ring, I believe that it is the purest most honest moment of their lives. It's about a clashing of the very essence and soul of those two men and in the process, I believe that each individual finds out just what he is made of and gets the opportunity to tell the world, "This is who I am."

At the heart of it, I believe that MMA is a very spiritual thing and if a fighter wants to thank Jesus, Allah, Buddha, or George W. Bush for helping them stay dedicated and giving them the extra strength to train hard, stay injury free, and fight hard, what's wrong with that?

Mixed martial arts is not about two brutes going in there to bash each other's heads in. If that is your idea of what MMA is, then you do not deserve to call yourself a fan.

[King of Fists]

I think that a person can be an MMA fighter and a Christian as well (I don´t know about any other faiths, since Christianity is the only one I´ve ever followed) but they would have to give away most of their income once they become successful. That´s the hard part of the Christian faith that loses most people.

Also, as far as Christian faith is concerned, it talks negatively about praying openly in public so that´s a no go also. There may be a lot of fighters who claim they are Christians but few who really are