I first began my interest in martial arts through a friend at school. My friend was (so he said) a black belt in something. In High School we began training in his garage. It was a mix of Taekwondo and Kick Boxing from what I remember. We'd occasionally organise small tournaments with guys from school. These were never too serious but we'd always walk away with some sort of bruise or cut. I remember one poor friend walking away with the imprint of my shoe on his face - not something Iam proud of. This continued after High School and I began to seek out proper training. I was not a Christian at this stage but was open to listening about God but didn't understand what it meant to follow Christ.
On going to university I joined the campus Taekwondo club and because of my previous "training" had a small head start on the other students. It was actually around this same time that I became a Christian. I trained off and on for about 3 years and missed many gradings. I also brought a Christian friend of mine along to training and got him involved. After another one of these "breaks" I decided to go back to training but at the clubs new local training hall rather than at the college. My good friend joined me. Over the next 3-4 years I progressed. My commitment wasn't very big compared with a lot of other good martial artists. I just didn't want to give up all that time, training 2-3 times a week was enough. I entered a few competions and gained a silver medal in the state championships. Not bad considering my lack of fight training. I eventually was about to get my black belt when God prompted me to give it up.
Our club was mainly sport Taekwondo (WTF). There was no meditation, no spiritual aspect mentioned. So it seemed ok and I justified it to all my Christian friends who questioned my involvement. I loved the physical training. Towards the end though more and more things stood out as being questionable to my Faith. I began becoming good at the patterns (poomse). The better I became the more uncomfortable I became with them. I read a book I'd had for a while which described some of the background and the movements. I had read it before but this time a lot of things stood out. But I kept justifying it to myself. I was only interested in the sport side so it was ok. But more and more of the spiritual side always crept in. I came to realise that the patterns were based on Eastern philosophies and occult symbols that I could not reconcile with my Christian beliefs. In effect it was a form of "meditation in motion" requiring a lot of time and devotion in practice. I felt that upon reaching black belt I was really getting to the point where I was allowing myself to become influenced by something dark. I felt I was becoming initiated into something.
God really made me feel I had to give it up and make a clean break. I prayed and handed everything over to God and promised to give it all up.. throw away my gear, my medal, books.. everything. I felt a peace that I had made the right decision. I could now see that my life with God was far from right. I had given the Enemy a foothold.
I am not saying that Martial Arts are therefore evil. Martial Arts are extremely varied. My experience was in a Martial Art that was sport orientated and not overtly associated with Eastern reglion or philosophy. I was a person that did not have a particularly strong faith / relationship with God. As such the philosophies, MA culture, devotion to training, etc had a negative effect on my relationshop with God.
Weeks later I noticed something else. It is funny when we ask God for something. Do we really expect Him to do it? So we expect Him to do it right there and then? For as long as I remember I have had escthma on my chin. It would always be dry and irritated and on occasion would bring me to tears. At once stage I got cold sores and they spread all over my chin because of the irritation already there. It made me miserable. I constantly prayed that God would help me but it never seemed to work. A week or so after I gave up Taekwondo I was getting ready for work one morning and was looking in the mirror. Something was different. The rash was gone! Not only was it gone but it hasn’t come back since! Thinking back it hadn't been annoying me since that day when I renounced martial arts. It was a small thing, but it meant so much. Not long after I was skimming through an article on the Internet and a sentence stuck out: "God heals us when we align our lives to His will". How appropriate.
There was also a darker side. After that night I gave up martial arts I began having nightmares. Many had strange figures doing martial art movements. In some I was back in the training hall and being treated like a failure. Often I would wake and my room would be dark and I would be physically pinned down and unable to pray aloud. After mumbling desperate prayers I would be able to speak and the room was bright with the morning sun shining in. People will discount these experiences, "there is some logical explanation", but I know there was something spiritual that had a foothold in my life because of my involvement in martial art and it did not want to let go.
There was a spiritual side to martial arts, to the patterns, to the training, the fighting and many other things, that could not be denied. Looking back I can see my character changing. I began to want others to fear me and would project a stern exterior that was mostly emotionless. I became very unapproachable to many people. I never was the type of person to get into fights but I noticed that whenever I had a confrontation with anyone I would later imagine what I would have done if I had fought and how I would hurt them. I also noticed that I would always be feeling like doing martial art movements and sometimes did without even thinking about it. A lot of these things I believe had to do with a spirit of violence.
It is undeniable that many martial arts have roots in eastern philosophy and religion. Many martial artists will tell you that to reach their level you must embrace fully the spiritual aspects of the art. No matter how watered down a martial art is will often still have those roots and influences in some form or degree. It is difficult to fully seperate them out. I personally would never recommend that a Christian seeks out Martial Arts training. I recognise there are Martial Artists who are Christian, Martial Arts that are Christian ministries, but my experience prevents me from ever leading someone into the "minefield of discernment" that is encountered in the world of Martial Arts.
God Bless,
Bradley (15/3/99, revised 24/02/2002)
2006 - After much thought I have returned to training in Taekwondo.
