A response to a letter I wrote to a person I encountered on a Newsgroup a few years ago. In the discussion we were having I was justifying my involvement in the Martial Arts. I invited him to have a look at my site and make some comments. He has gracously allowed me to include his responses and testimony on this web site.
Greetings in the Name of Jesus Christ:
I'm just responding to your email inviting me to visit your web-page. You had mentioned in your email that you got my name from a NG. That could possibly be...I'm just surprised you remembered; I don't think I've been on one for about a year or two.. the last one being soc.religion.christian.
I'm glad to see your web-page, and that you have taken a stand. I just read one of the testimonies which struck a bell with me. I seem to identify somewhat with what you're saying; I'll give a brief testimony (feel free to share if you like, but I would like to primarily write this as a personal letter to you in response to your email).
I got into martial-arts (goju-ryu karate) at about 22, and agree with alot of the stuff you were saying in your testimony, sounds extremely familiar. I've really felt insecure in myself most of my life, and felt martial arts would give me the security in knowing that I didn't necessarily have to use it, but had the resources to hurt anybody who would hurt me, as I felt all my life. I got into going to classes 2-4hrs/night 3-6x/week (in the beginning while simultaneously doing a full-time nursing program at college; which of course came to a quick demise with my schedule..). I did everything to get the approval of my instructor. Most (if not all) my friends revolved around the club; including the "after-hours" activities which seemed to make up an inner-group who seemed to be "serious" about the art. Of course I did a few seminars and got exposed to alot of other forms in other arts as well. I did get up to the level of brown-belt, but left (dropped-out) about half-way to first-dan (black). That's the back-ground.
I had an experience about 1yr or so into the art, as my grades were failing (partly due to keeping up with the arts schedule, thinking I had all things under control - looking back, I have no clue what I was thinking..), while I was finishing up some time in the hospital, that as I was in the parking-lot I encountered a man laying salvation tracts on windshields, read it and was saved (well, there are more details, but I want to keep the conversation on topic of martial arts..). I still continued on in the martial arts, but I had a total 180 degree attitude change. I was praying constantly that God forgive me when I bowed in the dojo, and visualized myself in my heart bowing before Christ at the moment when it came to bow towards the shrine in the dojo (usually consists of a flag, picture of style founder and current leader). I became more sensitive to sin-attitudes which abounded: so much talk consisted of piously talking about values of self-defence and inner-peace and violence-as-last-resort, when really 99.9% of people are there to ultimately - intimidate others. Eventually, my passion for the art waned; I felt uncomfortable with certain aspects of dojo ritual, I was dissatisfied with the amount of time required for the sport: time which could ultimately be spent with Christ, not wasted in hours of drills - constantly training to be on guard against an enemy who I am supposted to turn the other cheek to, I just didn't see the point. All in all, I've spent 3 years in the martial arts. I've kept at least one good friend from the club who has since stopped as well (who is not saved). The rest of my friends after karate felt either nothing in common, or in some cases (closer friends) didn't appreciate my new-found "conscience" in Christ, and drifted away. I have no regrets about leaving the art, but in all my reading and experience so far (I'm now 29), I've formed some experience which I'll list below:
* I'm persuaded that one can be a Christian and involved in the martial arts. HOWEVER - I do believe that someone who is a maturing believer and wants to avoid having his "works" burned at Christ's bema-seat judgement (rewards or lack thereof for believers) will forsake this endeavor as being a work of wood or straw, and will abandon such as being unprofitable. The only acceptable application of a martial art which I can see is the defense of the family, for which the husband is definitely responsible (and I'm not talking here about a wife's "honor" or such - but her (and children's) physical body being directly threatened); and at that should rely on the Lord to deliver from this situation by crying out to Him. I still struggle with this point even now if even coming to physical blows is the kind of situation the Lord would allow me to face..even at that, any physical response should be defensive vs. a pre-emptive and offensive strike; or at least as minimal as possible to run-away un-scathed (or as little as possible). This brings me to my next point;
* I understand problems with ki. It is very closely tied in with zen-buddhism which is a doctrine of demons. However, by using "ki", I have seen some of the most powerful demonstrations of true "defensive" art, the most effective from my experience being Aikido, which almost exclusively uses ki (from my understanding, there are almost no strikes in Aikido; simply using the "power" of ki to re-direct attacks away, and cause extreme amounts of pain in joint-lock combinations which if applied correctly, cause no permanent (or even lasting..) damage). If any art could be-if applied as intended, as self-defence - this would really be it. If one truly subscribes to the ki theory and practices (as it was intended..) in the religious sense - it is definitely sin. However, we as believers know that in reality, there is no such force as ki - and I've gathered that ki in itself is more a visualization technique in manipulating the human body's resources (truly, we are fearfully and wonderfully made! Especially in mind and body in ways that we do not fully understand). If you did subscribe to this last theory of thought re: ki as I've just mentioned - I would imagine you could possibly do this without sinning (ultimately, my opinion in this matter may be totally wrong; whether in reality it's sin or not is what the Lord says!!). HOWEVER; in order to be in this situation, one would: 1) have to have reasoned through the first point I made above and agree that his family is a priority in this regard; 2) be very mature in his Christian walk - having fully reasoned through his conscience that he can separate the wheat from chaff (in reality wrong or right, if one's not convinced 100% that it's right, it's wrong for him because he is willing to do what he knows in his heart might possibly be sin - whatever is not of faith is sin); 3) be willing to sacrifice time which can be spent in better things; as Paul said that though all things are lawful for me, not all things are profitable. I would have to sum up this point by saying that studying an art as a Christian may be tolerable given very mitigating circumstances, but (IMHO) certainly not profitable.
To close up, now that I am a little bit further along in my Christian walk, I have reflected back to whether I would consider going back to the art given the reasons above as I ask the Lord for a wife and children. You know what? I don't want those arts anymore. I've reasoned for myself that at best, it's tolerable, and at worst; laden with many opportunities to compromise your faith. What would Jesus do? I'm pretty sure He wouldn't be in a marial-arts club - He'd have too many other important things to do. So unless you're in the armed-forces or law-enforcement for the public good (for which God has not given the sword for nothing . . .) which would certainly help as an occupational tool; I'm convinced in all conscience myself that to not suffer any loss at Christ's coming, we should let the martial-arts go. It's so hard sometimes to want to give up what think of as security, but I'm still learning (oh so slowly :( ) that God does honor them who honor Him. It's also especially hard to give up this want for this type of martial-art power for those who struggle with feelings of powerlessness, inferiority and insecurity; and to trust in the Lord as I know I should. God help us all to do this who are in this boat.
Please write me back concerning this letter with your comments; or to at least acknowledge it. Just wanted to know your impressions. You may/may-not agree with everything I've written here, but this is what I'm convinced of in my heart at this point - but only the Lord's opinion really matters as to the reality of the situation.
Sincerely,
Your brother in Christ,
Chris Donnelly
Hi Chris! Great to hear from you.
I used dejanews.com to dig up the archives and found your post. It's weird finding post of my own that defended practicing martial arts. How things change:)
I think I agreed with most of what you said. One comment that came to mind was about ki/chi. I believe there is a spiritual side to it as well as physical/mental. This is one aspect of martial art practices that many people ignore or are unaware of. It is known that certain Yoga exercises (even without meditation) can give demonic powers a foothold in your life. The same undoubtably is the case with martial arts movements, especially when doing kata/forms. Traditional Kata definately have deep eastern spiritual and philosophical meaning.
I would love to be able to add your testimony to the web site for the benefit of visitors to the site. But I'll leave that up to you.
Thanks again for taking the time for a lenghthy reply. I really appreciate it.
God bless.
regards,
Bradley
Hi Bradley,
Feel free to use that testimony on your site. The information I gave below was where my conscience has led me so far, and as the Lord gives more light, I'm sure things may change even more :) I hadn't really given much thought in regards to the spiritual aspect of kata; this gives me something else to think about. I did want you to know on a personal level that, as most men (even believers) are afraid to admit, a fear of not being in control is really frightening/humiliating/emasculating. This is a real matter of faith to willingly submit to the Lord when told not to resist an evil person, in an area when it seems to count so much in an earthly sense.
Anyways, thanks-a-million for getting back to me about this.
In Christ,
Chris.
