Once when I was in college, I was hanging out with a group
of guys from our Christian fellowship group. The conversation turned to MMA,
and one of them asked if anyone in the group knew martial arts. After a moment
of hesitation, I said, “I have a black belt in kung fu.” One of them burst out
laughing. It seemed ridiculous that a sweet, quiet girl like me would do kung
fu.
But I wasn’t joking. My black belt came from the kids’
program at my kung fu school, but my school was run by a teacher trained in
Taiwan who had very high standards for his students – even young ones. It took
me about seven years of consistent hard work to gain the black belt. I’m really
out of practice now, but it was a fun experience, and I can still do all the
basic techniques and some of the forms.
That’s why I was so interested in a blog post by Warren Fox,
another American Christian martial artist living in Taipei. Fox described how
he began learning to fight as a child. He, unlike me, learned martial arts for
self-defense; he was an African American growing up in a town full of KKK
supporters. The post, which I highly recommend, also talks about some more
general issues related to the origin and morality of martial arts.
As I see it, martial arts raise two potential problems for Christians.
The first is that they’re designed for violence. If one is a pacifist, I see
how this would make them unacceptable. But most Christians I know aren’t. And
those who aren’t opposed to force in principle shouldn’t reject martial arts
for this reason. My martial arts instructor told us clearly that we should only
use the techniques we learned if someone physically attacked us. Even then, we
were urged to run away, or do just enough damage to allow ourselves to escape.
(Self-defense note: if you stomp on the top of an attacker’s foot, where the
shoelaces would be, you can usually break a few bones, which will prevent them
from chasing you.) Kung fu was not for showing off or picking fights. It was a powerful
tool that must be used wisely.
The other potential problem is that eastern martial arts
developed in a culture with an unbiblical worldview. That in itself doesn’t
mean Christians shouldn’t use them. The same can be said of tea, paper and
fireworks. The basics of martial arts consist of punches, kicks, blocks and
stances – purely physical actions. But at higher levels, the techniques begin
merging with Buddhist or Taoist philosophy (depending on the style). They begin
blending with what Fox calls “ritual” – chants and techniques meant to tap into
energy, either within your body or from a source outside yourself. These, I
believe, can be spiritually dangerous and even demonic. But those are distinct
from the techniques themselves, and it is possible to study and learn the
techniques without delving into this dangerous territory.
Fox came to the conclusion that the ritualistic aspects of
martial arts are a corruption of a good thing God gave us. I would argue that
using it for unnecessary violence is the same.
But if God did create martial arts, then it must have real
benefits. The obvious benefits of martial arts are self-defense and defense of
others. When I studied kung fu, I did it because it was a form of exercise that
I actually enjoyed and was reasonably good at. I have miserable hand-eye
coordination, so any sport involving a ball was extremely difficult for me.
Kung fu required different skills, and it wasn’t competitive. My goal was to
compete only against myself, to do deeper, stronger stances and crisper, more
accurate techniques than I did the previous class.
Kung fu also taught me discipline – the willingness to
practice and even endure pain for my own improvement. And it helped me begin to
feel more confident in myself. It even helped my body image – my legs may have
been large and lumpy, but at least I knew they could throw a mean roundhouse
kick.
These are all blessings, and they should lead us to praise
the God from whom all blessings flow. The God who created our bodies, who knows
every joint, muscle, ligament and tendon, who describes Himself as a mighty
warrior and the leader of an army of angels, reveals his glory even through
martial arts.
