Comments on: Turn the Other Cheek…With Your Fist http://whathesaid.com/2010/02/02/turn-the-other-cheek-with-your-fist/ Making the words of Jesus Christ easy to read and explore Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:50:45 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 By: Marc Tumeinski http://whathesaid.com/2010/02/02/turn-the-other-cheek-with-your-fist/comment-page-1/#comment-131 Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:50:45 +0000 https://whathesaid.com/?p=327#comment-131 John 13:34 A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so also you should love one another.

]]> By: Marc Tumeinski http://whathesaid.com/2010/02/02/turn-the-other-cheek-with-your-fist/comment-page-1/#comment-130 Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:49:31 +0000 https://whathesaid.com/?p=327#comment-130 Interesting editorial by Chris Ringwald, editor of the Catholic diocesan paper in Albany NY:

http://www.evangelist.org/archive/htm10/0121opinion.html

Love your enemies (Mt 5:44; Lk 6:27).

A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so also you should love one another.

]]> By: John http://whathesaid.com/2010/02/02/turn-the-other-cheek-with-your-fist/comment-page-1/#comment-119 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:14:47 +0000 https://whathesaid.com/?p=327#comment-119 Feodor Emelianenko, widely regarded as the best in the MMA world is an Orthodox Christian.

Feodor: “I try to get a blessing before all important things, including my fights. God willing, my spiritual father[Archpriest] Andrei Zinoviev will make the trip [to fight in Thailand] with me.”

Probably the most famous Orthodox Christian in the American sports arena is Troy Polamalu (Steelers).

Polamalu: “This life that I struggle to live, I try to do so in the eyes of my spiritual father [Elder Ephraim of St. Anthony’s Monastery].”

Each of these Orthodox athletes are in obedience to their spiritual fathers.

Their faith and humility inform them as men who just happen to be professional athletes.

The Evangelical MMA practitioners seem to be striving to have their faith (and apparently their very manhood) conform to the image of the MMA fighter.

Big difference.

Living out the Orthodox Christian faith is a life of ascesis, struggle against sin and evil in the world. I remember seeing the back of one of Feodor’s t-shirts that had a drawing of him choking out (with a rear naked choke) a dragon. In the Holy Scriptures, the dragon is a representation of the devil.

Living out the faith Evangelical-MMA style is apparently about being a fighter, showing the world that one is a “winner” by beating or choking a fellow human being into submission.

Big difference.

Orthodox Christianity has lots fighting words to live by..just two examples:

“The true Christian is a warrior making his way through the regiments of the invisible enemy to reach his heavenly homeland.”
– St. Herman of Alaska

“In every battle with the enemy, you must emerge victorious. Either die in the struggle,or win with God. There is no other road.”
– Elder Joseph the Hesychast

Maybe someday these unmanned Evangelical MMAers will to learn to fight in an Orthodox manner like Feodor and Troy.

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