Personally at this point in my adult life I can only comment from being a spectator but it would be safe to say that I approach this from a some what educated inside perspective.
I was involved in the sport of boxing off and on as a youth and later as an adult. Most of my friends were involved in this sporting event. My next door neighbor who also was my cousin excelled at the sport. He was a golden glove champion for several years and was also invited to try out for the Olympic team, although he declined to participate. As I became an adult I coached the sport in the same gym in the same neighborhood. I had the intriguing job of working the corner of a few professional fights. I even had the privilege of working with the state athletic commission in a series of professional cards. I was the guy who stands on the edge of the ring between each round to make sure no one puts anything "funny" in the water bottle and didn't tamper with the fighters gloves. I've met many big names in the fight game and even found myself next to Roberto Duran as he blew out 40 candles on a birthday cake. I've been around both ends, the amateur and the professional, first hand.
So, as I try to work through these questions looking back from the position of now being a new creature in Christ and enabled by the Holy Spirit to endeavor and strive to be conformed in the image of Christ I now take pause about the sport I once loved. I pause because it has become difficult for me to watch two men beat each other within an inch of their lives. As I watch clips from mixed martial arts events, I wonder when the referee will call time, raise a big iron door and let the lion in. It resembles ancient Rome.
Here are some of the answers I have heard as to how someone can glorify God in these events.
- "These are well trained athletes who are consenting adults and have agreed beforehand to be in this event, they are not forced into fighting".
- "It's not about what they are doing, it is about the heart of the individual who is fighting"
The heart, the conscience of man, in his corrupt and fallen state, is deceitful above all things. It calls evil good, and good evil; and cries peace to those to whom it does not belong. Herein the heart is desperately wicked; it is deadly, it is desperate. The case is bad indeed, if the conscience, which should set right the errors of other faculties, is a leader in the delusion. We cannot know our own hearts, nor what they will do in an hour of temptation. Who can understand his errors? Much less can we know the hearts of others, or depend upon them. He that believes God's testimony in this matter, and learns to watch his own heart, will find this is a correct, though a sad picture, and learns many lessons to direct his conduct. But much in our own hearts and in the hearts of others, will remain unknown. Yet whatever wickedness there is in the heart, God sees it. Men may be imposed upon, but God cannot be deceived.
How can I say to my children "your mother and I have decided to cut you back on the video games you are playing because they are a little too violent" and then turn right around and allow him/her to watch two "real" men beat each other to a bloody pulp.
How does thinking that it is OK and quite acceptable for someone to strike out and pulverise the imago dei or image of God? Some will say, well what about football? The main thrust of boxing or MMA is violence. The object of MMA or boxing is to beat your opponent into submission if possible. In football there are rules and pads to protect the players. In the NFL there will be some stringent rules that will come into play soon, due to bounty's being paid out for the "purposeful" injuring of certain players. It is safe to say that the main focus or purpose of boxing / MMA is to inflict painful blows to your opponent. You can't win any boxing /MMA match being totally defensive. Hypothetically in football you can. The great boxer Willie Pepp is the only professional guy I know of who actually one a round without throwing a punch, but not throwing a punch for the entire fight and then somehow think you can win, I don't think so.
How is it that some who would never attend a dog fight and think that it is waaay too violent, and then gladly pony up big bucks to watch two humans created in the image of God bludgeon each other with lil or no padding on their knuckles in front of blood thirsty screaming and adoring fans. How do you glorify God as you sit on the edge of your seat waiting for your guy to "drop" the other guy? I mean let's fine and incarcerate Micheal Vick for fighting dogs, but legalise, exploit, promote and revere the fighting of God's image. I know, I know, dog fighting is illegal, so is MMA in New York and Connecticut.
Westminster Larger Cat in consideration:
Q. 136. What are the sins forbidden in the sixth commandment?
striking, wounding, and whatsoever else tends to the destruction of the life of any.
Heidelberg Cat
Question 105. What does God require in the sixth commandment?
Answer: That neither in thoughts, nor words, nor gestures, much less in deeds, I dishonour, hate, wound, or kill my neighbour, by myself or by another: but that I lay aside all desire of revenge: also, that I hurt not myself, nor wilfully expose myself to any danger. Wherefore also the magistrate is armed with the sword, to prevent murder.
The Puritan's were not opposed to sports in general but concerned about the excess of any "good" thing. They did say you can gauge a society by the sports it celebrates. So what's next? I can see it now, instead of the announcer saying "let's get ready to rumble" or "let's get it on" he may soon say "bring on the lions".
