"Christian" Martial Arts: Another Bad Branch on the Tree of the New Spirituality

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"Christian" Martial Arts:

Another Bad Branch on the Tree of the New Spirituality

Martial Arts & Yoga Under:

 New Age "Movement Practices"

Its been almost eighteen years since my conversion to Christ--and the renouncement of both my black belts--but it wasn't until recently that I fully realized the close kinship between the spiritual roots of the martial arts and the Emergent/Contemplative spirituality engulfing the Church of Jesus Christ.

After some research, I discovered that the devil's lie from Genesis 3 has been cleverly repackaged and marketed to unsuspecting karate enthusiasts for hundreds of years, and is now simpatico among many professing Christians. Although I studied Okinawan and Japanese martial arts systems for thirteen years, I had unwittingly succumbed to a plethora of unbiblical beliefs and practices due to language differences among the many Eastern disciplines. For example, I hadn't made the connection between "Do," (meaning, "way", in Japanese), with the Chinese (Confucianist) Tao/Dao, meaning the same thing. This becomes significant to the Christian, because the Do/Tao/Dao is synonymous with the Buddhist Yin/Yang philosophy which is pantheistic, not monotheistic, in nature. It is a spiritual "way"--or journey--diametrically opposed to biblical Christianity. Hence, "karate-do" (meaning "way of the empty hand") becomes a religious pursuit, rather than simply a self-defense endeavor. According to the founders and masters of all martial arts systems (whether hard or soft), the ultimate goal of "the way" is self-mastery, self-empowerment...self-enlightenment (satori): the point when the adept is awakened to the knowledge that he/she is divine. This is also at the heart of the Zen journey which is totally incompatible with the Bible and the God who wrote it.

Sadly, this is also the end product of contemplative prayer and other such spiritual disciplines advocated by many professing Christians. The common link beween all martial arts schools--and the Emergent/Contemplative movement is meditation (entering the silence) which is actually Far Eastern mysticism, not true Christianity. While Contemplatives and New Agers utilize mantras (repeated words/phrases) and visualization to empty the mind in order to enter the sacred/thin place within, martial artists concentrate on breathing exercises and floor patterns (katas) to reach the same destination.

One New Age healer calls this "the wider picture," a method for accessing the spiritual realm:

"To enable you to understand, and realize for yourself, that there really is more to life than what your physical eyes can see, and what your physical ears can hear. This is the wider picture, and out there is all the help you need...[emphasis in original] Meditation helped me to shut them down [physical senses] so that I could discover this world, a world as real as this one: the "spiritual" world...All the [meditation] exercises involve visualization: in other words, using your imagination--creating pictures within your mind's eye...1

While some New Age and Occult practitioners use this form of meditation to enter this inner spiritual world, Contemplative/Emergents and martial artists also practice what eastern mystics and budo masters call "moving meditation," or a "moving Zen study [katas]." Renowned labyrinth maker, Jim Buchanan, explains:

"The labyrinth has a single, winding path, meaning that you don't have to make decisions about which route to take. You just follow the path as it leads you into the centre and out again. Labyrinth-walking, a non-thinking, moving activity, frees your mind, taking you on a journey of calmness, meditation and, perhaps, enlightenment."2

He gives further insight concerning this form of meditation:

"The constant feature [of the labyrinth] is movement...By moving in a focused and directed way through the labyrinth, we begin to relax and our sixth sense becomes heightened...In his book The Genesis and Geometry of the Labyrinth, [Patrick Conty] says that the labyrinth is the 'quintessential sacred space that depicts the most profound levels of consciousness. For many cultures the center of the labyrinth exists simultaneously in this world and the invisible worlds, providing us with a doorway into other dimensions of reality.'"3

Like Emergent Contemplatives who unsuccessfully attempt to sanctify such mystical practices in the Church, so do martial artists calling their disciplines "Christian." The truth is that good fruit does not grow on a poisonous tree with putrid roots. No amount of fertilizer, pruning, or staging can cure what ails it. In the end, the Life-giving Vine will chop down the whole wicked monstrosity and will hurl it--branches, trunk, and roots--into the fire.

Footnotes:

1 Charlotte Parnell, Meditation: A Beginner's Guide, Barnes & Noble, Inc., 2001, pp.4-6.

2 Jim Buchanan, Labyrinths for the Spirit: How to Create Your Own Labyrinths for Meditation and Enlightenment, Gaia Books, London, a division of Octopus Publishing Group, 2007, Inside Cover.

3 Ibid, pp. 7, 9-10.

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