Grappling with God: Evangelical Fight Ministries in Rio de Janeiro

摘要

I depict and analyze the practices of two evangelical Christian churches in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, that use combat sport as a social outreach program. In evangelical fight ministries, pastors combine worship and close-contact grappling to help young people learn about God, each other, and themselves. These programs offer lessons and sparring sessions in the submission-based martial art Brazilian jiu-jitsu, bookended with thirty-minute Christian worship activities.;My research lays bare the moral quandary at the heart of combat sport, which was magnified for me as soon as I began training with self-proclaimed peace-loving Christian fighters. Based on my experiences worshiping, fighting, living and speaking with members of these ministries, I have found that it is necessary to stop looking for arete (excellence of any kind) in combat sport when it comes to explaining how and why Christians use fight ministries. In combat sport, cooperating means trying to hurt one another. The injuries and the infliction of pain are neither byproducts nor against the rules: they are the point of the activity. Combat sport is inglorious; without consent, it is assault.;Thus, it is the principle of voluntarism, which ascribes moral transformation to consensual interactions, that provides the common ground between evangelical Christianity and combat sport. The change in moral status for both of these practices is based on people's willing participation and acknowledgment of mutual interdependence. Evangelicals must accept Jesus into their hearts, and they must tell others about their relationship with God. Combat sport tests the categorical limits of cooperation.;Churches that combine evangelism with fighting highlight the diversity of interactions that can lead to human flourishing. Evangelical fight ministries provide a unique opportunity to see how Christians can use voluntarism to adopt and imbue with moral significance even strikingly unChristlike behaviors.