From: snorthc@nswc.navy.mil (Stephen Northcutt)
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
Subject: The Christian MA
Date: 12 Aug 92 11:30:42 GMT
Organization: NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER

It has been my honor to read this list since its inception.  R.M-A
has been a blessing to me :-)  All the great advice, the sorely
needed rebukes and the encouragement,   Now I have something on my heart,
that I want to share with you.  I am neither a superior MA or superior
Christian, but I am one of each.   I am going to touch on the gay-MA thread,
which I am sure we would all rather leave buried, including me, but that isn't
my main point.  It would have been much better if an older, more advanced,
more worthy soul were to say these things, but since one never came forth I
have to try.
 

  "Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one
  receives the prize?  Run in such a way that you may win......" [1]

Did anyone see the photo of the distance runner from USA who placed
5th, sitting alone on the track, one shoe off, in anguish, she had
run, but had failed to reach the prize.

  "..... I run in such a way as not without aim; I box in such a way as
  not beating the air; but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest
  possibly after I have taught others I myself should be disqualified." [1]

When you run do you picture your goal or do you just run?
When you do kata, do you picture the imaginary attackers, or do you
just go through the motions?

Whether you study Tae Kwon Do, Aikido, or Kung Fu, do you know you
are preparing for combat?  Remember the kidney punch thread?  Every
moment in the doj* must be total commitment.  Life is just like this.
When I lost sight of this basic core of the martial arts, I was
quickly humbled.

If you have kept your goal and purpose clearly in mind, you are not
just strengthening your body, but you are preparing your spirit.

I fought a fairly intense battle this past Sat., it went on a long time,
much longer than the two minute battles I prepare for.  As I write this
Mon. evening I am STILL TIRED; spent.  But I am not bruised.  How can
this be that I fought for over an hour and my arms and legs show
no bruises?

It wasn't all that late, maybe 9:00 P.M., the night was cool, Bob
my friend and I were walking the streets of Fredericksburg.  We do
volunteer work for a music club called Street Cry, it is a place for
kids, loud unbearable music, no smoking or alchohol.  We work as
greeters, say hi, break up arguments, look in the dark places for kids
trying to make more kids, sweep, mop, attempt to help fix broken hearts,
you get the drift.  Bob kept saying he was looking for a person with an
appointment with destiny (I hate it when he does that :-).  We walked
and walked, picked up trash, looked in all the dark places.  Finally
I was able to convince him to sit down and wait.  It wasn't two minutes
later that we say them, two big guys coming up the hill towards the
club.  The one guy was really big, had on a save-the-rainforest grateful
dead t-shirt.  I don't remember what Bob said, but the battle was
joined.

  "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the
  rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this
  darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the
  heavenly places" [2]

You know it wouldn't be so bad to be sitting the door of a christian
music outreach and have to deal with two athiest, homosexuals (their
labels not mine) who could durn near recite the dead sea scrolls
backwards, but a half hour earlier (Bob had split off alone looking
for his appointment with destiny) and I was up to my armpits in neo-nazis
complete with iron cross and full of support for apartied.  Three of
them actually left the park and came back to Street Cry ... must have
stayed a good ten minutes :-)

What am I driving at?  What Rec.Martial-Arts thread am I addressing?
The question comes up, what about gays in the dojang and we fall all
over ourselves either demeaning them or striving to be ever so politically
correct (though we won't admit to either I'm sure).  

I don't have anything against a person who is a homosexual, any more than
I have anything against a person who is a neo-nazi or a person who deals
drugs, the people are just fine with me, but I am very concerned about
the behavior.

  "Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded
  the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter; and
  they called to Lot and said to him, where are the men who came to you
  tonight?  Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them."[3]


Before you jump to your keyboard to royally flame me, and rise to
the defense of homosexuality, think carefully about the side you
are choosing.  You want to talk about flaming, these folk in Sodom
really got FLAMED!

  "Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the
  kingdom of God?  do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor
  idolators, nor adulterers, nor effminate, nor homosexuals"


So what exactly is my point?
  "Let no one deceive you, for it will not come unless apostasy comes
  first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction"[4]

  "And you know what restrains him now so that in his time he may be
  revealed.  For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only
  he who now restrains will do so untill he is taken out of the
  way" [5]

My point is this.  The two men who came to Street Cry were pretty
powerful.  If you are discerning, you can feel the bonds being
loosened.  I just found out Soon the faithful will be taken
from you and there will be no restraint at all.  It will be 100%
permissable to have homosexuals in the dojang an neo nazis in the
parks.  Soon after this though, it is going to get a bit rough.
Stephen King's writings will seem like a bedtime story.

What is to come is inevitable, but as lawlessness increases we
accelerate the pace of events *** my opinion ***.

I removed some words from the first quotation.  They say that though
the atheletes in the games compete for a perishable wreath, we
run our race for in imperishable one.  That is the good news, Christians
don't have to (read shouldn't) lead a boring, unhappy, uneventful life.
Good clean fun, is *fun*, rejoicing is great!  If I run my race well, then
I get perma-rejoicing.  You know, I really believe that if I have eternity
to practice in God's doj*, I can finally work the kinks out of my turning
kicks :-)

SUMMATION (finally):
It should not be hard to realize that "traditional" values are fading
fast.  Family values are being tossed around by both political parties
and in such a way that it is a mockery.  I just found out by accident that
there is/was a hot thread in misc.kids about how to let your kids grow
up accepting witches, ARRRRGG.  The word I use for what is going on in
usenet and the world is apostasy, and this is a *BAD* thing. 

I think that what is begining is an age of spiritual warfare, which will
spill over into the carnal.  No amount of training in kata and knife will
prepare me for this except by that which has helped to strengthen my spirit,
but that I nothing I can do on my own will amount to a hill of beans.

I know that I am a sinner and am unworthy to be a warrior for the Lord.
My ONLY chance is to pray the sinners prayer: Lord I know that I have
sinned, I believe that you came to earth incarnate, died for my sins and
arose in three days defeating sin and death.  I ask you Jesus to come
into my heart, forgive me for my sins, and intercede on my behalf before
God.

I also believe that no matter what I have done (and I assure you I have
been very bad) or what you have done, it isn't too late for us to pray
this prayer.

Finally, I thank you for your time and bandwidth.  Stephen Northctt.

1 1 Cor. 24 -27
2 Eph 6:12
3 Gen 19:4,5
4 2 Thess 2:3
5 2 Thess 2: 7,8 
===================================================================