Christian Kenpo Schools
- Thread starter Kenpsy7
- Start date
What is a "Christ centered" kenpo school? I have never heard of such a thing. I thought kenpo was a "killing art".
ArmorOfGod
Senior Master
Here is something that may interest you: http://www.kenpokarateforchrist.com/
Check out their belt requirements. They are a school within Karate For Christ, which I am a member of.
I teach a style that has its roots in Kempo, but is mixed with other styles, so calling it Kempo would be wrong. Still, I am a certied instructor from Karate For Christ International, so I freely share my faith in my class. I have a seperate curriculum for a karate class that would be taught out of a church, but I got the local rec center before I got a chance to teach in my church's gym, so I am using the standard curriculum.
AoG
Check out their belt requirements. They are a school within Karate For Christ, which I am a member of.
I teach a style that has its roots in Kempo, but is mixed with other styles, so calling it Kempo would be wrong. Still, I am a certied instructor from Karate For Christ International, so I freely share my faith in my class. I have a seperate curriculum for a karate class that would be taught out of a church, but I got the local rec center before I got a chance to teach in my church's gym, so I am using the standard curriculum.
AoG
ArmorOfGod
Senior Master
No martial art is a "killing art," particularly Kempo. Kempo is a self-DEFENSE system, not an assasin style.
Plus, Kempo is such a beautiful and unique style that I would have problems calling it something as brutal as a killing art.
AoG
Ray
Master Black Belt
I try to live a Christ-centered life.
My kenpo school is a kenpo-centered school and its purpose is to teach kenpo. My students know that I am a believer and I am prepared to answer any (religious or otherwise) question they have but, I do not use the school as a proslytizing (sp?) tool.
Kembudo-Kai Kempoka
Senior Master
This logic makes me nervous, and is potentially dangerous. One of my more technically influential early instructors on my kenpo journey taught, specifically, for the purpose of creating a guerilla warfare unit to maintain a state of preparedness against the upcoming forces of the anti-christ. Our focus was on "killer kenpo", along with resistance-level low-tech weaponry, akin to survivalists cookbook stuff. We started and closed each class in prayer. Techniques were modified and grafted along the logic lines of defending surviving evangelists from SS-type forces predicted by absurd end-of-the-world christian authors.
Although a club can be whatever it wants, I like the idea of keeping philosophy, spirituality and religion OFF the mat. Too much room for the insanity of unbalanced minds once they've merged. I live a deeply examined, rich spiritual life, the crux of which I'd be glad to share with anyone who asks. Up to that point, however, kenpo is about concepts, theory, and mechanical application. Not church.
My own thoughts.
Dave
Brian Jones
Blue Belt
I see where you are coming from but I don't know that I completley agree. I don't think you can keep your faith or philosophy off the Mat. And I don't know that you should. There is nothing wrong with having a "faith based" School, as long as you are being upfront with your perspective students. If you say to them, this is what we are about, then fine. But if you are doing a bit of a "bait and switch" (Hey I am teaching Kenpo, but my real purpose is to bring you to Christ) then I have a problem.
Brian Jones
Brian Jones
ArmorOfGod
Senior Master
How would a "Islam Kenpo" or "Pagan Christian" school go over? would your views of it be any different?
IWishToLearn
3rd Black Belt
I'm an Agnostic - and I teach Agnostic Kenpo. 
Flying Crane
Sr. Grandmaster
Actually, I would have to disagree.
Back in the day, even just a couple generations ago, in certain parts of the world where the martial arts that we practice today, including kenpo, have their roots, martial arts was a deadly endeavor. They were considered a true line of defense against bandits and ruffians in a time when the local police force and legal system could not be counted on to protect the individual. So the individual took it upon himself to protect himself and his family and friends and village. The arts at that time were most definitely for killing: quickly, efficiently, and repeatedly if need be.
This notion of the martial arts being purely defensive, and then only using enough force to subdue an attacker and then escape, is a product of our modern society with a trustworthy police force and complex legal system. We now have the leisure and freedom to act with less finality in a fight. We can choose to not kill someone if we don't want to. But that was not always the case in the past, when the choice to not kill might very well mean that you were killed instead and there would be no help from the police or the county prosecutor.
Also, this notion that the arts are about self-betterment and whatnot is also a product of our modern, safer world. We have the freedom to contemplate things like self-betterment, meditation, using the arts as a spiritual endeavor, etc, because we have less real need to hone our skills for real killing.
bushidomartialarts
Senior Master
we have a 'christian kenpo' school in our neck of the woods. i've watched their adult students act pretty poorly at tournaments, though i'm certain there are those who don't.
their website is pretty spooky, too. the instructor goes on for pages talking about how he's not worshiping idols or allowing demons into his soul. and - get this - how martial arts were actually invented by Abraham and taught to his army.
i know many (many! many!) christians who practice martial arts and are fantastic practitioners and good people. but this guy appears to be something of a whack job.
their website is pretty spooky, too. the instructor goes on for pages talking about how he's not worshiping idols or allowing demons into his soul. and - get this - how martial arts were actually invented by Abraham and taught to his army.
i know many (many! many!) christians who practice martial arts and are fantastic practitioners and good people. but this guy appears to be something of a whack job.
Pagan Christian is a bit of an oxymoron. I think you meant Pagan Kenpo?
On to your point... I don't think people have problems with Buddhist principles being taught or Zen type meditation being practiced. I hold these are fundamentally religious. I don't hear an uproar from most students. I think people that would have an issue with Christian schools would have the same issue with Islamic/Pagan schools. Now, Islamic would be a bit different, considering the current political climate, but I'd be just as scared of Christain looneys teaching students how to kill abortion doctors/nurses.
bushidomartialarts
Senior Master
I think that's the crux of why many Christians have trouble with the martial arts, and it's really in many ways a misconception.
The meditation taught in most schools is fundamentally no different from many Christian meditations: breathing prayers, the Rosary, labrynth walking for instance produce the same effect in the brain and accomplish the same tasks.
Language barriers can sometimes be quite limiting, but it's often helpful to understand Zen as a philosophy rather than a religion.
Ray
Master Black Belt
I happen to have a book written by a Japanese man, head of a Japanese style, that says Moses, Christ and Abraham visited Japan for instruction (as I recall, it says Moses learned how to use the staff and Jesus learned philosophy in Japan).
Of course this has nothing to do with the subject of the thread.
bushidomartialarts
Senior Master
Flying Crane
Sr. Grandmaster
Actually, there is a Chinese Islamic Longfist style. In certain areas of China there are large Muslim populations. Generally it just means that this is the art practiced by the people in that area, who are predominantly Muslim. But in Asia, I don't believe the religion, per se, is taught alongside the art. I think the "creep factor", if you will, enters in when somebody tries to use their art as a vehicle to promote their religion. Obviously, people of all kinds of religions practice martial arts. It's just when they get used as an evangelical tool, regardless of the religion being promoted, that I think they get a bit wacked out and creepy.
If someone is a religious individual and they try to instill honorable behavior in their teaching of the martial art, there is certainly nothing wrong with that. But like someone earlier commented, if they are using a bait and switch to get you into their school and suddenly start pushing their religion on you unexpectedly and unwelcomed, they have crossed a line. People of a like mind can certainly join together and mix elements of their religion with their martial arts training and that is OK, because everyone is there for that reason. But it should be openly understood by everyone entering into that kind of training.
as far as trying to trace martial arts origins back to the Bible and whatnot, that's just silly. Obviously people have been fighting each other and making war upon each other since we first climbed down from the trees. All cultures had some form of fighting systems that they used. Many of these systems have been lost to the ages, and you cannot trace those specific methods as the ancestors of today's arts.
I may be out of my element but when I learned judo we were not allowed to wear jewelry of any kind.....watch, necklace, etc. No religious medallions or cross/crucifix. In hapkido and tae kwon do it is the same from my experience.
You are there to learn an art not chit chat so that is why it was always dobok, belt and practitioners....period.
Just a thought.
You are there to learn an art not chit chat so that is why it was always dobok, belt and practitioners....period.
Just a thought.
