My Dojo Is Becoming Infected

[Tez3]

The demon bit got me too. As a very definite non Christian does that mean everything outside Christianity is demonised too?

 

[Cirdan]

They must have been granted some infernal powers in this demon worshipping Dojo. I want to know what they were!

 

[Bruno@MT]

The demon bit got me too. As a very definite non Christian does that mean everything outside Christianity is demonised too?

The demon bit was a bit over the top, and imo the sign of a fundamentalist.
He says everybody is welcome, but if they equate all non-christian influences as 'demonic', I don't think they'd feel welcome at all.

 

[Ken Morgan]

Religious faith is not is not like a jacket you put on everyday when you go out, though there are those that treat it so, it is something that you wrap yourself in 24/7. That being said if the subtlety of the eastern traditions you are exposed to at MA is that great of a threat to your beliefs, perhaps your beliefs weren’t as strong as you believed them to be to begin with. Perhaps that says something about the validity of your own convictions?

You can’t catch homosexuality from dealing with a gay person, you can’t be infected with veganism by talking with a vegan, nor can you contract atheism or buddhism by being around atheism or buddhism.

It’s a free country you live in, believe as you wish, run your business as you wish, live your life as you wish, but I for one see serious flaws in the logic you use to build the bricks in your world.

 

[Bruno@MT]

I can respect people standing by their principles. But what I find odd is that the 'demonic' stuff was not a problem for the 20 or so years it took to him to become a shihan, and it didn't bother him when he took the godan test.

Only after he becomes a shihan, that is the moment where he 'really can't put up anymore' (what a coincidence) and creates 'Christian Ninjutsu' where all people are 'welcome', as long as they don't mind being told that they're involved with 'demonic stuff' if they're not into Christianity but into e.g. shinto or buddhism.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

I take high doses of "anti-cootie" shots when dealing with different faiths. So far, they seem to have worked, in that no lightning bolts, locust plagues, of tentacled evils have shown up and sited me. Not too sure about all this snow though....haven't figured out which faith has a white cold hell.

 

[Blade96]

i can has anti cootie recipe bob?

 

[Cirdan]

You need to make friends with the norse gods my friend. Here, have some raw horse meat.

I take high doses of "anti-cootie" shots when dealing with different faiths. So far, they seem to have worked, in that no lightning bolts, locust plagues, of tentacled evils have shown up and sited me. Not too sure about all this snow though....haven't figured out which faith has a white cold hell.

 

[Bob Hubbard]

i can has anti cootie recipe bob?

It's the same recipe preteen boys use to keep girl cooties away, and vise versa.

 

[Cirdan]

It's the same recipe preteen boys use to keep girl cooties away, and vise versa.

Now that explains why it works on the other wuss gods, but not Odin, Thor and Freya.

 

[Blade96]

It's the same recipe preteen boys use to keep girl cooties away, and vise versa.

Okey dokeys.

 

[Aiki Lee]

...haven't figured out which faith has a white cold hell.

In Dante's Inferno, the 9th circle of hell is a frozen wasteland where traitors go. Lucifer himself is stuck in a giant block of ice.

...of course that's not really what the cannoncal concept of hell is in christianity.

 

[Tez3]

Now that explains why it works on the other wuss gods, but not Odin, Thor and Freya.

They still lurk around where I live , it was a big Viking settlement here. York used to be Jorvik and sixty per cent of the place names here are Norse as are many of the local dialect words but most of all you should see the locals all big, strapping blondes (and that's just the women)

 

[Bruno@MT]

My kids were baptized old style, by a druid. A real one. Belgium's only one for that matter.
It was a beautiful ceremony.

I did the test and if Dante was right, I go to limbo, the place of the virtuous unbelievers.
I am still hoping that the pagan stuff is right though. I look quite forward to an afterlife of fighting, feasting, and fornication with red headed valkyries

 

[Balrog]

By the Christian virus.
Now, I am a Christian, albeit a non practicing one, and I've never had anything against the fact that my Sensei is ALSO a minister who runs his own church (which most of the people at my dojo attend.) That was, however, until he made the announcement that we would now be assigned patches that had the kanji for "Army of the Cross" or an eagle with a cross infront of it.

Back to the OP from two years ago. Someone sent me this in an email a while back. It sounds harsh at first, but then the truth usually is. Once you read it a couple of times, it's amazing how much basic common sense is in it. It sounds like you need to share it with your instructor.

Warning - a lot of people will probably find this offensive, so I'm spoilering it with extra lines so that it doesn't show immediately:

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Having a religion is like having a penis. You can be as proud of it as you want to be, but don't wave it around in public and don't try to shove it down other people's throats.

 

[Archangel M]

This is a private enterprise...not a governmental one. Live with it or leave and find a dojo that pleases you.

On a separate topic. I find Westerns who adhere to Eastern philosophies/religions as part of their martial art sort of silly/pretentious/fantasy fulfillment. IMO many martial fantasist's "put on" the eastern religion like they do a Gi.

 

[Bruno@MT]

This is a private enterprise...not a governmental one. Live with it or leave and find a dojo that pleases you.

On a separate topic. I find Westerns who adhere to Eastern philosophies/religions as part of their martial art sort of silly/pretentious/fantasy fulfillment. IMO many martial fantasist's "put on" the eastern religion like they do a Gi.

You have a good point.

But in traditional Japanese arts, shinto or buddhism is often part of the underlying concepts that define the art. Ripping that out actually detracts from the arts because you lose part of the philosophy that helps you put things into their context. Those parts are in there not for the religious experience. This is what westerners sometimes fail to accept.

Regardless of my own personal beliefs, I make no problems about those elements because I don't have to believe in them. I just have to know about them and understand what they mean in that given context.

 

[Archangel M]

If you want to subscribe to the "absorbing the culture" of your art I guess thats fine. But IMO I still think that a large chunk of that crowd are "Orientalophiles" who are looking for some sort of fulfillment out of being "different" and subscribing to the exotic simply to set themselves apart.

My .02 YMMV.

 

[Kacey]

If you want to subscribe to the "absorbing the culture" of your art I guess thats fine. But IMO I still think that a large chunk of that crowd are "Orientalophiles" who are looking for some sort of fulfillment out of being "different" and subscribing to the exotic simply to set themselves apart.

My .02 YMMV.

There's that... there are also a lot of people who get into a martial art, discover they like it, and want to immerse themselves into their new obsession. Some of them maintain it for the long run - but most just subsume those parts that suit them into their world view and move on.

 

[Makalakumu]

And many concepts in Oriental religions are cool. I can dig it and if you don't want to, I'm okay with that.