Debunking Myths about Martial Arts with Dr. Kent Haralson S5 EP#192

The martial arts originally did not come from China or Japan or Korea or Okinawa.

It can be traced back into India. It can be traced back into the Middle East. It can be traced back into Rome, Greek, Egyptian. The actual foundation of the original martial arts was anything other than Oriental Spiritism or the occult. Welcome to the Unconventional Ministry Podcast, where we spotlight creative, unique, and unconventional approaches to ministry. I'm your host, Dennis Wiens, the Senior Impact Catalyst with Sat7USA.

Today we're talking about something you probably don't associate with ministry, martial arts. My guest today is Dr. Kent Harrelson. Dr. Harrelson has spent decades merging biblical truth with martial arts training, discipling students through discipline, skill, and scripture. He's also the co-founder emeritus of Gospel Martial Arts Union. He's a 10th degree black belt, and that is the highest ranking and considered an impressive achievement. Dr. Harrelson worked for IBM for 17 years.

He has a master's in computer and information science from the Ohio State. He came to Christ at age 30, and he left the corporate world for full-time ministry, and he's been serving as a pastor in various places for the last 39 years. He earned a doctorate of ministry from Anchor Theological Seminary, and he's the author of multiple books, including Martial Arts. A Christian Perspective, and Philosophy. So, Dr. Harrelson, welcome to the Unconventional Ministry podcast.

Well, thank you, Dennis. It's a pleasure to be with you this morning. You know, this is really unconventional ministry approach, and I'm excited for our conversation. So let's start with, for our podcast listeners, when we talk about martial arts, what are we talking about? When I was growing up, there would have been Kung Fu, right, with David Carradine.

And that was what formulated the view of many people, or perhaps they would watch Jackie Chan movies, which is very intriguing and interesting. But the martial arts is a term that encompasses a variety of styles. Taekwondo would be a very familiar one. Tai, the hand, kwan, the foot. Do, the way of the hand and foot. That would have come out of Korea. Jiu-jitsu is another one, which has lock and restraint techniques.

Karate would be a familiar term out of Japan. Kara, hand, te, the way of the hand. So they focus more on the hand techniques. Aukido would be a modern one coming out of Korea, which is very similar to taekwondo. Judo is a technique of throwing individuals and rolling. Aikido is taking the opponent's momentum and energy and turning it against them. Aitemi is another one, which is the use of activating pressure points on the body to cause compliance by an individual.

So all of those would be clumped together in what we would consider the martial arts. So our podcast listeners, they might be in one of the disciplines, but today we're kind of going to use just martial arts to be all encompassing for these different disciplines within martial arts.

And you combine ministry and martial arts in a unique way. How did these two worlds come together for you? Very interesting. Growing up, I was not that physically gifted. Didn't do any sports in high school, nor in college. Then when I started my career with IBM, the IBM local country club had an activity called Taekwondo once a week at night. And I just said, well, that's interesting. I will go and attend that.

So I attended that for a period of three years, tested up all the way through, and earned my black belt there from a name, Duk-Sung Sun, the World Taekwondo Association, from Korea. And that got me started with that. Shortly after that, I transferred with IBM from location in New York to location in Rochester, Minnesota. I said, well, this is interesting. I now have my black belt. I will open up a dojo. So I rented a place and advertised it and ended up with several students.

I started teaching those students taekwondo. I got several up to the position of brown, almost black belt, when I had an occurrence in my life.

Basically, I already mentioned that I come to Jesus moment. I got saved, which caused me then to question, can I even use this thing called the martial arts as a Christian? So I took a sabbatical. I closed the school, and I said, what am I going to do with this? I came across a man named Dr. Clement Riedner, who was a graduate of a fundamental Bible College in southeastern U.S. He had a martial arts ministry, and it was also a part of that Bible college.

He said, if that Bible college allows a martial arts program, there's got to be something to it. So I interviewed him, and I started reading. Eventually, my library grew to about 80 different books on the martial arts. And I said, okay, if I'm going to do the martial arts, I'm going to start doing it the right way. True martial arts has got to have a spiritual foundation to function and operate. And upon that, you can build the mental and physical characteristics.

So I got to work and I started digging through all the books that I was reading. I went to the pastor of my church, and I said, I would like to start a martial arts class in our church. And I got the typical response, now this would be back in the 1980s, this, are you sure? This doesn't sound kosher. This doesn't sound like something Christians can do. So I walked him through what we would be doing and why it would be acceptable. Okay, he said, I'll take it to the deacons.

He finally got tepid approval from the deacons, and we started a class in our church, which eventually grew to be 40 to 50 students, and it had a very solid biblical spiritual foundation. Upon that, we built a variety of mental and physical techniques going with it.

So interesting. I'm sure we have some podcast people on listening, and if you go into the local churches, as you've already insinuated, Christians are cautious about martial arts because of its Eastern religious origins or assumed Eastern religious origins. How do you respond to these concerns that our podcast listeners have about martial arts? Good job, Dennis. You'd be a good newscaster. You used the word assumed, just like people have to say the alleged perpetrator,

even though everyone sees the video. Right. So let's run with that. There are three major objections to the use of the martial arts. And I address each one of those in the book that you referenced. Let's take them one at a time. The first is that it promotes violence. And it's actually the opposite of that. A person that is prone to violence is somebody that does not have the tools to deal with confrontation.

A person that is easily offended, whereas the Bible says, you know, great peace have they the love of the Lord and nothing shall offend them. So if you know how to disarm a situation verbally, mentally, if you have the tools where you know you could defend yourself if you had to, you're going to be more prone to avoiding that. So we teach students actually in our classes what I call mind-leading techniques.

Familiar one to our listeners that have got a Bible background, you can think of David in 1 Samuel 21 when he was brought before the king of Gath. And they said, oh, this is David. Let's kill this guy. He's our enemy. And David, if you recall, pretended to be a madman with a spill running down his cheeks and clawing the walls. The king said, this can't be the king. Get rid of this dude. And so David escaped. He used mind-leading techniques.

So the martialist does not promote violence. It actually prohibits violence and gives you the tools to avoid that. Second major objection is connected to Oriental Spiritism and the occult. If you were to study under an Oriental system, especially. 50, 60, 70 years ago. Yes, that would be true because most oriental systems were originated from a man named Bodhidharma in the 6th century that came into China.

And he started teaching his students the Buddhism and he found them to be extremely weak and unable to stay awake and be engaged in his discussions. So he developed a series of rigorous techniques, physical techniques. So that they'd be in good shape, so that they could listen. So, yes, they were, but if you were to go to commercial soldiers in the U.S. Right now, that's not even there, aside from maybe they might have a couple idols setting up on the platform somewhere.

But the martial arts originally, and we can talk about in a few moments. Did not come from China or Japan or Korea or Okinawa. It can be traced back into India. It can be traced back into the Middle East. It can be traced back into Rome, Greek, Egyptian. The actual foundation of the original martial arts was anything other than Oriental spiritism or the occult. The third is that the Bible prohibits the use of force.

Basically, that's a misunderstanding of the concept of the turning in the other cheek. Actually, the Bible says, 1 Timothy 5, 8, that a man does not care for his own. He has denied the faith, and he's worth an infidel. So we're commanded to be able to provide and take care of our own. Romans 12, 18, if it be possible, as much lies within you, live peaceably with all men. So we are told, do whatever you can to disarm a situation.

But if necessary, then you have to disarm it. You have to protect people. So those are the three main objections. I deal with them in far more detail in the book. So I encourage our podcast listeners to check out the book that you mentioned. I'll put it in the notes of the podcast as well, where they can get it and get more information.

And along the way, you've co-founded the Gospel Martial Arts Union. And now it's in multiple different countries. But the roots go back to a clear biblical foundation. So tell us a little bit about the Gospel Martial Arts Union. After I'd been teaching in my local church, for quite a few years. I started to write some articles. I had several published in secular martial arts magazines. And as a result, I started getting other people contacting me.

And this would have been in the days when you contacted somebody by snail mail or by tracking down their phone number and calling them long distance. And I started corresponding with them. And I came across a man named Dr. Ron Tottenham, who pastored a church in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He was a Marine veteran and also a gifted martial artist. The two of us got together. He came to my church, and we held some seminars together.

And we both realized there's a vision. We aren't the only ones. We aren't like Elijah. I alone am left out here in the desert. So we decided, let's start an organization. That will allow other Christians who are interested in developing a martial arts system or school or take the school they currently have and turn it into a ministry and enable them to take their Christian beliefs. Match it in with their martial arts skill and gift, and actually use it for ministries.

So that thing started about 37 years ago, and as you said, it's grown to be quite a large national organization. Matter of fact, September 13th, We'll be having our annual conference in Dallas, Texas, where I'll be one of the featured speakers. And I encourage you to get on their website, Gospel Martial Arts Ministry, and also masterswarriors.org, where there's a lot more information.

I'll put the links in the podcast description. One thing that's very interesting to me is that the way you're using martial arts, it becomes platform, not just good fitness, but it becomes a discipline. Can you share more about that story? 1 Corinthians says, but I keep under my body and I bring into subjection. Thus, by any means I preach to others, I should be a castaway.

And so I realized that knowing all these physical techniques is nice, but if the mind does not control what the body knows how to do, then you're going to use these in the wrong way. And if the mind is not controlled by the spiritual element, you're definitely going to be using things in an improper way. So to help our students understand that, each belt level has an increasing requirements for spiritual, mental, and physical expectations. They have to memorize Bible verses.

And verses are chosen that enable you to understand how to deal with certain situations, how to be a responsible individual in society, how to take care of your body, how to approach and interface with others. To the matter of fact, by the time you get to be a black belt, you will have well over 100 verses that you've memorized.

The Bible says, If I word of I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee, So by knowing all of these verses, it prepares you for any situation that may come your way. So very, very interesting and well thought out.

Let's wrap up. How does the practice of martial arts shape a person spiritually and mentally, especially young people? So, you know, you think of all those in your class, you're really helping young people in this special discipline of martial arts and ministry. One of the books that was in my library that helped me much in that way was a book written by a man named Inazo Netobi. He wrote that in 1899, and it was titled Bushido, the Soul of Japan.

And part of that book, he laid out nine characteristics that needed to be a part of a genuine person. Justice, courage, benevolence, politeness, veracity, honor, loyalty, self-control, and morality. And I looked at that, and as well in the appendix of the book, he mentioned that he was a Christ follower. I said, all right, these characteristics are what should form the character of an individual anyhow. So that is the Bushido, Bushi, warrior, Do, the way of the warrior.

Those map into Christian characteristics as well. So every class, there is a devotional period where we studied the Bible. We look at biblical examples of how martial arts was used in the Bible, and there are ample ones of those. Abraham, taking his 318 trained servants to go track down his nephew, Lot. We look at Gideon, Judges chapter 6 and 7. I wrote a booklet called Gideon the Black Belt.

Psalm 144, verse 1, blessed be the Lord my strength, which teaches my hands to war and my fingers to fight. So we'll teach them these things as a part of the class. So there's a spiritual component to every class.

There's mental things they must learn and understand, the history, the background of the martial arts, plus a whole variety of techniques, not just how to punch and kick, but how to restrain a person, how to release yourself from grabs or holds, how to take on attacks that would come your way in such a way that it does not break bones, does not shed blood until cooler heads prevail.

So, Kent, you've really broadened my horizon. I'm sure you've broadened the horizon of our podcast listeners, and I encourage you, if you're listening to this, share it with others you know that are into the martial arts. Share it with your church. Maybe your church can start, or maybe you can help your church start, a martial arts ministry in your local area there. So, Kent, thank you for coming on the Unconventional Ministry podcast to share this unique, unconventional approach to ministry.

In the book that you referenced as well, I have an entire appendix that helps somebody go through the steps of how they could start something like this in their class. But it's also keeping in mind that Genesis said we are created in the image of God. We are triune being. We find that in 1 Thessalonians 5. May the God of peace sanctify you all, your spirit, your mind, and your body. Jesus said he grew increased in wisdom and stature, favor with God and man.

So there's this triune aspect of every single individual, whether you're involved, whatever sports you may be involved in. The beauty of the martial arts is this is something you can do on your own. This is something you can do when you're eight years old. You can do when you're 80 years old. And there's very few sports that give you that capability. So thank you for having me on. And I hope and pray that this will be a blessing to others.

So check out the book, The Martial Arts, A Christian Perspective and Philosophy, and you can get that on Amazon. Also check out their website, masterswarriors.org, and the gospelmartialartsunion.us. And you can get more information. So thank you for coming on and helping us think through martial arts. I want to thank my sponsor, Sat7USA, who is a Middle East broadcast media ministry making the gospel available to everybody in the Middle East and North Africa.

And I was checking out martial arts in the Middle East and found out that it is quite prevalent in the Middle East. So I'm interested if we've done any programs on Sat7 about martial arts and the gospel like you've been talking about. Until next time, I'm Dennis Ween. Stay bold, stay creative, and keep advancing the gospel in unconventional ways.

The Unconventional Ministry Podcast shines the spotlight on inspiring, innovative local Christians and their ministries that are making a difference in their communities and beyond. Each episode explores unique stories of faith in action from local witness and creative outreach to innovative support,

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