Christian wrestlers fight for Bible Belt

Christian wrestlers fight for Bible Belt
By Karyn Miller in Winterville, Georgia
(Filed: 29/01/2006)

Like many American preachers, Rob Adonis delivers his sermons bathed in sweat, passion and a spotlight. He is, however, probably the only one who spreads the word while wearing a purple leotard decked out with Spandex crosses. As the 300lb, 6ft 4in professional wrestler puts it, he "wrestles for the Word".

Ultimate Christian Wrestling, the ministry he founded in 2003, tours churches and venues around the South, in what is - even by the Bible Belt's standards - an unorthodox drive to win converts.


Ultimate Christian Wrestlers pray together before an event
Its matches feature traditional pro-wrestling moves such as headlocks and body slams, coupled with themes and stories from the Bible. Its mission is to "minister the Gospel of Christ to the Lost and to see lost souls saved".

Despite fierce competition from traditional churches, it has taken off in the Southern states where pro-wrestling is popular entertainment and the battle for believers' souls shows no signs of letting up.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/01/29/wwrestle29.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/01/29/ixworld.html

nt

JESUS CHRIST, does anyone have a problem with a true blue democrat believing in ANY religion they like or should they lock-step like the religion bashers? what do you think patrice?

for outreach. It does seem to stop at the glitz though and there is nothing but a hollow shell.

Is that I've seen decades worth of Arbitrons, Nielsen Reports and other studies... Wrestling is at least as popular in the Mid-West as it is ANYWHERE in the country... In Nebraska wreastling rules! It's the same in rural areas of nieghboring states.

Sit down in a quite corner.

Take in a deep breath and ask yourself if you are living a life of love, tolerance and understanding.

That's it.

Not complicated.

gay - or hiding from themselves the fact that they are?

Why else would they choose a "sport" that gets them so close up to, sweaty and personal with other men?

that much is true.

all the gay people I know are smarter than that!

:rofl:

many of these postings are extremely bigoted... it's as bad as the reich-wing down south in Alabama where I live... Just for the record, I've never even heard of this crap "sweeping the south" as an obviously British article claims... this all looks like a feeble attempt to bash several general groups based on nothing but narrow-mindedness

not really.

I've always thought there was a lot of repressed sexuality in "wrestling".

It's a very heterosexual business. A few gay wrestlers, but not more than is in the general population.

I'm thinking "repressed". . .

B-)

business. I guess I could say people who see gay people in everything is repressed.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

You might have heard of it.

Apologies to any gay friends who might be offended by that. No intellectual stimuli, but if sweaty mens in tiny spandex who like to sit on the face of other men in an aggressive manner floats your boat...

Just my opinion as a sexually indifferent female.

home town "Whut part the north you frum with that accent?" I tell them I was born in this town, and they tell me that I "don tawk like it."

Especially since I live in Alabama but at least I don't talk generally of "northerners," "southerners" "Christians" or "gays." It's morally reprehensible to me. It's like being bigoted in a sense. Do you see it renie? Now if you lived down here and went out registeing voters door to door in Alabama, I'd say you do well to be cautious but I don't think you live down south.

"The Pile-Driver on the Mount."

Connecting it to Jeebus ain't far off.

I wonder if their special moves have evangelist religious flare to them...like a "Rapture Ready Elbow Drop" or a "Crown of Thorns Clutch"

Are they somehow superior? I see that phrase a lot and think racism on display....

flip the channels and pass any Rasslin' show I usually see an abundance of lighter skinned looking cretins.

thanks for showing how a true blue handles such matters.

Anybody ever wondered how many upstanding Christian and 'proper' girls are in the 'Girls Gone Wild' videos? I always grin at their commercials, because I think of a 'fine upstanding member of the community' secretly ordering the videos, only to discover his daughter in it.

those girls are the next leaders and wives of leaders. Remember most of them come from the elitist section of town.

""We have given away cars as an outreach initiative. We have given away 10,000lb of groceries from a truck in our parking lot. But the wrestling has added more people to our congregation than any of these projects. It gets the largest crowds, and it keeps them still for long enough to share.""

"As they prepared to go on, 14 of the wrestlers - who go by such soubriquets as "God's Property" and "Damien Synn"- gathered in their changing room and prayed before an 8ft wooden cross. The same cross doubles as a ringside prop, with a wrestler dressed as a bloodied Jesus suspended from it for dramatic effect."

Giving away cars to get "converts"? Having a food drive just at the parking lot and not taking it to a central distribution location?

Also that cross, which is also a "prop". That really cheapens things.

But the show must go on. :(

or perhaps Clinton? These people are sick...

"Actually, we're more violent than secular wrestlers because we don't seem to feel it like they do. The bumps and bruises that we take in the ring - I think God takes them and puts them on His own back."

...where two sweaty guys in leotards writhe about on a mat, groping and grunting to work out their frustrated attraction to one another.

of a fake "sport." What part of the Gospels is being affirmed here?
Faith doesn't bother me; it's the shoddiness of this sort of gesture that depresses me. The sheer mediocrity of the notion and everyone involved in it makes me shake my head.

I am glad I am not the only one bothered by this.

That's what Jesus said Christians must do to follow him. I think these guys are only Cashtains practicing Bushism, the sickest religion ever invented. Give it up rich wrestlers! If these great spiritual leaders can't quite put their heart around that message I understand, it's a hard one for me personally... OIC I bet they're like me and at least support a political party interested in helping the poor, sick and elderly while making sure the working person is treated fairly by companies when it comes to safety and pay.

The story of the rich young ruler. If you need silly stuff like wrestling to bring people to Jesus maybe they don't really believe in the first place. The story of Jesus and what he's really about should touch your heart and if it doesn't than it's not what you believe in like with the story of Lydia. She was a woman who heard one of the apostles and her heart was open to what this apostle was saying and she believed. The apostles didn't need to use wrestling or miracles or various things like that.

Inquiring minds...

:D

:rofl:

sorry, I couldn't help it...the whole thing sounds so dorky...
:rofl:

I couldn't ever imagine my churches preacher wearing an outfit like Hulk Hogan. :crazy: