The Bible and Professional Wrestling, and how to Approach them

[People rush way too much to attend to trivial matters while they hesitate to act on the things that are actually pressing.]

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            Chances are I’m a pretty bizarre dude.  Please don’t think sexual; that’s not what I’m talking about.  I put the water in my mouth before taking a pill, instead of the other way around.  I’ve been known to rock a Civil-War era pair of mutton chops.  I prefer to wear a crew neck sweatshirt over top a flannel, as opposed to the analogous dress shirt-sweater combo.  But to my knowledge, I don’t take much heat for that stuff.  Rather, the least understood things about me might be my faith and my love of professional wrestling.  I’m not sure if any other human in the history of mankind has ever (or would have) made this marriage of concepts, but I promise a connection—however tenuous. 

DISCLAIMER: This is not in any way what I believe about the “Rapture.” Jesus would in fact beat Macho Man in a wrestling match. Yes, even Macho Man.

            I recently attended a youth ministry discussion about Faith and Doubt—the undeniable fact that all Christians have doubts about what appears in the Bible and how we deal with these concerns.  People are constantly tempted to label all Christians as anti-big bang, anti-evolution, anti-gay.  Well I once was a physics major, I’m now a biology major, and I simply don’t have a problem with gay marriage.  I have resolved all these apparent contradictions because such beliefs are determined by how you view the Bible: do you see it as the words of God, or the Word or God?  In other words, how literally do you take the Bible?  I tend not to think of it as a textbook, so I don’t get my science from there.  Nor do I think of it as an unblemished, perfectly translated account of historical events, so I am cautious before I take it literally.  The Bible may not be a textbook, but it is meant to teach.  And when we learn from a piece of literature or a movie, we don’t look at specific scenes or chapters without considering the overall message, certain themes, and historical context.  Am I labeling the Bible as fiction?  No, but I am suggesting that the way we study other forms of art and media can be applied to one’s faith.  In the end, it’s all meant to express and to learn. 

            Now I never thought I’d have to work harder to defend anything other than my belief in Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, but here I am trying to sell you professional wrestling.  Just as much as the Bible is about learning how to live a loving and disciplined life, professional wrestling is about enjoyment.  People get so caught up in whether or not it’s “real” that they forget the whole point.  Ever since the feud with the World Wildlife Fund, we’ve known it as the WWE—or World Wrestling Entertainment.  First and foremost, it is entertainment. 

Heel move by the World Wildlife Fund

[Allow a slight digression here, because everyone asks me this question: “But it’s not real, is it?”  Well that’s a hard question to answer.  It is not real in the sense that the results of matches are scripted.  It is real in the sense that they really do get slammed on their backs, hit with metal chairs, and fall from many, many feet in the air.  You can’t avoid these things; physics doesn’t care about entertainment.  Wrestlers break bones, tear muscles, and on the rarest occasions, even die.  Many of them have worse post-career lives than professional football or baseball players.  Please do not assume that what they do is easy or painless.]

Anyway, if you have a problem with fighting mixed with soap opera-esque plotlines, then you have every right to hate on pro wrestling (even though it is America’s only self-developed form of theater).  But if you are against it on the premise that much of it is staged, please consider this analogy.  When you walk out of a movie like Inception or Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, do you complain to your friends, “Man, that story was so fake, that fight scene would never happen in real life”? 

You can tell those Oliphants are fake; this is dumb.

I’d like to think not, because you know that movie isn’t meant to be some realistic depiction of life.  It’s fiction, and we all know it, but we enjoy it because we view it as entertainment.  That’s essentially what professional wrestling is to me: a series of action-packed fight scenes, except the players are charged with doing these extremely impressive stunts live.

            So if those aren’t the reasons why people find fault with Christianity and professional wrestling, then I don’t know what they are.  But it seems to me that the critics of such lifestyles would rather see them in a way that makes them easy to reject or ridicule.  Those who have beef with the Bible don’t want to see it as a giant metaphorical teaching because the literal interpretation is the only thing they have a problem with.  If they acknowledged a more liberal view of the Bible, then they might just have to become a Christian or be a hypocrite.  And those who have beef with professional wrestling don’t want to see it as entertainment.  If they can’t maintain the illusion that its writers are trying to fool us with a “real” show, then nothing separates it from the sports and movies they love.  Christianity and professional wrestling: I see them as suffering from similar forms of criticism.  People try to ascribe to them purposes that their creators never intended.  You don’t have to believe and enjoy the same things that I do, but I do ask that you truly understand why I love them so.

 

Photo Credits:

Macho Man: http://www.rantsreviewsrock.com/2011/05/well-not-what-everyone-was-expecting.html

Pandas: http://perfectpandas.com/2010/07/02/wwf-panda/

Oliphants: http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Mumakil

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