While Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers star and Jesus Didn’t Tap founder Jason David Frank is one of the most notable figures in the faith-based mixed martial arts community, he’s hardly alone. The new documentary Fight Church shines the holy light on a unique trend of pastors who practice MMA with their parishioners as a means of teaching people that you can beat the living crap out of a person while still feeling love for that person. It’s a message that even some of the UFC’s biggest stars believe in, as Light Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones and Lightweight No. 1 contender Benson Henderson make appearances in the documentary, which has a new trailer and will debut at the Independent Film Festival in Boston on April 24.
Meanwhile, ABC News caught up with Pastor Paul Burress, who is featured in Fight Church, and he explained that his way of delivering the message of the Lord is simply a method that reaches a new demographic, while also helping them get in better shape.
“We don’t fight out of meanness,” Burress of Trinity Church in Rochester, N.Y., told ABC News. “We have no hate or bitterness in our heart.”
Despite the critics, the pastors of “Fight Church” stand by their mission.
“We’ve been able to reach an awful lot of people that never would have walked into a normal church service before, but they’ll come over and do some fitness training or do some jiu-jitsu,” Burress said. (Via ABC News)
Hopefully this will play out better than my own faith-based fighting organization, “Thumb-Wrestling for Cthulhu,” which the United States government said “wasn’t real” and “was a front for the theft of prescription drugs from the elderly.” Whatever, haters.