Biblical Views: Punch Thy Neighbor

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Nothing says “Love thy neighbor” like a punch to the face. Christian cage fighting is a trendy new phenomenon among some evangelical churches, which are organizing teams and forming leagues. At the website jesusdidnttap.com, one can find upcoming fights, buy logo apparel and check out a gallery of fighters in action, beating their opponents into submission. In a UFC-style cage fight, men exchange brutal punches and kicks to the legs, torso or head until one or the other “taps out,” that is, begs for mercy. There is no head-butting, eye-gouging or biting, and no grabbing the other guy’s shorts. […]

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Endnotes

John Boswell, Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1980), p. 61.

Eva Keuls, The Reign of the Phallus (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), p. 13.

Lucian, De Dea Syria 61; Will Roscoe, “Priests of the Goddess: Gender Transgression in Ancient Religion,” History of Religions 35 (1996), pp. 195–230.