Later, a few matches after the devil got knocked out, the pastor of the “Wrestling for Jesus” ministry, took center stage of the community center gym and preached.
“If you don't have peace in your heart, when are you going to get it?” said Steve Vaughn, who also doubled as the event's emcee. “There's a bigger plan, a greater scale someone who's greater than you. When are you going to finally get real with God?”
His question begs another: Can professional-style wrestling really be the next frontier for Christian outreach?
Small bands of masked evangelists, clad in tights and armed with biblical names, argue it is and bring their message into the squared circle almost every week. The violence and intensity of wrestling, they claim, can be the perfect way to attract the alternative, younger crowd.
“I'm not going to sit here and listen to a shirt-and-tie preacher. But I might listen to a guy in spandex because he's like me,” said Timothy “T-Money” Blackmon, who wears tight black shorts with a “T” on one buttocks and a dollar sign on the other.
The group he owns, Wrestling for Jesus, based in nearby Beech Island, S.C., has a core of a dozen wrestlers who perform in community centers, churches, neighborhood festivals and anywhere else that books them. Started in 2003, the group travels to as many as 50 shows each year, most attracting no more than 100 curious fans.
I just have no idea how anybody takes this religion seriously anymore.
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Don't feed the trolls!
It just goes directly to their thighs.