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Church attendance in the United Kingdom has dwindled in the recent past, and the religious institutions have been pressed to get creative with their evangelism as the Church in the northern English town of Shipley seems to have fashioned a way to blend belief with…Read More
Kingdom Wrestling at the St. Peter’s Anglican in Sipley, England. (AP)
A 37-year-old Shipley resident, Gareth Thompson, who claims wrestling and Jesus to be the two saving graces of his life, seems to have fashioned a way to blend the two in the town up north in England with St. Peter’s Anglican. Thompson believes that the characters and compiled morality storylines of pro wrestling sit seamlessly with a Christian message.
“Boil it down to the basics, it’s good versus evil,” he said
“When I became Christian, I started seeing the wrestling world through a Christian lens. I started seeing David and Goliath. I started seeing Cain and Abel. I started seeing Esau having his heritage stolen from him. And I’m like, ‘We could tell these stories.’”
Church attendance in the United Kingdom has dwindled in the recent past, and the religious institutions have been pressed to get creative with their evangelism, as reverend Natasha Thomas, the priest in charge at St. Peter’s revealed when quizzed about her rationale to permit ‘Kingdom Wrestling’ in the premises.
“You’ve got to take a few risks,” said the reverend.
I wasn’t entirely sure what it was I was letting myself in for” she added.
“It’s not church as you would know it. It’s certainly not for everyone,” she continued.
“But it’s bringing in a different group of people, a different community, than we would normally get,” Thomas stated.
Thompson pulled parallels between wrestling and religion as he stressed on the factors of immersion and suspension of disbelief in an attempt to experience something surreal.
“People say, ‘Oh, wrestling and Christianity, they’re two fake things in a fake world of their own existence,’” he said.
“If you don’t believe in it, of course you will think that of it. But my own personal experience of my Christian faith is that it is alive and living, and it is true. The wrestling world, if you really believe in it, you believe that it’s true and you can suspend your disbelief.
“You suspend it because you want to get lost in it. You want to believe in it. You want to hope for it,” Thompson added.
- Location :
United Kingdom (UK)
