Mark Driscoll, the prominent West Coast mega-church minister at the helm of Mars Hill Church is getting some tough publicity for his approach to disciplining his members. But its an ill wind that blows no good as the hype brought his interesting take on MMA to my attention.

Driscoll is not only an outspoken advocate of MMA, he's also very well informed. Check this ~10,000 word piece he wrote in November. Not only does he make a case for combat sports as part of a Christian's life, he also outlines the rules, history and ethic of the sport:

Today, there remains much controversy around the sport due to what I believe are two primary reasons. One, many people simply do not understand the rules in place to help make MMA safer for the athletes. Two, it's a new sport and will take some time and the kind of exposure that main events on FOX will provide to quiet some critics.
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Some Christians will vocally declare that we must reject MMA. Sometimes it's because they simply do not understand the nature of the sport and misperceive it, and other times it's because they are pacifists theologically who don't condone violence in any form. Their picture of Jesus is basically a guy in a dress with fabulous long hair, drinking decaf and in touch with his feelings, who would never hurt anyone. The problem is that Jesus probably had short hair (1 Corinthians 11 says it was a disgrace in that day for a man to have long hair), was in good shape from a labor job and lots of walking across rugged terrain, and upon his return will come again not in humility but rather in glory.

Of course he's also got some concerns that strike me, as a non-Christian, as rather eccentric if not deeply ignorant:

Additionally, some argue that we should reject MMA because some aspects of the sport stem from Eastern religions and philosophy. Indeed, this was some of the pushback on my recent post on yoga, "Christian Yoga? It's a Stretch." To this I would agree on a certain level. I would not encourage anyone to study under a teacher who, in addition to combat techniques, was also pushing non-Christian philosophies and Eastern spirituality. As stated earlier, MMA involves a host of various combat traditions, including disciplines such as wrestling and boxing that do not have roots in Eastern religion. Further, as I stated in the yoga post, it's wholly acceptable for Christians to engage in the physical aspects of stretching, including yoga-type stretches, without engaging in the practice of yoga itself as it's been understood and practiced for thousands of years. My further caution was to not use the word yoga since it has such religious and cultural background that is antithetical to Christianity. Similarly, one can practice combat sports and learn various techniques without immersing oneself in the philosophy and culture of such activities.

More after the jump including Driscoll using quotes from prominent fighters to cement his stance...

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A few updates on what's been going on in the MMA & UFC Twitterverse

NICK DIAZ VS. CARLOS CONDIT 2... YUS!

"the rumor is true. Carlos did accept the fight today and Carlos is coming on Friday not thur." -Dana White, confirms rumors of a second meeting between Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit. Good thing they're doing that again, cause there's too many reasons why it should happen.

There's a ton of tweets after the jump, but first, don't forget to follow me on twitter: @antontabuena

Oh, and these guys are probably worth following as well: The Official BloodyElbow Twitter Account, Luke Thomas, Kid Nate, Brent Brookhouse, Leland Roling, Richard Wade, Chris Barton, Damon O, Scott Broussard, Tim Burke, Matt Bishop, Fraser Coffeen, Dallas Winston, KJ Gould, Matt Roth, Ben Thapa, Josh Nason.

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It's rare in sports, but every now and then sports fans get to encounter something completely unique: athletes with opinions they're happy to share, and possessing the type of wit you might not expect out of someone that spends most of their time in the gym.

Ronda Rousey is becoming a poster girl not just for women's MMA, but for an athlete ‘raw and uncensored'. She's defiantly not afraid to say what's on her mind, but unlike Chael Sonnen, we're not observing theatre. We're observing humanity: anger, humor, joy, grit, and Pokemon make up Rousey's stream of consciousness.

This past Sunday, Jeff Sherwood (along with Scott Holmes) had a chance to interview Rousey at the LA Fitness Expo. It was a candid interview even by Rousey's standards.

The interview started out innocuous enough until Sherwood asked her about her favorite 145 lb champion, Cristiane Santos (on whether or not Cyborg was good or bad for female MMA):

"She was a detriment to women's MMA. No little girl is going to watch cris cyborg fight and want to be like her one day. I don't think it's a good example. I think it was obvious all along that she was doping, and I think it sends a bad message to kids that you need to dope in order to be achampion. I think it's better with her gone."

While her logic might not be questionable, the "if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck" line of thinking was nonetheless validated in the wake of Cyborg's positive test. Incapable of ruffling the feathers of just the disgraced ex-champ, Rousey didn't stop there, taking a thinly veiled shot at Miesha Tate...

"There's a reason why the Olympics is every four years. It's because if they had it every year, they would go bankrupt. The Olympics is the epitome of sport and that's where it's all just about the sport. But with professional sports it's about entertainment. It's about making money. The core of everything is still about the sport, but that's not everything it's about. It's hilarious when these girls are ‘you talked yourself into a title shot!' What you're really saying in a mean way is that I'm smarter than all of you, and I actually have an understanding of how this works and used it to my advantage. "

...nor did Rousey avoid leaving the ring-card-girl-stone unturned...

"There's a reason why the ring girls aren't asked to star in movies, and it's because they're pretty but talentless."

For context, Rousey was responding to a question about Gina Carano, who Rousey has the utmost respect for, and who she attributes some of her success to. However, Ronda's most scathing attack was directed at the Olympics.

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A few updates on what's been going on in the MMA Twitterverse

DOUBLE RAINBOW, WHAT DOES IT MEAN!?

" :) " -Dana White, wait. did Fedor lose again?

There's a ton of tweets after the jump, but first, don't forget to follow me on twitter: @antontabuena

Oh, and these guys are probably worth following as well: The Official BloodyElbow Twitter Account, Luke Thomas, Kid Nate, Brent Brookhouse, Leland Roling, Richard Wade, Chris Barton, Damon O, Scott Broussard, Tim Burke, Matt Bishop, Fraser Coffeen, Dallas Winston, KJ Gould, Matt Roth, Ben Thapa, Josh Nason.

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We posted earlier this week about a report that former pro-wrestler and Strikeforce veteran Bobby Lashley might be the next opponent for Fedor Emelianenko. Apparently there's not a lot to those rumors. Evgeni Kogan, director of operations for M-1 Global spoke to USA TODAY and threw cold water on the Lashley story:

"There are currently no concrete conversations about Bobby being the next opponent for Fedor," Kogan wrote, adding that Emelianenko probably will fight two or three times this year. Possible locations for the summer fight include Monaco and Russia, according to Kogan.

The 35-year-old Lashley (7-1, 1-1 Strikeforce) is the current Shark Fights heavyweight champion and went 2-0 since leaving Strikeforce. He's a far cry from the world beaters that Fedor once faced in Rings, Pride, Affliction and Strikeforce but he's actually quite comparable to Fedor's last two opponents: the 41-year-old Jeff Monson (43-13) and Satoshi Ishii. (4-2-1).

Bloody Elbow will continue to report on this story as it develops.

A few updates on what's been going on in the MMA Twitterverse

RANDOM TIDBITS

"@Jonnybones vs @SpiderAnderson and @Rampage4real vs @wandfc with Pride rules. The @UFC_Undisputed 3 demo is out now!!! bit.ly/xMPBXw" -UFC Undisputed

"19k followers!! Whoo!! I feel 19,000 times cooler than I did upon first opening a twatter account!" -Ronda Rousey

"News: My brother is fighting Pedro Rizzo in Italy on 24th of March in Milan. Great fight! Two veterans with tons of experience who you got?" -Alistair Overeem

"Watching basketball ... Holly sh*t these overgrown people are ugly. You think they look down on me from way up there n think the same?" -Ian McCall

"If I had a nickel every time someone said they're surprised that a fighter can speak so intelligently I'd have seven cents." -Nate Quarry

"Spent months training to fight Munoz and now I have to fight a guy who sounds like "PIP" from South Park." -Chael Sonnen

""I'm in the fight biz not the website biz. Who gives a ****?"" -Dana White, says he doesn't care that the website got hacked.

There's a ton of tweets after the jump, but first, don't forget to follow me on twitter: @antontabuena

Oh, and these guys are probably worth following as well: The Official BloodyElbow Twitter Account, Luke Thomas, Kid Nate, Brent Brookhouse, Leland Roling, Richard Wade, Chris Barton, Damon O, Scott Broussard, Tim Burke, Matt Bishop, Fraser Coffeen, Dallas Winston, KJ Gould, Matt Roth, Ben Thapa, Josh Nason.

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A few updates on what's been going on in the MMA Twitterverse

ROUSEY SAYS CYBORG HAS A DICK

"Próxima vitima... Ronda!!! No mercy!!!" -Cris Cyborg, tweeted a photo of Gina Carano... which was actually photoshopped.

Here's the original photo:

"@criscyborg you don't just have a dick, you are a dick for posting that picture of Gina, you cheater." -Ronda Rousey

There's a ton of tweets after the jump, but first, don't forget to follow me on twitter: @antontabuena

Oh, and these guys are probably worth following as well: The Official BloodyElbow Twitter Account, Luke Thomas, Kid Nate, Brent Brookhouse, Leland Roling, Richard Wade, Chris Barton, Damon O, Scott Broussard, Tim Burke, Matt Bishop, Fraser Coffeen, Dallas Winston, KJ Gould, Matt Roth

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A few updates on what's been going on in the MMA Twitterverse

CLAY GUIDA

"I better leak this out before someone else can. Haha blast from the past prom 99" -Clay Guida

There's a ton of tweets after the jump, but first, don't forget to follow me on twitter: @antontabuena

Oh, and these guys are probably worth following as well: The Official BloodyElbow Twitter Account, Luke Thomas, Kid Nate, Brent Brookhouse, Leland Roling, Richard Wade, Chris Barton, Damon O, Scott Broussard, Tim Burke, Matt Bishop, Fraser Coffeen, Dallas Winston, KJ Gould, Matt Roth

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