Elevation Megachurch recently released a new commercial in which UFC Fighter Vitor Belfort beats up distracted churchgoers. For those who cannot or wish not to view the video below, there is the following summary from the Christian Post. “Vitor Belfort: The Values Enforcer” is narrated by Larry Hubatka, the megachurch’s “Creative Pastor,” which, by the way, is a perfect example of church government and spiritual gifts being redefined. The whole idea of a “creative pastor” is non-sensical and does not exist in the New Testament. CP continues:
The commercial begins with Hubatka explaining that his team has decided to take a creative approach to communicating the Gospel each week, but they have run into small problems in the process, mainly churchgoers who remain unfocused during the Sunday sermons.
As a solution, Hubatka tells the camera that the creative team at Elevation Church is “rolling out a new program, something that’s going to help us with a distraction-free environment. We’ve been beta-testing it for just a few months now, and I think you’re really going to like it.”
The commercial then proceeds to show several churchgoers attending a sermon at Elevation Church’s Blakeney location in North Carolina and exhibiting classic apathetic tendencies, such as dosing off, playing on their cell phones, checking their watches, or sneaking out of the service early. One by one, each unruly churchgoer is plucked from their seat by a burly looking bodyguard and blindfolded before being thrown into an unmarked white van.
After the van speeds away from the church’s curb, the three captured men are shown standing in a caged UFC ring. The startled men remove their blindfolds to find UFC fighter Vitor Belfort staring back at them. “Welcome to Vitor’s house, I crush men’s bones,” the UFC fighter dauntingly tells the men while slamming his fist into his hand. Then, Vitor proceeds to physically punish each man so he no longer can be distracted in church: the secret cell phone checker has his hands twisted, the sleeper is put in a choke hold, and the churchgoer who tried to leave early is put in a headlock.
“No phones at church, no leave early church,” Vitor tells the men, putting one in a sleeper hold while saying “you like the sleep at church, no? Okay, you’re about to sleep now.”
“Some people would say we’re being a little overly aggressive, we would just say we’re being creative,” Hubatka tells the camera. “You see, we had a problem so we brought a specialist in to help us get it right, somebody who has got a lot of experience dealing with situations like this, somebody who was like an enforcer, like a ‘Values Enforcer,’ and we’ve seen incredible results: prolonged attention span, a decrease in cell phone dependency, a heightened sense of bladder control. I’d say it’s working, I’d say our specialist is a ‘Phenom.'” (source)
We ought to be deeply concerned when a megachurch plays on violence and demonstrates their approval by graphically displaying images of violence in their church commercials. “But its only acting,” you say. Yes, but Christians should not pretend or joke about such things, let alone partake or endorse. Paul says this type of “jesting” should not be once named among the saints (Ephesians 5:4). This video commercial and UFC in general makes a mockery of Jesus’s teaching, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you,” (Matthew 5:44) and “I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:39).
If it is unlawful to do such things in reality, then how can we pretend, act, or even approve of such wickedness on camera? Whoever invented the Ultimate Fighting Championship invented an evil thing. Being a bloodsport, it is sin. Paul spoke of those who “knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them” (Romans 1:32). How can the people of God take pleasure and glory in a sport of violence and blood which directly contradicts the love of God and the teachings of Jesus Christ?
Yet Vitor Belfort says he is a Christian, and has previously collaborated with Elevation Church. In January, he was interviewed by Elevation pastor Steven Furtick in the church’s series “New Rules of Resolution.” “This guy loves Jesus, yet he breaks people’s faces and tears people’s limbs off for a living,” pastor Furtick says in the video. Belfort replies, “God has people everywhere.”
Another commercial from Elevation called Improve Church Giving by Motivating Your Congregation to Give has the participants identify themselves as a number in addition to their names because Furtick has said, “We’re all about the numbers!” This is only one example of the subtle dehumanizing of the individual in the name of church community. Additionally, the role of the pastor has become more of a totalitarian leader that cannot be challenged rather than a biblical shepherd and overseer of the flock. The church is not being violent themselves, but taking pleasure in it. All these factors combined are baby steps toward fascism and we ought to be deeply concerned and sound the alarm.