Latter-day Saint Martial Arts Annual Report 2014 | Page 4

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What is the Latter-Day Saint Martial Arts Association?
The Latter-Day Saint Martial Arts Association was created by Adam Farley
with the idea of connecting Latter-day Saints who are martial arts
enthusiasts.
“I spoke with a lady not to long ago,” Farley says “she told me she was
unsure as to how she should feel with her martial arts training. 'Am I
rebelling against my religion by studying martial arts? I mean, Latter-day
Saints stand for peace...' she said to me.”
“The first thing that made her feel alright about it was when she saw the
movie 'Meet the Mormons'. Carolina Muñoz Marin made this lady feel
relieved about her decision to continue her study of the martial arts.”
Leading into one of the other goals of the LDSMAA, which is to help
people understand that a study of the martial arts does not make you a
violent, war seeking person. But that there are many other applications of
studying the martial arts.
“Yes, martial arts is traditionally about fighting and about war. In fact, the
term martial arts, is to mean the art of Mars, who in ancient Roman
mythology
is know as the god of war” says Farley. “But also often over
looked is
the fact that Mars was seen as the guardian of agriculture.”
“It is forgotten that Mars was seen as a
protector and a defender of the things that
sustains life and develops people in to
strong, healthy and beautiful beings. So
he is called the god of war... he was also
a symbol of success and protection.”
“Who else does this sound like? Maybe
Teancum? Helaman? Captain Moroni? King
David? the two-thousand stripling warriors? these
individuals all had to study what we now call
martial arts. Did this make them bad people?
No, they were defenders of the peace”.