(Why didn’t someone tell me about this shirt before now? I take back every negative thing I’ve said about Jesus Didn’t Tap. Clearly, they have a sense of humor.)

You know something is big when churches begin using it as a gimmick to get people in the pews on Sunday.  Pastor Tom Skiles from the Spirit of St. Louis church in Arnold, Missouri is hoping to capitalize on the popularity of MMA and the UFC on Easter Sunday with a service that’s chock full of copyright infringement.  He calls it “Easter in the Octagon: The Ultimate Fighter,” and describes it thusly:

“The Ultimate Fighting is something we’re doing to promote to the guys. We want to make Easter relevant again. We don’t want to make it about lilies and nice dresses. When they walk in we’ll have a chain link fence set up, it’ll be set up like an octagon. We’ll talk about fact that Jesus didn’t tap out, he was an ultimate fighter.”

Pastor Tom is apparently fed up with the notion that Christians should be “nice guys.”  He rejects the idea that Jesus was some philosophical, other cheek-turning “hippie,” and instead would like to remind you that the answer the question, ‘What would Jesus do?’ is inevitably, ‘Choke ‘em out.’  

He also seems to be hoping that even notoriously litigious organizations won’t sue a church for using copyrighted phrases and images.  In addition to all the Octagon and Ultimate Fighter stuff, the children’s service is called “Easter Smackdown” and it involves kids fighting in an inflatable boxing ring.  Because Easter Egg hunts are for pussies, and Jesus didn’t cotton to no pussies.