FED: Father Dave ministers with his fists

AAP General News (Australia)
04-02-2004
FED: Father Dave ministers with his fists

By Graeme Webber

SYDNEY, AAP - Some Christians like bible bashing but "The Fighting Father" David Smith
prefers to minister with his fists among Sydney's inner-western street toughs.

Father Dave's Fight Club is at centre court of his struggling Anglican parish at Dulwich
Hill where he welcomes angry young men into the ring to blow off excess testosterone and,
hopefully, spar their way to a new life.

His provocatively titled book - Sex, the Ring & the Eucharist - is a firebrand to the
mainstream Christian church and he pulls no punches when it comes to criticising the ecclesiastical
hierarchy.

"So much of the church nowadays reeks of a sort of insipid middle-class moralism that
really does care more about smoking and swearing than it does about domestic violence
or world hunger," he writes.

"We've developed a Christian culture where no one smokes, swears, masturbates, sacrifices
or forgives."

At age 42, he still relishes the chance to unbutton his clerical dog collar and strip
down for a bare-chested contest of blood, sweat and pain - usually with young men who
have just joined him in communion and a bible study.

Just like the Christ he worships, Fr Dave is numbered among the lowly and often finds
himself an outcast among his own flock.

Some of his closest friends and supporters are drawn from an ignominious Who's Who
list including:

* HIH founder Ray Williams (a major benefactor to the fight club), who has been banned
from directing a company after the multi-billion-dollar collapse of the insurer;

* Mordechai Vanunu, who is still imprisoned by Israel for telling the truth about his
country's illicit nuclear weapons stockpile;

* A key informer from the NSW Police Royal Commission who took three bullets and then
vanished into the witness protection program; and

* Various junkies, common thieves and a convicted welfare cheat.

His debut on the canvas was at Mundine's Gym at Redfern and he once did a few rounds
with The Man, Anthony Mundine, and planted a stinging left hook on him.

He has even put on the gloves to raise funds for the youth outreach ministry.

He spins a good yarn and his story will no doubt be taken up as a movie script one day.

Just like his late father, Fr Dave is also a divorcee of the cloth.

His ministry is not exactly orthodox and he's had the odd wrestle with his employer,
the Anglican Diocese of Sydney.

But Fr Dave rankles at the suggestion that he uses "gutter language" in his book.

He admits he could easily have edited out the F-words and an array of other expletives
but says bad language should be a non-issue for a community gripped by selfish materialism.

"I'm conscious of the fact still that when I go into the pub at Dulwich Hill that people
are watching their Ps and Qs with me, which I'm not saying is a bad thing, but it concerns
me that people feel `oh, well he's a priest he's concerned about people who swear or smoke'.

"I just think it's a complete non-issue, there's certainly more important things to
worry about, for goodness sake."

He considers fighting an initiation right for young men and that men need to reclaim
their status as the protectors of society.

Yet he declares: "I detest violence."

One of the marks of success of the ministry is that it has never spawned any boxing
champions - because the guys mellow out too much.

"The fight game attracts people for the worst sorts of reasons, and can attract the
roughest sorts of guys," Fr Dave said.

"But once you've got `em there, you've got the opportunity to do something really terrific
with them.

"As soon as we get guys who really turn their lives around through the fight game,
they generally lose their desire to fight."

Sure, Jesus took a whip to churchgoers who had turned Israel's temple into a marketplace
and Fr Dave embraces various biblical fighting analogies such as Jacob's all-night wrestle
with God and St Paul's "good fight".

But what about turning the other cheek and the meek inheriting the earth?

"As a fighter, you've got to learn how to take a punch in the nose without immediately
reacting and giving it back," Fr Dave said.

"Learning that skill is the sort of skill for being able to turn the other cheek, as
Jesus puts it."



* Sex, The Ring & the Eucharist can be ordered through Fr Dave's website www.fatherdave.org

AAP gmw/nf/pw/de

KEYWORD: SMITH (REPEAT) (AAP NEWSFEATURE) (PIX AVAILABLE)

2004 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.