Gladiator games in a religious country

Now, let me explain the setting and the history of my latest side project.

In the constructed world of Parleon, there's a country called Valkerux, the largest country in the planet.

Almost all of Valkeruxians believe in Kargas Valakai, meaning "Holy Lifestyle". It is a religion that is centered on the teachings of Harvelans, the various incarnation of The Origin, from which Valkeruxians believe that all things originate from.

Approximately 300 hundred years before the main plot, the Jertus Bellax the Warrior King from Avelice, one of the thousand small countries of the early age of Parleon, launched a plan to put all the small countries into one large country.

As a propaganda method, he came up with Kargas Valakai, a hybrid religion created from combining original scriptures featuring Harvelans and folktales and mythologies of Avelice. Due to its coherence, tolerance, promise of afterlife, and promotion of equality, at least compared to other local religions, it became very popular and helped Jertus in assimilating many countries into Avelice, making it one of the largest countries is Parleon within nine decades.

Rubeltine, the largest country in Parleon, found the growth of Avelice highly threatening. That, and a near century-old family feud between Ballax family and Laniteim family, the ruling family of Rubeltine, got even worse due to misunderstandings and manipulation of several nobles of Laniteim.

Things went to hell when Laniteim started to brutally prosecute followers of Kargas Valakai. After near a million deaths, Jertus decalred a large war, which later referred by Valkeruxian historians as Kargas Avellax, the Holy War.

The war lasted three years and ended up as a near one sided victory for Avelice. After merging 1/5 of entire Parleon, Jertus changed his country's name from Avelice to Valkerux. He attributed the victory to Zarkai Uveros, the leader of Harvelans and the direct incarnation of The Origin.

To commerate the victory, Jertus came up with a biannual tournament of Kargas Avelant, meaning "Holy Combat". It's like gladiator games from Rome with some differences. It is done in pairs and the combatants can use all non-projectile weapons, including bear hands. Also, as long as they are approved by the Kargas Avelant League before the matches, magic spells are allowed as well.

One of the most striking aspects of this game is that there is no deliberate finshing blow to enemies. It is okay to land even critical injuries, but really deliberate kill, like decapitating or impaling an incapicitated opponents, is heavily frowned upon and can revoke the combatant his or her license. Due to high advance of healing spell developed after assimilating Rubeltine, death rate or permanent injuries from Kargas Avelant matches is practically non-existant.

The question is, Valkeruxians are highly religious people who promotes tolerance as one of their primary values.

Would it be contradictory to have this kind of match at all?

Humans are hypocrites. It might be hypocritical or intellectually inconsistent to have such matches, but it's also plausible.

In Ancient Rome, Caesar eventually put a religious spin on the gladiatorial games, which had become overrun with political greed and extravagance. All games had to be dedicated to the gods, and characters such as the people who delivered finishing blows or dragged bodies from the arena were linked to characters from the Underworld.

Caesar also used propaganda to make himself into a kind of "son of a god" figure, and games also gave glory to him. He was the holy Emperor, embodiment of a god.

The games were also used to enforce the importance of Roman values, such as honor in battle. A slave could transcend his own, base status and achieve fame and glory by dying bravely or fighting well in the arena. Glory was prized above all. Famous scenes from myths or famous battles were also acted out.

Not really a direct answer, but thought it might help give you some ideas.