Southern Baptist leader on yoga: Not Christianity

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By DYLAN LOVAN, Associated Press Writer

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A Southern Baptist leader who is calling for Christians to avoid yoga and its spiritual attachments is getting plenty of pushback from enthusiasts who defend the ancient practice.

Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler says the stretching and meditative discipline derived from Eastern religions is not a Christian pathway to God.

Mohler said he objects to "the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine."

"That's just not Christianity," Mohler told The Associated Press.

Mohler said feedback has come through e-mail and comments on blogs and other websites since he wrote an essay to address questions about yoga he has heard for years.

"I'm really surprised by the depth of the commitment to yoga found on the part of many who identify as Christians," Mohler said.

Yoga fans say their numbers have been growing in the U.S. A 2008 study by the Yoga Journal put the number at 15.8 million, or nearly 7 percent of adults. About 6.7 percent of American adults are Southern Baptists, according to a 2007 survey by the Pew Research Center Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Mohler argued in his online essay last month that Christians who practice yoga "must either deny the reality of what yoga represents or fail to see the contradictions between their Christian commitments and their embrace of yoga."

He said his view is "not an eccentric Christian position."

Other Christian leaders have said practicing yoga is incompatible with the teachings of Jesus. Pat Robertson has called the chanting and other spiritual components that go along with yoga "really spooky." California megachurch pastor John MacArthur called yoga a "false religion." Muslim clerics have banned Muslims from practicing yoga in Egypt, Malaysia and Indonesia, citing similar concerns.

Yoga proponents say the wide-ranging discipline, which originated in India, offers physical and mental healing through stretching poses and concentration.

"Lots of people come to yoga because they are often in chronic pain. Others come because they think it's a nice workout," said Allison Terracio, who runs the Infinite Bliss studio in Louisville.

And some yoga studios have made the techniques more palatable for Christians by removing the chanting and associations to eastern religions, namely Hinduism and its multiple deities.

Stephanie Dillon, who has injected Christian themes into her studio in Louisville, said yoga brought her closer to her Christian faith, which had faded after college and service in the Army.

"What I found is that it opened my spirit, it renewed my spirituality," Dillon said. "That happened first and then I went back to church." Dillon attends Southeast Christian Church in Louisville and says many evangelical Christians from the church attend her yoga classes.

She said she prayed on the question of whether to mix yoga and Christianity before opening her studio, PM Yoga, where she discusses her relationship with Jesus during classes.

"My objection (to Mohler's view) personally is that I feel that yoga enhances a person's spirituality," Dillon said. "I don't like to look at religion from a law standpoint but a relationship standpoint, a relationship with Jesus Christ specifically."

Mohler wrote the essay after reading "The Subtle Body," where author Stefanie Syman traces the history of yoga in America. Syman noted the growing popularity of yoga in the U.S. by pointing out that first lady Michelle Obama has added it to the festivities at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on the front lawn.

Mohler said many people have written him to say they're simply doing exercises and forgoing yoga's eastern mysticism and meditation.

"My response to that would be simple and straightforward: You're just not doing yoga," Mohler said.

___

Online:

Albert Mohler's website: http://www.albertmohler.com/

link

Edited October 8, 2010 by El Buscador

[Danno 1,228]

I tend to agree with the guy.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I tend to agree with the guy.

So you won't let your young, beautiful Russian wife practice yoga?

[trillium13 84]

I've been practicing yoga for years. Its as much a spiritual practice as you let it be. None of the classes I have attended get very deep into that aspect of it.

Yes, I understand what it means to practice it fully and all that. But it's become Americanized, for lack of a better word. It is possible to just practice the physical poses and get great benefit from that.

Hell, I live in the bible belt, and the yoga classes at my gym are always full.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

That is accurate, and confirmed by Praveen Togadia of VHP--yoga is a cent-percent Hindu practice (and according to Togadia, Christians "have no business" touching it)!

[ready4ONE 5,400]

[BishopM 114]

The spiritual and the physical are difficult to separate for most people. For Easterners (sorry to generalize!) the aspects of yoga are more spiritual than physical, it is the use of the body to quiet the mind, only through quieting of the mind can one communicate/commune with God. For Westerners,(again, sorry to generalize!) the aspects of yoga are more physical and (as another poster stated) rarely equated to a spiritual experience...it is simply a workeout.

From a Christian standpoint, the practice of yoga is really only a 'threat' to fundamentalist Protestants, such as you read in the OP's Post from the Southern Baptists. Within Catholicism, it is quite easy to find the common practice of 'meditative prayer'...see Thomas Merton. Yet it is odd because that the Fundamentalists are anti-yoga because the Bible clearly states that Christ quite frequently sought silence for the purpose of prayer. Fundamentalists will say that Christ sought 'prayer' not 'yoga'...but I personally believe that the best prayer is found in silence, not a TV pep rally.

Blessings,

BishopM

Edited October 8, 2010 by BishopM

[luckytxn 2,264]

If one seeks meditative poses then are able to relax enough to be able to concentrate more to pray to their God then that can only be a good thing.

As I have talked to my Uncle in law many times who is approaching his later years and starting to question his mortality he has asked me if he is going to be punished for even asking these questions. I say to him that God does not mind that you question him because you are thinking of him. He wants to be questioned as the questions can and will give answers that will result in a more firm conviction toward him.

If one uses Yoga as an exercise or a way to relax to commune should be a good thing. If one can combine exercise and relaxing and communing with their God should be seen as even better.

[Danno 1,228]

So you won't let your young, beautiful Russian wife practice yoga?

I only "allow" her to meditate on me.

[Danno 1,228]

From a Christian standpoint, the practice of yoga is really only a 'threat' to fundamentalist Protestants, such as you read in the OP's Post from the Southern Baptists. Within Catholicism, it is quite easy to find the common practice of 'meditative prayer'...see Thomas Merton. Yet it is odd because that the Fundamentalists are anti-yoga because the Bible clearly states that Christ quite frequently sought silence for the purpose of prayer. Fundamentalists will say that Christ sought 'prayer' not 'yoga'...but I personally believe that the best prayer is found in silence, not a TV pep rally.

Blessings,

BishopM

I think you over make your case to suggest it is a "threat" to anyone who believes yoga in general is spiritual and certainly not in the Christian tradition.

I'm betting if one were to search for the simple word "meditate" in scriptures you could make the case that meditating is biblical..... certainly nothing wrong with meditating on the Lord, but Yoga entails more.

Now of course if we want to claim... well we don't really practice Yoga as they do in other places is like saying.... "It's watered down enough to be acceptable".

In which case I think the need to "water it down" proves the point.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I only "allow" her to meditate on me.

So it's ok to worship you? What kind of Christian are you?

[JohnSmith2007 353]

So it's ok to worship you? What kind of Christian are you?

Hmm... baiting much?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Hmm... baiting much?

Policing much? Nah, just following me around like an obsessed stalker.

[Ban Hammer 13,360]

Policing much? Nah, just following me around like an obsessed stalker.

[BishopM 114]

The ultimate...BeerYoga!

Happy Friday Everybody!!! - BishopM

Edited October 8, 2010 by BishopM