In the Media: Christians Leaders Reject Yoga

Image via Wikipedia

One of the hot topics in the media today is the very negative opinion of Yoga by certain Christian church figures. Being both a yoga fan and a Southern Baptist, I knew I had a blog post in-the-making.  Before I get into the newest anti-yoga article to surface, let's go back a few years.

In 2007, Pat Robertson voiced his negative view of yoga on the 700 Club TV show.  In short, his belief is that by doing yoga, you are distancing yourself from God and engaging in pantheism. He calls yoga "evil and spooky."  (His entire answer)  It sparked a huge media frenzy.  (Though, I must admit this is actually one of his less radical views.  You could seriously spend years trying to understand this man's view on the world.) 

Fast forward to the present:  Another Christian church leader (Albert Mohler) has written a article with a negative opinion of yoga practice.  To save some time, here are a few quotes from his lengthy article:

"When Christians practice yoga, they must either deny the reality of what yoga represents or fail to see the contradictions between their Christian commitments and their embrace of yoga."

"Christians are called to look to Christ for all that we need and to obey Christ through obeying his Word. We are not called to escape the consciousness of this world by achieving an elevated state of consciousness, but to follow Christ in the way of faithfulness."

"Christians who practice yoga are embracing, or at minimum flirting with, a spiritual practice that threatens to transform their own spiritual lives into a “post-Christian, spiritually polyglot” reality. Should any Christian willingly risk that?"

Perhaps he has never heard of Catholic monks and their meditations and chants?  (Admittedly, I'm pretty ignorant about Catholicism, but even I know who Friar Tuck is!)   I've always likened prayer to meditation.  Perhaps his method of praying is different than mine? Perhaps, he only prays in extremely loud places while jumping in place to block out his inner thoughts that could lead to an ungodly enlightenment.

Okay, that's all the passive aggressive comments I can muster.

What I do know is that I have never been closer to the Good Lord than when I am doing yoga.  (And I don't just mean when you are in a difficult pose of which you pray you can eventually get out.  Though I do feel very close at those times.)  It gave me a way to organize my thoughts, improve myself physically, and to be open to the Word.

When I first started this blog, my main objectives were to not use any type of vulgar language and to stay away from controversial topics--especially of the religious variety.  I had to break my controversy rule to voice my opinion on this because it is beyond ridiculous.  I mean on the "Satan talks to us through rock records" and "skipping service to watch the Super Bowl is idol worship" levels of ridiculous.  When hearing about these ignorant views, my first thought was "do they think that the Lord is a hateful moron who believes that yoga practice is brainwashing his children?"  Puh-lease.

I would challenge these men to try yoga for just a week, because their loaded opinions sound as if they read a couple books about yoga and made up their minds.  Yoga isn't something that can be found in books.  It's like baseball.  You can watch a game, but you don't really know baseball unless you toss the ball around.  You don't anything about Yoga until you get yourself into it.

I would be curious to see if thoughts of Hindu deities popped into their heads after a few Sun Salutations.

I'm glad to say that the views of these men are not the views of most Christians familiar with yoga.  There are many churches in my area that host yoga and other exercise classes.   

Off to do some yoga twists,

Jenn


References:

• YouTube Video of Pat Robertson's View of Yoga
• Albert Mohler's Article on Yoga

Further Reading and Viewing:

• Southern Baptist Leader on Yoga (Associated Press)
• Video: CNN News on Christians and Yoga (A Debate Between Pastors with Opposing Views)

UPDATE:
An additional article surfaced just minutes after I published this post:

• Albert Mohler's reaction to the massive feedback from his Yoga article