Yoga in the Name of Jesus
Yesterday Yahoo put the Associated Press article about Al Mohler’s story on yoga on the front page. Needless to say this has generated lots of hate mail for the President of SBTS. Most of the original article is based on his thoughts on a new book by Stefanie Syman named The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America which Mohler says “is
a masterpiece of cultural history”
Here are some excepts from the original article to give you a summary of Mohler’s position :
Yoga begins and ends with an understanding of the body that is, to say the very least, at odds with the Christian understanding. Christians are not called to empty the mind or to see the human body as a means of connecting to and coming to know the divine. Believers are called to meditate upon the Word of God — an external Word that comes to us by divine revelation — not to meditate by means of incomprehensible syllables.
Nevertheless, a significant number of American Christians either experiment with yoga or become adherents of some yoga discipline. Most seem unaware that yoga cannot be neatly separated into physical and spiritual dimensions. The physical is the spiritual in yoga, and the exercises and disciplines of yoga are meant to connect with the divine.
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. The contradictions are not few, nor are they peripheral. The bare fact is that yoga is a spiritual discipline by which the adherent is trained to use the body as a vehicle for achieving consciousness of the divine. 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.
There is nothing wrong with physical exercise, and yoga positions in themselves are not the main issue. But these positions are teaching postures with a spiritual purpose. Consider this — if you have to meditate intensely in order to achieve or to maintain a physical posture, it is no longer merely a physical posture.
The embrace of yoga is a symptom of our postmodern spiritual confusion, and, to our shame, this confusion reaches into the church. Stefanie Syman is telling us something important when she writes that yoga “has augured a truly post-Christian, spiritually polyglot country.” 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?
Mohler ends with saying
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?
I came away from these articles thinking of how this is just another example of how as Americans in general think of life and spirituality as a buffet of sorts. You can just pick the things that you like and leave the things your don’t. I’ll take Heaven without Jesus, I’ll take yoga without Hinduism, I’ll take sex without marriage, I’ll take abortion without murder. Everyone just lives by the mantra “If it feels right, it must be right” without every asking questions like “Why does this feel right?”, “Should this feel right?” and most importantly “Is this right?” We have all done a bad job at thinking about the logical conclusion of our actions and beliefs before we act or believe. Fortunately if you are reading this you are still alive and there has never been a better day to change. I think this just serves as a reminder and an example of a bigger problem that exists in our own hearts.
All respectful opinions and thoughts are welcome in the comments!
October 9th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Will,
I read these articles a few days ago and agree with you that this is an interesting look at the way Americans think about life and spirituality as a buffet. Another interesting angle that I think shows a similar dynamic is a couple of articles that Tim Challies wrote about Wikipedia. He set out to, “write about Wikipedia a little bit, seeing it as a microcosm of the way our society determines truth—truth by consensus.” It’s really good and I had never given much thought to the “wiki” model of truth. Truth does seem to have become so relative that we really do choose what we want to be true…truth is editable. Here the links to the two part article that Challies wrote.
http://www.challies.com/technology/the-truth-about-wikipedia
http://www.challies.com/technology/more-truth-about-wikipedia
October 11th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
Have you seen this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_t5jApEYJ0&feature=related
I thought it would of interest to you regarding this post.
October 12th, 2010 at 10:14 am
good post will, I want to read the whole article now. it makes you think twice about the things you just do because they don’t seem wrong in our own eyes. i don’t know my thoughts on yoga yet for those of us that are looking at it as only a means of a good flexibility workout though.
June 19th, 2011 at 12:48 am
Hey Will! So good to see you on here. Randomly ran across your blog and read this. This is a subject that has interested me for a couple of years now, and one that I’ve looked into quite a bit and have come to a fairly solid conclusion about. And since you welcome thoughts and opinions, respectively, I thought I’d share.
Syman makes good points, but I would like to also offer something from the other perspective. I have been involved with yoga for the past couple of years, as both a physical exercise and an opportunity to quieten the mind for the intention of reflection and peace. I have struggled with the origins of the practice and have looked into the background quite a bit. And I agree with the article above, that if you solely seek to become a practitioner of yoga, then it ultimately does become a religion. But I think as Christians, we are able to use our discernment in what is and isn’t in accordance with our beliefs. I know that when I am standing in ‘Warrior I’, I am not worshipping a Hindu god, because that is not what I believe it to be, or acknowledge during that time. Just as a Hindu who might perhaps be performing a ‘Christian practice’ but is thinking of his own god(s) is not praising the Lord. And I also believe that we are called to quieten our minds of our day-to-day distractions and ‘be still and know that {He} is God’. Yoga merely provides an opportunity of doing so. I think that, to a fault, as Christians, we separate our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual states from one another–or at least the physical from the rest. Perhaps we know that what we do with and put into our bodies can and will affect the others, but too often, we don’t connect all of them. I think that in yoga, we are able to do so, if we educate ourselves in the significance of certain things, such as chanting, pranayama, and other things that are intentionally meant to ‘elevate’ one to/and determine one as divine. I don’t believe I am God when I practice yoga as an exercise, but I see it as an opportunity to connect my mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual self in the same moment and understand who I am as His creation, who He is as my Creator, my Beloved, my Redeemer. Others may be able to attain this by listening to music/sermons while running, working out, etc. But I don’t enjoy any of those things. Yoga is both calming and strengthening, it allows me to quieten my mind and bring awareness to all of who I am, as a physical and spiritual being. I know this is from my own personal perspective and I don’t expect to change anyone’s mind, but I do believe that she is incorrect in saying that I am either denying what ‘yoga’ is or that I’m in total contradiction with my Christian commitments. The word ‘yoga’ means ‘to yoke’ or ‘to unite’. And I don’t believe that to be false in that I am able to connect with the Lord in a way that I am not able to do in other ways. Here is an excerpt from the Christian yoga company, Yahweh yoga (yahwehyoga.com):
“At Yahweh Yoga we do not ignore that Hatha Yoga came to us through the Hindu culture. Christian yoga is a practice that adopts the universal principles of physical health embodied in the physical practice of yoga, in the context of our own theology and faith. It is helpful to compare the discipline of yoga to other faith disciplines that are practiced across diverse religions. For example, all religions adopt the practice of prayer. We don’t reject prayer as Christians because a Muslim prays. Instead our theology, our worldview, our faith and our intention defines the nature of our prayers, what we understand them to accomplish, why we pray and who we pray to. We place great emphasis on exercising discernment as Christians in the practice of yoga and understanding its origins. We set very high standards for Christian integrity in our yoga practice.”
Also, Holy Yoga (holyyoga.net) is a group of Christian yoga practitioners who may have more information, if you’re interested.
There are certainly things that are in complete contradiction with Christianity, but those things don’t have to be taken part in. And if that isn’t considered yoga by some, then perhaps I’m not doing yoga at all, but a benign exercise that allows me to ‘unite’ and ‘yoke’ myself in all respects to the Lord.
Good topic—definitely one deserving of discussion!
July 24th, 2011 at 4:42 pm
Beth, thanks for weighing in on the discussion and you have definitely thought about it way more than I have. I agree with your statements as well as the quote by Yahwehyoga. I definitely think that yoga as well as many things we do in life are “redeemable”, that is we can take the activity out of its normal secular or other-religious origins and do it to the glory of God. One example would be that traditional yoga stresses clearing of the mind in the sense of not thinking about anything at all, whereas the Bible tells us to set our minds on Christ and on heavenly things. I would encourage Christians, who are thinking about practicing yoga to check out places like Yahweh yoga and not to just jump into traditional yoga without a discerning mind. As Christians we are called to test everything and discern whether it is good or evil. Paul also tells us in the book of Romans that whatever is not done in faith is sin. So Beth’s conclusion to do yoga to the glory of God (which I totally agree with) might not be the answer for everyone. If it causes you to sin, stumble or not have a clear conscience, abstain.
In other news, we all need to get together and hang out sometime!