Can Christians practice yoga? If you are searching for the answer to that question, you definitely will not find it in this blog post. In fact, this blog post delves very little past the asking of the question.
Let me back up a bit. So, I ask this question because the head of Louisville’s Southern Baptist, Albert Mohler, recently blogged about his thoughts after reading Stefanie Syman’s book, The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America. He stated very clearly that the practice of yoga is at odds with the beliefs of Christianity. His blog post is…interesting…and the gist of it seems meant to warn Christians that “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.” However, given some of the ideas which Mohler interpreted as the focus of Syman’s book, I am more interested than ever in reading it (Syman’s book, that is).
Mr. Mohler’s blog post was picked up by USA Today online, and several online and printed periodicals. The USA Today post identifies several Christian organizations providing a Christian “twist” on yoga and a defense of Christians who practice yoga.
Mohler’s post, of course, is not the first time that the question has been raised. In 2005, Time magazine explored the fast-growing movement of Christian yoga. And the Time article noted that books on the topic have been published as early as 1962. While it is not mentioned by the Time article, Paramahamsa Yogananda wrote in his book Autobiography of a Yogi, that Jesus and his disciples likely traveled to India and were introduced to the practice of Kriya Yoga. But that’s a “whole ‘nother show, Oprah!”
The Time article is rather abbreviated, but it does offer some interesting while-you-wait-in-your-dentist’s-office takes on the answer – from the good old “yoga is for heathens,” to a quote from Patricia Walden warning against the use of yoga by Christians to evangelize. My favorite response was that of the Catholic priest described as the head of the Christian yoga movement, who, in reference to a document issued by the Catholic church warning of the practice of yoga, stated: the church’s position is not a denunciation of yoga but rather a reminder to “respect Christian logic” in its practice. Another Catholic mother of two stated that the logic behind Christian yoga is simple. “It gives me time alone with God,” she says. “As a mom of two small kids, I don’t get that–even in church.”
I’m not a Christian, so I fortunately will not be experiencing any inner turmoil related to this topic during savasana. So, I’m wondering…and I know this might be a sensitive topic…but are there any readers out there who might like to share how they reconcile being a Christian and a yogi?
I can’t speak personally about the issue, or help to resolve the conflict referenced in the post. However, I’ve heard more than one person say they see a conflict to the extent yoga encourages awareness of the self, whereas Judeo-Christian traditions encourage benevolence (i.e., selflessness). Without a full understanding of the Eastern tradition, I think it’s easy for people to misinterpret “self”-ish pursuits as “selfish”.
no you won’t get any reconciling from me – I am curious why the practice of yoga is so threatening to christians. Mr. Maxwell’s comment about self-ish and selfish pursuits was interesting. a good analogy for this is when flying and the oxygen mask drops down, you have to put your mask on yourself before you put one on your kid.
[…] yoga poses a threat to the Christian faith. While I briefly discussed Mohler’s post on my blog, I failed to realize that his post was a reaction to his own interview with Stefanie […]
[…] me back up a bit. Remember the whole sh*t storm started by Albert Mohler a few weeks ago? He’s the head of Louisville’s Southern Baptist, […]