Should Christians do Yoga? Are you kidding me? I was just out for a run and a pamphlet on the sidewalk tweaked my attention. I stopped, and look around a few times to make sure no one was looking and picked it up. I do the same thing at dumpsters by the way. Anyhow the heading of the pamphlet in big pink letters read ‘Should Christians do Yoga?’ I put it in my pocket, continued on my way and thought ‘this should be interesting reading!’ When I got home, I opened it up and was barraged by its negativity. Now, first of all, I don’t think that most practicing Christians think this at all. If that was the case, Yoga would never have become so popular in North America. I did a search on the internet and found there are some groups out there that have a real hate on for Yoga. I really didn’t know! Mind you, you could probably find groups on the internet that have a hate on for Koala Bears too. Back to the pamphlet. Here are some of the quotes: “Strict spiritual discipline practiced to gain control over the forces of one’s being to gain occult powers”. A retired Chief Exorcist of Rome was quoted as saying “Yoga, Zen and TM are unacceptable to Christians. Often these apparent innocent practices can bring about hallucinations and schizophrenic conditions”. One section asks the question “is it harmless to do postures only?” The answer: “The postures themselves have occult significance. The breathing and mind work are add-ons…It is a direct door to the occult”. Then it was on to Pilates. What? The pamphlet was saying something good about Pilates. “Pilates, however is an acceptable alternative to yoga for the Christian”. Well, I thought at least they like Pilates… but then I read on and they said this: “The problem is usually the music in the exercise studio tends to be New age… so while your body may be benefiting, what is your mind being programmed”. I had to laugh at this. This person has never been to our studio during a Pilates class I thought. The music is about as far away from new age as you can get. Maybe leave that alone though, don’t want to get them started on David Guetta or Daft Punk. If you want to read an interesting and more Pro Yoga article by Sally Kempton on the subject here it is: Roy huffingtonpost/sally-kempton/is-yoga-unchristian_b_790575.html
Posted on: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 19:53:04 +0000
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