Southern Baptist leader on yoga: Not Christianity

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Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler is calling for Christians to avoid yoga and its spiritual attachments, but is getting plenty of pushback from enthusiasts who defend the ancient practice.
Mohler said he objects to “the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine.”
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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.”
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He said his view is “not an eccentric Christian position.”
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He believes that simply doing exercises and forgoing yoga’s eastern mysticism and meditation is okay, because then it isn’t yoga.

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101007/ap_on_re/us_rel_southern_baptists_yoga

Is yoga contrary to Christianity? I admit my woeful ignorance on this topic. 😊
 
Dale_M said:
He believes that simply doing exercises and forgoing yoga’s eastern mysticism and meditation is okay, because then it isn’t yoga.

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101007/ap_on_re/us_rel_southern_baptists_yoga

Is yoga contrary to Christianity? I admit my woeful ignorance on this topic. 😊
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I think Mohler is right that just done as exercise it means nothing, but if you try to add all the spiritual aspects to it, you’re essentially trying to dine with both God and demons (cf. 1 Cor 10:21).
 
In 2009, the USCCB finally made a statement of incompatiblilty about Reiki practices.
 
Dale_M said:
S Is yoga contrary to Christianity? I admit my woeful ignorance on this topic. 😊
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Yes but no. It’s the 1 Cor 8 concept. Some people can eat meat sacrificed to an idle. For other people the very idea, let alone the act of doing it, is a sin, and maybe for their conscience even a mortal sin. Likewise Hinduism the religion can be broad enough to accomodate Christianity, but not every Hindu individual is that open, nor is every Christian individual able to sit next to a Hindu.

In other words, maybe I can do yoga and benefit from it just as the Apostle could eat idol meat and benefit from it, but that doesn’t mean that you can do yoga.

Those who can do yoga should be sensitive to Mohler’s weakness, but in the same breath he should be sensitive to their strength and not impose his weakness on them.
 
Dale_M said:
Is yoga contrary to Christianity? I admit my woeful ignorance on this topic. 😊
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Yoga does come with a lot of spiritual baggage and whether you realize it or not it is a tool for conversion.
I did practice yoga for a little while and I know about the benefits, but the spiritual side of yoga and the difficulties that arise out of it certainly outweigh the benefits.
 
Interesting :cool:

1 of 14 pages of info available on Wiki:

(Doesn’t even mention that it’s a stretching program for young nimble American women).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga

"Yoga (Sanskrit, Pāli: योग yóga) refers to traditional physical and mental disciplines that originated in India.[1]

The word is associated with meditative practices in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.[2][3][4]

Within Hinduism, it also refers to one of the six orthodox (āstika) schools of Hindu philosophy, and to the goal towards which that school directs its practices.[5][6] In Jainism, yoga is the sum total of all activities — mental, verbal and physical.

Major branches of yoga in Hindu philosophy include Rāja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Hatha Yoga.[7][8][9]

According to the authoritative Indian philosopher Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, yoga, based on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, comprises one of the six main Hindu schools of philosophy (darshanas), together with Kapila’s Samkhya, Gautama’s Nyaya, Kanada’s Vaisheshika, Jaimini’s Purva Mimamsa, and Badarayana’s Uttara Mimamsa or Vedanta.[10]

Many other Hindu texts discuss aspects of yoga, including the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Shiva Samhita and various Tantras."
 
I think it is much ado about nothing.
Yoga is simply means by which you can bring your physical in line with your spiritual.
I think it all depends on what you choose to meditate on. Sure the Yogis and those who believe in eastern mysticism will focus on those beliefs, but instead of meditating on that, what if you choose to meditate on your own beliefs?
Simple solution really, without the need to try and styfle yoga for being “unchristian”.
 
Janet1983 said:
You are definitely entitled to this opinion.
I am entitled to mine just as well and I will never endorse Yoga because of its effects.
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Could you clarify the effects you are referring to?
Yoga is what you make of it.
 
I’ve never practised Yoga, either physically or spiritually, other than dabbling in a couple of exercises (like trying to sit, unsuccessfully, in the classic Yoga pose).

But the serious adherents must tap into some spiritual source. There’s a photograph of a Yogi levitating in the following link. Of course it may be a fraud, but I think it’s real enough. To overcome gravity, I’d assume we’d have to tap into some spiritual source, and it’s been common enough in Catholic saints, including Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. It seems that while they were discussing something about Christ, they were both seen to levitate simultaneously.

So the pastor is probably right that there is a spiritual risk if we start getting too involved.

amazingabilities.com/amaze8a.html
 
Yoga postures and positions are designed to force the serpent energy through the spine to activate the energy centers,or chakras.This is done to achieve a union or “yoking” with the divine,the oneness of God.

Christianity finds God in the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus,the Lamb of God.

Separating the physical aspect of yoga from the spiritual is difficult as many masters have said yoga is more than just exercise.
 
Barbkw said:
Interesting :cool:

1 of 14 pages of info available on Wiki:

(Doesn’t even mention that it’s a stretching program for young nimble American women).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga
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Just letting you know, Wikipedia is not a reliable source as people can easily edit it to suit them 🙂

But true it is from India, as a way to enhance ones spirituality.
 
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