JPH,

I don’t understand. Are you trying to justify practicing yoga? If so, this doesn’t seem like much defense.

I also have to disagree with Mohler on yoga. Consider one of the fitness-adapted versions of yoga such as the popular P90X yoga videos. From a single viewing of it, I see no trace of its original spiritual roots. It’s no different than any of the aerobics classes you will find in nearly all of the thousands of gyms across America.

@Ethan “I don’t understand. Are you trying to justify practicing yoga? If so, this doesn’t seem like much defense.”

Yes, I am trying to justify practicing Yoga, if by “practicing Yoga” you mean “doing the exercises as a means of achieving physical fitness and relaxation”. I’m not attempting to justify all the spiritual mumbo jumbo.

Mohler, however, tries to argue that the two are inseparable, and I disagree with him on that point.

@Joey: “If someone had ritualized push-ups that would mean there was more going on then just a push-up. Something that would make it ritual. So would participate in the ritual or would you just do push-ups?”

In that hypothetical, I would say “just doing push-ups” is perfectly fine. Mohler, however, seems to be arguing that “just doing push-ups” would not be fine, because it is impossible to divorce push-ups from their spiritual “baggage”.

Kimberly Fowler, fitness center owner/yoga expert, has a DVD and a book titled The No OM Zone: No Chanting, No Granola, No Sanskit. Her way of teaching yoga as a workout seems compatible with Christianity to me.

Isn’t Dr. Mohler’s argument basically the same argument against letting your kids trick-or-treat on Halloween?

To me this is a Romans 14 issue. If someone believes using yoga exercises for fitness purposes is wrong, they should abstain. However, I don’t think that the “weaker brother” should judge the “stronger brother” just because their conscience doesn’t permit the same freedoms as someone else’s.

JPH,

I think Mohler would simply respond by saying that once you divorce the positions and exercise from the chanting/humming/meditation/spiritual aspects, you no longer are participating in Yoga. You are simply stretching and exercising…which is great.

I think Mohler would simply respond by saying that once you divorce the positions and exercise from the chanting/humming/meditation/spiritual aspects, you no longer are participating in Yoga. You are simply stretching and exercising…which is great. —Joey

Maybe we should call it agoy instead? :)

I have to agree with the others who’re a little skeptical of Mohler’s conclusions. It’s the Christmas tree argument - Christmas trees are supposed to have originated as some kind of pagan worship ritual=> Christmas trees are pagan => Christians ought not to have Christmas trees.

Isn’t one of the blessing of being free in Christ that we can see the general health benefits of a stretching and static muscle-building program and call its mystical hokum truthclaims out for what they are??

I hate to add another element to the yoga argument but I can’t resist. I can almost understand the controversy with yoga in the sense that it originated with traditional Hindu religious practices but I have never heard or read any Christians commenting on martial arts or have they? Aren’t these arts just as connected to traditional preChristian Japanese, Korean or Chinese religious traditions, such as ancestor veneration or Buddhism, as yoga is to Hinduism? I dropped out of a Judo class once because the instructor told us we needed to bow to the house. I did not feel comfortable with this although I did not see how it was connected to the other things I had learned.

How/Why is is acceptable to learn martial arts, which spring from traditional Asian religious beliefs, but not yoga? I’m definitely not arguing in favor of yoga but I see a contradiction when I see a Christian parent who complains about yoga but who may be willing sign their kid up for Karate or Judo.

Thanks for the Cooper video. Very interesting that he seems to ‘get it.”

Part of the confusion seems to be over what exactly we Americans are doing when we do “yoga”. For the most part (from what I’ve heard and experienced going to yoga classes in several different states), it’s not really yoga. But we don’t have another name for it, so we call it that. I was very conflicted about trying yoga because of its anti-Christian roots but found myself with a disability that demanded that kind of exercise, so I tried it—to great benefit and no spiritual harm. In 5 years I think I’ve only been told to “empty your mind” twice—I agree that that’s bad, but are other exercise classes filling your head with Biblical truths?—and it’s certainly never moved on to deeper spiritual stuff, and certainly never sexual! (That was awkwardly paranoid, Dr. Mohler.) The silent meditation time at the end of class is easily used for prayer. God made our bodies, and many yoga poses are good ways to keep them agile so that we can better serve Him. Perhaps if you have a history of dabbling in Eastern religions you should avoid it, but if you don’t and if your teacher is not trying to lead the class down that path, it can be a great way for those of us with limitations to stay healthy. I do wish there were a clearer distinction between “practicing yoga” and using yoga poses, for the sake of better understanding.