I wrote this as a response to an article I read in my local paper. In which a man complained about a local community center's decision to phase out yoga from their activities following the comments of a preacher. This is mainly directed at Christians. The link to the article is at the end of this piece.
What did the preacher say?
As much as I gather he said that, yoga is pagan and therefore evil.
OK, yes, it was developed by Hindus. Probably because that religion predates Christianity by, like 3,000 years or something. If Christians had existed first they might've invented yoga.
What exactly is the problem with it from a Christan perspective? That the poses are offerings to Hindu gods. As to the danger actually posed to a Christian pleas read 1 Corinthians 8. There one of our founding minds tells us that the meat, you can insert action if you'd like to follow my logic, is only a problem to those who can't separate it from their former pagan life.
There are people who have just left a way of life for Christianity who can't handle meat sacrificed to idols. We should have patience regarding this.
I can attest to the physical benefits of a yoga-like practice. I can also see how this sort of discipline can be used to deepen my relationship with God. It's stretching in preparation for stillness. In stillness we meet God best "be still and know that I am God"(Psalm 46:10).
In the Christian tradition there was a group called the Desert Fathers they were pre-monastic ascetics who did something resembling yoga as a discipline to clear the mind of earthly chatter and be able to hear the voice of God. Their goal was to hear God. Their method was meditation.
Western Christianity has lost this tradition. It's interesting to me that now we'd like it back and that elements in our society fight this desire to find stillness. It would be so much easier if there was a widely known "tradition" of stillness in western Christianity then we wouldn't have this issue. But since there isn't we borrow from the Hindus. Is that evil? I don't think so, if our true goal is to hear God we will.
Christianity like any religion is a way of life. In scripture Jesus prayed a lot. What that meant exactly isn't recorded but I find it interesting that Peter, imitating Christ, came into a trance while praying. That can't happen if you're only doing the bedtime chant. He had to be listening hard to get there and that is done best in stillness.
Bottom line: mature Christians borrow from established disciplines to get closer to God. Why reinvent the wheel?
SD-UT article that got me to write this in the first place.
