CAN A PAGAN PRACTICE BE "CHRISTIANIZED?"

CAN A PAGAN PRACTICE BE "CHRISTIANIZED?"



By Marsha West
January 25, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
Is yoga just a way of reducing stress or is there more to it than that? I mean, everyone's doing it so it has to be a good thing…right? The short answer is that there's more to yoga than meets the eye. So bear with me as I explain the reasons practicing yoga "stretches traditional Christian boundaries" and why Christians should avoid yoga and seek other alternatives.

Yoga has gotten its eight limbed arms into the "Christian West" and, amazingly, a large number of Christians are participating in what has now been termed "Christian yoga" (CY). Before you bend to the temptation to join a class, ask yourself this question: Are Christians who practice yoga going against the Bible?

Many won't like the answer, but here it is anyway: The Bible says, "Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds but rather expose them." Exposing evil keeps Christians from being "polluted by the world." And yes, yoga is evil. Now, before you get your kickers in a knot and dash off an angry email, allow me to enlighten you.

Yoga is being marketed to mainline churches with the assurance of creating stress reduction, developing self-confidence, and improving concentration. It is also marketed to business and industry, athletes, senior citizens, students, teens and adolescents. Because of our fast pace life-style, who wouldn't want to reduce stress? Which is why yoga classes have become so popular.

Now here's the main reason Christians should avoid yoga. Christian apologists John Ankerberg and John Weldon maintain that, "The basic premise of yoga theory is the fundamental unity of all existence: God, man, and all of creation are ultimately one divine reality." To explain the basic premise, the authors quote from an editorial in the Yoga Journal:

"We are all aware that yoga means 'union' and that the practice of yoga unites body, breath, and mind, lower and higher energy centers and, ultimately self and God, or higher Self. But more broadly, yoga directs our attention to the unity or oneness that underlies our fragmented experiences and equally fragmented world. Family, friends, the Druze guerrilla in Lebanon, the great whale migrating north—all share the same essential [divine] nature."[1]

Reportedly there are upward of 15 million yoga practitioners in the US so it would seem the yoga craze is here to stay.

But Pope Benedict XVI is not at all happy about the large number of Christians practicing yoga. Recently he gave this warning: "Yoga can degenerate into the cult of the body."

S. Michael Houdmann thinks yoga is blatantly anti-Christian philosophy. "It teaches one to focus on oneself instead of on the one true God. It encourages its participants to seek the answers to life's difficult questions within their own conscience instead of in the Word of God. It also leaves one open to deception from God's enemy, who searches for victims that he can turn away from God (1 Peter 5:."

And the purists aren't happy either. They believe that yoga without spirituality isn't yoga at all. Some Hindus complain that yoga with its Christian message just doesn't work. "If you take a tree and chop it's roots off then you don't have a tree." (Watch the video "Christian yoga sweeps the US" By Jeremy Cooke[2])

Believe it or not, there are CY practitioners who advise their students that practicing yoga can help draw the individual closer to God, improve spirituality, create self-awareness and, blasphemy of all blasphemies, help devotees find divinity within oneself. Take Parkwood Baptist Church in Annandale, Va. For example. The following occurred during a yoga class:

"Marylyn Mandeville sits crossed-legged on a mat in front of 11 of her students. Her hands are folded as if in prayer, framed by the slogan on her T-shirt: 'Know Yoga, Know Peace.' A gold cross rests on the Om symbol emblazoned on her shirt. 'Namaste,' she says to the class, bowing deeply while offering the Sanskrit salutation 'I bow to the God within you.'"[3]

Incredibly, her pastor had no problem with what she was teaching. In fact, he participated in the class!

Incidentally, Christians must know precisely what he or she is teaching the sheep entrusted to him or her. Clearly, CY practitioners like Marilyn haven't done their homework on Hinduism. Why is that, since Hinduism is the religion yoga is rooted in?

Listen to occult and cult expert, Caryl Matrisciana, who gives the reason God forbids His people to partake in pagan practices. She says, "While the word 'Yoga' isn't mentioned in the Bible, the idea of 'yoking' oneself to pagan gods and concepts is forbidden as is adulating self's desire above God's will."

Christians will argue that they only do the stretching and relaxation exercises. And since they don't embrace all that "divinity within" stuff Hindu's believe in, what's all the fuss about? They simply cannot wrap their minds around the idea that yoga cannot be separated from its Hindu roots.

Matrisciana warns that yoga postures, "are designed to form one's body into the likeness of man, animals, birds, insects, snakes, fish, and many more--all of which are revered as gods in Hinduism."