Christian Yoga? Is That Like "Christian" Paganism? And Like Anything Else the Bible Commands Christians Not to Copy from the World?

Stretching for Jesus

Christian yoga is gaining a devout following--upsetting purists, Hindus and some Christians

By LISA TAKEUCHI CULLEN/MAHTOMEDI

Sep. 5, 2005

The yoga teacher sits in a lotus position atop a polished wooden platform. Behind her, verdant woods are visible through panoramic windows. Gentle music tinkles from overhead speakers. Two dozen students in spandex outfits, most of them women, settle onto purple and blue mats to begin the class with ujjayi, a breathing exercise. Their instructor, Cindy Senarighi, recommends today's mantra. "'Yahweh' is a great breath prayer," she says. "The Jesus Prayer also works. Now lift your arms in praise to the Lord."

The platform is an altar, the tinkly tune is praise music, and the practice is Christian yoga. Senarighi's class, called Yogadevotion and taught in the main chapel of St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Mahtomedi, Minn., is part of a fast-growing movement that seeks to retool the 5,000-year-old practice of yoga to fit Christ's teachings. From Phoenix, Ariz., to Pittsburgh, Pa., from Grand Rapids, Mich., to New York City, hundreds of Christian yoga classes are in session. A national association of Christian yoga teachers was started in July, and a slew of books and videos are about to hit the market. But the very phrase stiffens yoga purists and some Christians--including a rather influential Catholic--who insist yoga cannot be separated from its Hindu roots.

Still, the boom, say its backers, is just beginning. Books on Christian yoga were published as early as 1962, but in recent years, as yoga has become as ubiquitous as Starbucks, more Christians have decided to start their own classes. Susan Bordenkircher, a Methodist from Daphne, Ala., is one. She discovered yoga in 2002. "I knew right away I was getting something out of it spiritually and physically, but it felt uncomfortable in that format," she says. So Bordenkircher prepared a vinyasa, or series of postures, with a biblical bent. Meditations focus on Jesus. She calls the sun salutation, a series of poses honoring the Hindu sun god, a "warm-up flow" instead; other Christians call it the "Son" salutation.

At first, Bordenkircher and other yoga teachers encountered skepticism. Officials at Bordenkircher's church asked her if she could call her exercises something other than yoga, and she has had to convince potential students that meditation is not anti-Christ. John Keller, a pastor at St. Andrew's, tells doubtful parishioners that the Bible describes many postures for prayer and that "yoga is just another way to pray." Also, says Keller, it draws potential converts through the church's doors; about a quarter of Yogadevotion students are not churchgoers.

Yoga purists, while encouraging people of all faiths to practice yoga, recoil at the Christian co-opting of its ancient traditions--especially when used as a tool for evangelizing. "We shouldn't use yoga to sell our students anything," says Patricia Walden, a renowned disciple of hatha yoga guru B.K.S. Iyengar. Moreover, others argue, Hinduism is not like a recipe ingredient that can be extracted from yoga. Says Subhas Tiwari, professor of yoga philosophy and meditation at the Hindu University of America in Orlando, Fla.: "Yoga is Hinduism."

"Christian yoga is an oxymoron," agrees Laurette Willis of Tahlequah, Okla. She says yoga led her to dabble in a rootless New Age lifestyle until she became a Christian in 1987. Willis now speaks to Christian groups against yoga, offering instead a series of poses called PraiseMoves.

Catholics face a more formidable skeptic. In 1989 the Vatican issued a document saying the practice of Eastern traditions like yoga "can degenerate into a cult of the body," warning Catholics against mistaking yoga's "pleasing sensations" for "spiritual well-being." It was signed by then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger--now Pope Benedict XVI. In a 2003 document the Vatican further distances itself from New Age practices, including yoga. Even so, Father Thomas Ryan, a Catholic leader of the Christian yoga movement, says he interprets the church's position not as a denunciation of yoga but as a reminder to "respect Christian logic" in its practice. "And that's what we're doing," he says.

For Judy Arko, 43, the logic behind Christian yoga is simple. "It gives me time alone with God," she says. "As a mom of two small kids, I don't get that--even in church."
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Yoga is a Hindu practice, and nothing less. Christianity and Hinduism do not go together. Christians, read your Bible and listen to God.

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For ALL that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the PRIDE OF LIFE--is not of the Father but is of the world...he who does the will of God abides forever." I John 2:15-17

"Beloved (Christians), do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world." I John 4:1

"We know that we (who are born-again by Jesus Christ) are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one." I John 5:19

"...the true worshipers (of God) will worship the Father in SPIRIT and TRUTH...God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." John 4:23-24 In other words, God is not to be worshiped by true Christians copying other religions' forms of worship or taking that which God rejects and adapting it to God. The Bible says that God rejects perverted sacrifice and praise. He demands to be worshiped only in the way He has specified and instructed in the Bible. To worship Him outside His instructions is to fall to forms of pagan worship, which is sin. Christians need to abstain from all forms of evil. Copying the worldly religions and practices that His word says to stay away from is bringing sinful practice into one's life, and God must punish sin. Let all Christians return to worshiping Almighty God the Savior of the world in obedience to His word. Worship Him the way He has told us to.

"Whenever I run into skepticism by Christians who practice Yoga I ask them these questions, 'Do you believe that people living in India who are practicing Yoga (and those who practiced Yoga for many past centuries) are doing it to get rock hard abs? Do you think they are doing it to relieve the stress of a forty-hour work week? No, of course not. They are doing it because it is a religious practice in which they believe unifies them with Brahmin (Creator)' " Brian Flynn, Running Against The Wind, pp 95-96