Southern Baptists lead crusade against...Yoga!
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Would Jesus have done a downward dog? God forbid, say church leaders:
Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler says the stretching and meditative discipline derived from Eastern religions is not a Christian pathway to God. Mohler said he objects to "the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine."
"That's just not Christianity," Mohler told The Associated Press.
Pat Robertson has called the chanting and other spiritual components that go along with yoga "really spooky." California megachurch pastor John MacArthur called yoga a "false religion." Muslim clerics have banned Muslims from practicing yoga in Egypt, Malaysia and Indonesia, citing similar concerns.
Spooky chanting? Like, Om Shanti? I guess the word for "Peace" only counts as spiritual when you chant it English. Fun fact: the number of yoga fans in America now exceeds the number of Southern Baptists...
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Spooky Pat Robertson calling yoga "spooky"?????
America hits a new low. WAR ON PEACEFULNESS!!! Serenity is unAmerican. Get your hate on!
This has been a big topic here
Mohler is based out of Louisville, and there's been some funny discussion about it, epsecially among the LTEs in the paper. Like this:
My boss is Southern Baptist and a yoga nut, so she's been really livid about it, cuz Mohler's making Baptists look bad, and he's encouraging people to be unhealthy.
On of the LTEs. was just one sentence.
"Now I know why they keep that room so hot."
HA! Nice to know most of us are having shits and giggles about this.
I love this!!
Thanks for posting it.
So, what do they suggest in its place?
The only vice supported by Baptists and most Christian fundamentalists is gluttony, in the name of fellowship. They let YMCAs wither because of their ecumenical focus - and that "nope, we don't care about good works through the body" crap ignores what the Ys did, for wholesome physical development.
And if they're so all fired-up about creating Christian healthcare cooperatives, discouraging simple exercises capable of being done anywhere with a clean floor is really going to bite them hard, in terms of long-term costs.
As a yoga practitioner
all I have to say is:
THANK GOD!!
Know they not the Scriptures speak of the body as a temple?
I was raised in the Northern Baptist church, and we were taught these verses, among many others, of course. Now fallen away, I do love the poetry of this language.
What's with these Southerm Baptists? They do give Baptists and all Christians a bad name.
No, it's the fact that brown non-Christians started it
Full stop. Mohler even went on to talk about health programs offered by churches, as a replacement.
No, Mohler is one of those types, who feels getting the butts in the pews is "enough". They don't have to do works, they just gotta listen to him, or those like him, and go forth and spout their garbage, to be a "good" Christian.
So to him, going to a room, and listening to someone else talk about something somewhat spiritual, and totally-non Christian, and participating in it like you would come hymnal time, is just like leaving the church. It is worshipping others.
Ah, yes...easy Christianity
Where topics like abortion are more important than giving away all your earthly possessions to follow Christ because former requires so little sacrifice. Just outta curiosity, since I don't care to learn much about this Mohler person: does he run a big mega-church primarily "administering" to the upper-middle class types? Just curious, because, you know, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than . . .
He's actually in charge of a school for pastors
But yes, he's an enthusiastic supporter of the megachurches.
And yea, he's never in the paper talking about works, deeds and acts(you'd think if stuff like that was important, they'd put some of it in the Bible, maybe even name a few chapters after it, but no!).
Just about the rights we need to take away from people who don't conform to his idea of Christianity.
An interesting thing I read today
Was reading this review this morning of William Dalrymple's latest book, "Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India", and a line jumped out at me.
The reviewer notes that not a single Indian language has a word that means "religion", in the sense that we understand religion, as something distinct from the rest of life.
In Indian culture, there is simply no demarcation line between the sacred and the everyday.
Which may be the main problem here. The Spiritural Baptists and the yogis are, literally, not speaking the same language.
The Asian/Indian concept of the sacred makes much more sense to me. Nothing in life, least of all spirit, fits neatly into defined spaces.