Christians & Yoga

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” –Romans 12:2a

In my opinion one of the most biblically-informed, clear-thinking and relevant Christian bloggers out in cyberspace is Dr. Albert Mohler. His blog is found at AlbertMohler.com and there are other resources there too. Dr. Mohler is a seminary president and a frequent guest on talk shows such as Larry King. While I may not agree with the well-read and articulate Mohler on every issue, I do on many, though my tone may be less strident.

Some time ago Mohler posted a blog entry entitled partly titled “Should Christians Practice Yoga?” I found this intriguing because I had been asked that question just some time ago. I found myself caught because I certainly did not want to be a legalist, yet nor did I want to sanction for a believer that which I knew to be spiritual practice associated with a non-Christian worldview. Still I knew as a pastor it was, and is, my responsibility to give counsel on such questions when asked by those in our church family.

As usual, Mohler finds just the right resource to enlighten the believer so they can make wise and godly decisions and give meaningful answers. The resource Mohler cited on this topic was a book by Stefanie Syman entitled The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America. The author actively practices yoga and knows the history of yoga in America quite thoroughly Mohler informs us. In her book Syman tells of an episode when recently during the Easter holiday she had the chance to lead guests in yoga excercises on the White House lawn that she described as “sanitized, sanctioned, and family-friendly,” Commenting on this event further Syman wrote:

There certainly was no better proof that Americans had assimilated this spiritual discipline. We had turned a technique for God realization that had, at various points in time, enjoined its adherents to reduce their diet to rice, milk, and a few vegetables, fix their minds on a set of, to us, incomprehensible syllables, and self-administer daily enemas (without the benefit of equipment), to name just a few of its prerequisites, into an activity suitable for children. Though yoga has no coherent tradition in India, being preserved instead by thousands of gurus and hundreds of lineages, each of which makes a unique claim to authenticity, we had managed to turn it into a singular thing: a way to stay healthy and relaxed.

When you think about it, it is rather stunning that a practice that would have been seen as foreign or even “heathen” fifty years ago is now seen as a normal means of meditation and exercise by many Americans. In her book Syman does explain the spiritual roots of yoga and she actually argues yoga cannot be fully separated from its roots in Hinduism and Buddhism, nor from the role sexuality plays in it. Whether you agree with her or not, her argumentation should not be ignored by Christians who really want to know if it is a good activity for them to be engaged in.

Obviously, one of the fundamental differences between the meditation of yoga and Hinduism is that it calls for an emptying of the mind, whereas Christian meditation is always about filling the mind with Christian truth as made known in the Bible. The recitation, memorization and meditation upon the Christian Scriptures is the means of renewing the mind (Romans 12:1-2) and of motivating believers to offer their bodies as living sacrifices unto the Lord. As followers of Jesus we are not to leave the consciousness of this world, but to look to Christ to rule our conscious, and even unconscious, thoughts. The Christian way is never escape from reality, but the transformation of reality into that which is Christ-honoring.

Listen, I see nothing inherently wrong with the physical posturing of the body in various ways or pursuing new forms of exercise. But the question is what are these positions of the body supposed to teach? What do they represent? What are you seeking to achieve by them? Why are they considered optimal? Further, consider this thought from Mohler: “if you have to meditate intensely in order to achieve or to maintain a physical posture, it is no longer merely a physical posture.”

Friends, I am not here to condemn anyone who is doing yoga for exercise purposes. I am not seeking to be negative or a prude. I am not trying to clamp your liberty in Christ. If your conscience is clear on doing it as a form of excercise, then hear me saying just yoga away. But I wonder if more is not involved than we think when Stefanie Syman writes that the practice of yoga in America “has augured a truly post-Christian, spiritually polyglot country.” Hmm, sounds like she, at least, sees it as more than an exercise.

Striving after Him in all things!
Scott

Inspired to Pray?

At my private Christian college in Pennsylvania I was once assigned for reading the classic book Power through Prayer by E.M. Bounds. I found the little book a great challenge to my prayer life. Now as I have called our church to prayer I thought I would share some quotes from that book. Power through Prayer is full of strong words particularly directed to preachers, but I have listed quotes below that should challenge every believer in Jesus. Yes, I know some do think Bounds is a little too focused on human effort in his writings, but personally any lack in prayer for me has always been on that end, I assure you.

I hope these quotes will inspire you to pray more fervently and frequently for the needs in your life, our church, our community and our world. Here are some words from E. M. Bounds:

Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still.

Much time spent with God is the secret to all successful praying…He yields to the persistency of a faith that knows Him.

The more true saints, the more praying; the more praying, the more true saints.

Christ knows nothing of prayerless Christians.

To be little with God, is to be little for God.

Prayer is the creator as well as the channel of devotion.


Seeking greater devotion to prayer,
Scott

A CALL TO PRAYER

“For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds;
and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” – Matthew 7:8

The Scriptures seem clear that God has determined to use the prayers of His people to evoke His power. Surely he does not need our prayers to display His power; nevertheless it is a means He uses. I speculate that one reason He does so is so that our yearnings to see His power would drive us to fellowship with Him in prayer. While we may be focused on having needs met when entering such prayer, God is constantly focused on a relationship with us. He wants our needs and those of His church to compel us to meet with Him in a state of dependency. He wants us to surrender control and acknowledge His. And this is precisely what prayer does.

On Sunday September 26 I urged our local church to enter into an extended “Season of Prayer” for the remainder of 2010. There are many factors that God put upon my heart that caused me to beckon our church body to prayer. Among them is the spiritual, moral and economic state of our nation. Our nation desperately needs a Great Awakening and I am seriously praying for it. This economy should be causing the lost and the redeemed to cry out to God. We should pray it will! A second motivating factor toward prayer at this time is the very critical health of several church members who could gain great encouragement knowing our church body was praying for them constantly—every hour of every day. There are other factors that I listed out in the Prayer Prompt Card you can pick up when you join the church prayer chain. Yet at the top of that list you will see my desire to see revival in this church.

I am convinced we will never be the church we want to be unless we become more fervent in prayer. I believe we should plead with God to give us a spiritual breakthrough in this church and community. We should ask him to awaken the lethargic and lukewarm. We must ask him to put soul cravings within the populace of Lake Wales. These inner workings by God are spiritual and thus, our best means of joining with God in seeing this work done is through prayer. So will you join me in praying for our church, as well as these other needs? Will you give yourself to prayer for our church, community, and nation one hour per week? You need not stay kneeled or positioned physically in prayer that whole hour, but we would ask you remain in a spirit of prayer your full time. If you are willing, I invite you to sign up this Sunday for the prayer chain during this season of prayer.

Bear in mind, author E. M. Bounds has written, “Praying is spiritual work, and human
nature does not like taxing, spiritual work.” And Bounds also warns in his book Power Through Prayer that “A prayerless age will only have scant models of divine power”. May God grant us the humility and desire to be greater in prayer. May He persuade us of the priority of and power available through prayer in the Name of Christ.

Praying for His power to fall!
Pastor Scott

Dumb Christians and Smart Atheists?

In the last week news outlets began reporting on the findings of a recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. The U.S. Religious Knowledge Survey asked 32 questions on tenets, practices, history and leading figures in major world religions. The overall average score was 16 correct. Here is the breakdown of how major religious groups compared as reported by USA today initially on September 29, 2010:

Demographic Group & Number Correct
Atheist/Agnostic 20.9
Jewish 20.5
Mormon 20.3
White Evangelical Protestant 17.6
White Catholic 16.0
White Mainline Protestant 15.8
Black Protestant 13.4
Hispanic Catholic 11.6
By Anne Godlasky, USA TODAY
*Atheists and Agnostics were scored separately but had the same number correct. Source: Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life phone survey of 3,412 U.S. adults in May and June. Margins of error: +/-2.5 percentage points overall, larger for subgroups.

You can actually go to the USA Today website and see how you do on five sample questions from the survey. While the USA Today and other national news outlets found it astounding that atheists knew more about religion I, frankly, did not.
Sociologists studying these matters have long reported that atheists and agnostics are highly educated and very knowledgeable of religious matters (The Denominational Society, Andrew Greely, 1972.). As Greg Lewis, Pew senior researcher, reported in the USA Today article 8 in 10 atheists and agnostics grew up in a religious tradition. So while those who say there is no God may be called foolish by the Christian Scripture (Psalm 14:1), this does not mean they are an uneducated or uninformed fool. On the contrary, perhaps as 1 Corinthians 8:1 indicates it is their great knowledge that has “puffed them up’ to where they could reject a belief in God, or at least assert he is unknowable (agnostic). This should remind followers of Jesus that when they speak to an atheist or agnostic one should not assume they are ignorant or unaware of biblical teachings. Rather, we should seek to uncover what they learned or experienced in life that made them turn away from a belief in God.
A second observation I would make is that the research really revealed more about the knowledge of religion, in general, rather than about biblical beliefs or a knowledge of God. Therefore, I believe the Orlando Sentinel’s headline on the article about the research was very misleading. Their headline read: Believe It: Atheists Know God. Yet when one reads the questions asked by Pew Research you find they really are not measuring if people know God. They are asking questions about world religions, church history, and questions about governmental rulings pertaining to the expression of religion. These were hardly questions about “knowing God”. Even questions pertaining to the knowledge of the Bible were very few. Consequently, the survey is truly more about religion and less about God. Sadly, some news outlets cannot seem unable to make this distinction.
However, it is still alarming that so many religiously-involved Americans know so little about the Bible and general religious matters. It was sad to hear just 55% of all respondents knew the Golden Rule isn’t one of the Ten Commandments or that 45% could not name all four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). It is lamentable that only 11% knew the fiery preach and theologian who participated in the First Great Awakening, an 18th Century revival, was Jonathan Edwards, not Charles Finney or Billy Graham. These responses seem to reveal the “dumbing down” of American evangelicalism and of the professing Christian populace as a whole. The poor showing by evangelicals reminds me of the warnings given by Mark Noll in his 1994 book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind.
In that book Noll stated, “American evangelicals are not exemplary for their thinking” (3) and in his work he outlines why. In part, he cites our desire to be “pragmatic, populist, charismatic, and technological, more than intellectual” (55). Further, “we have tended to define piety as an inward state opposed to careful thought….” Reminding us that this is no small matter Noll quotes Charles Malik who wrote earlier (The Two Tasks, 1980), “The problem is not only to win souls, but to save minds. If you win the whole world and lose the mind of the world, you will soon discover you have not won the world. Indeed, it may turn out that you have actually lost the world (26).” Noll moves from that point to challenge American evangelicalism to move from an anti-intellectual posture toward activities that promote Christian thinking at every level.
I can only hope that this Pew Research Survey will also awaken Christians in the pulpits and pews of the need to learn more about their faith, their Scriptures, their religious history, and about the beliefs of others in our pluralistic society. May we, the church of Jesus, love the Lord with our minds as well as our heart, soul, and strength (Luke 10:27). Indeed, may we have a zeal that is based on knowledge (Romans 10:2).

Eager to know Him more & make Him known!
Pastor Scott