If you drive through any major city in America you will find various Yoga studios stuck in the middle stripe malls. There are books, DVDs, TV specials and more. Yoga, as a healthy exercise craze is going strong and does not look like it is going to quit. My thought on this is very simple: Yoga is a religious word. I am not saying it is good or bad for it to infiltrate our secular society, people just need to be aware that Yoga is a religious word from the Hindu religion.
Hinduism is a religion that believes people pay for past deeds through reincarnation. There are multiple paths people can take to pay for past sins.
What people in the West have done, is they have taken the descriptions, the practices and the
procedures and dressed them up in secular clothes and opened businesses to teach people. When a person goes to a Yoga studio they will be practicing the exact same moves and disciplines as the Yogis in India. Of course, in most studios, the religious aspects are kept secret. People are not told that they are performing activities to atone for the sins in previous lives and that they are earning points with many of the 3 million gods so that in their next life, they will be born into a higher caste. Instead this is sold as exercise and stretching practices, and that is it.
My question is this: Should true believers in Jesus Christ and the gospel participate in Yoga? Should churches have Yoga classes in their buildings during the week. Should Christians have anything to do with Yoga. I have posed this question and I have been told that modern Yoga is nothing more than stretching and fitness training. That cannot be true, because people in India today do not think so and they are doing the exact same thing.
There are hundreds of exercises and stretching practices and fitness routines that do not come from India’s religious practice. Why don't Christians do some of those and simply call them fitness stretching? When Christians borrow words that are clearly defined in other regions, and call them benign or secular or something, I believe they are deceiving themselves. When a Christian participates in classic, ancient Yoga, they are mixing the religious practices of two religions. Christians are saved by faith and grace and Christ alone. Hindus gain points with Yoga. Christians need to find another practice and another name for their exercise.
#Thoughts on Words#
Hinduism is a religion that believes people pay for past deeds through reincarnation. There are multiple paths people can take to pay for past sins.
- Devotion: Give yourself fully to the worship of Hindu gods. This means selling everything, wearing white and spending most of the day in worship
- Knowledge/Wisdom: A person can dedicate their life to studying the Hindu religion and teaching it. Becoming a Hindu theologian is a way to atone for past sins.
- Action: This is the path of service, serving others, always giving, always doing good.
What people in the West have done, is they have taken the descriptions, the practices and the
My question is this: Should true believers in Jesus Christ and the gospel participate in Yoga? Should churches have Yoga classes in their buildings during the week. Should Christians have anything to do with Yoga. I have posed this question and I have been told that modern Yoga is nothing more than stretching and fitness training. That cannot be true, because people in India today do not think so and they are doing the exact same thing.
There are hundreds of exercises and stretching practices and fitness routines that do not come from India’s religious practice. Why don't Christians do some of those and simply call them fitness stretching? When Christians borrow words that are clearly defined in other regions, and call them benign or secular or something, I believe they are deceiving themselves. When a Christian participates in classic, ancient Yoga, they are mixing the religious practices of two religions. Christians are saved by faith and grace and Christ alone. Hindus gain points with Yoga. Christians need to find another practice and another name for their exercise.
#Thoughts on Words#
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