Sunday, July 13, 2014

Ban on "demonic" Yoga

....nothing wrong with stretching...but when the tenets of yoga are included.....a worship act to spirit beings other than the God of the Bible....A faithful Christian can no more say they are practicing yoga for Jesus than....committing adultery for Jesus.....
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Not just Yoga, but also on the dislike list are...Tai Chi and Reiki. Even pilates may not be quite kosher (see below). However only Yoga is considered demonic (for a very long, detailed explanation see link below).

Best quotation from the comments: They banned yoga from the Church Hall. Then they figured out they need the money so they withdrew the ban....not quite the impact of ye olde England pubs being converted into Muslim prayer halls but still, a living, breathing example of demonic powers....


As far as Catholics are concerned, the current Pope seems to see nothing amiss with Marxism, which actually disparages religion as opium of  the masses and which has a lived record of persecuting Christians (in China and elsewhere) much more than Hindus-Buddhists have ever done.

Finally, we are not sure of how spiritual "yoga in the nude" actually is, but we recommend it strongly.
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In an unprecedented move against bendy people, it was reported this week that a Catholic priest has been campaigning against yoga. A missive from Father Padraig O'Baoill to his parishioners in County Donegal warns that yoga, tai chi and reiki are "unsavoury activities" that could endanger their souls. 
And before there are any disparaging remarks about Donegal's slogan being "Up here it's different", it should be noted that a Catholic priest in Southampton banned yoga from his church hall in 2012 because it was advertised as "spiritual"; and there is even a US pastor willing to say something extreme, outlandish and bigoted on the subject, with one spluttering, in 2010, that yoga is "demonic".

Much of this criticism stems from the fact that yoga has its roots in Hinduism and Buddhism. But as anyone who has tried yoga a handful of times knows (and it is mostly only ever a handful of times – first as a new year's resolution, then because you've spent money on the mat, and finally, well, it's been at least a year since you tried …), the yoga practised in the church halls of this country comes as close to Hinduism as your head is to your backside when you're in an "upward facing dog".
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A priest has banned yoga from a church hall because the class was "not compatible" with the Catholic faith.

Instructor Cori Withell from Hampshire said her yoga and pilates classes at St Edmund's Church building in Southampton were cancelled with 10 days to go.

Father John Chandler said that the hall had to be used for Catholic activities, and he banned it because it was advertised as "spiritual yoga".

Ms Withell, 37, said it "seemed terribly petty to cancel the classes".

The ban is not Catholic Church policy and decisions are left to the discretion of individual priests.

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There is nothing wrong with stretching, exercising, or regulating one’s stress through breathing. But when the tenets of yoga are included, it’s by definition a worship act to spirit beings other than the God of the Bible. 

By way of analogy, there is nothing inherently wrong with intimacy, sex, and pleasure. But when the tenets of adultery are included, it’s a sinfully idolatrous worship act. A faithful Christian can no more say they are practicing yoga for Jesus than they can say they are committing adultery for Jesus.
A little over a year ago, I said yoga was demonic. My stance hasn’t changed since then, but I thought I’d take this opportunity to provide a much fuller and comprehensive teaching on what yoga is and why it is in fact demonic.  

By demonic I mean it’s a spiritual act to a being other than the God of the Bible. And, for those unfamiliar with me, I’m no raging Christian fundamentalist. My most vocal critics tend to be from the fundamentalist tribe as I do drink alcohol, have been known to use strong language, and talk very frankly about the joys of married sex. I’m no prude, but I am a pastor.
Giving sound teaching on yoga is important because there is increasing adoption of yoga by our culture, with over 15.8 million people practicing yoga and nearly every store you go into selling all kinds of yoga products. 

It’s gone mainstream. As such, Christians are also adopting it as a healthy aspect of exercise and lifestyle—complete with things like “Holy Yoga,” which is an oxymoron. 

Saying yoga can be Christian because you do it for Jesus is a bit like going into a mosque, going through the worship practices, and then saying you’re not a Muslim because you’re doing it for Jesus. They don’t mix.
When looking at the acceptance of yoga in the Christian church, I find that there are two issues at hand: (1) People simply don’t understand what yoga is, its roots, and its tenets; or (2) People think that they can engage in yoga because it’s just stretching, while ignoring the religious aspects of the practice of yoga.
As one woman who identified herself as a mainline Protestant said in an article about my comments a year ago, “Here we go again with fear-based, black-and-white thinking. . . . It's not fair to say yoga is demonic. In fact, I find it insulting. There are many ways to grow spiritually." To this I would reply, “No. There are not many ways to grow spiritually. There is one way, which is through the power of the Holy Spirit provided through Jesus’ death and resurrection on the cross, as part of God the Father’s plan for salvation.” 

Comments like this woman’s are the exact reason why it’s important to explore what yoga really is and what it teaches, and to understand that the spiritual elements of yoga make their way into our life and culture in ways we don’t necessarily see overtly.
In this lengthy post, I’ll define what yoga is, give a history of yoga, talk about the various forms of yoga, and take a look at yoga through the “receive, reject, or redeem” matrix that I commonly use.
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Link (1): http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/11/father-obaoill-yoga-unsavoury-irish-priest

Link (2): http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-hampshire-19729211

Link (3): http://pastormark.tv/2011/11/02/christian-yoga-its-a-stretch

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regards

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