The Temple

Here is an interesting post on singing love songs in church entitled Jesus I’m Not in Love With You by Professor John Stackhouse.

ht: Between Two Worlds

Technorati Tags: Worship, Professor John Stackhouse

Here we go again. Christians getting upset about the wrong things, and Christians getting involved in the wrong things. The discussion about Yoga has been around for a while now. Is it ok for a Christian to participate in Yoga?

First, terms must be defined.

Yoga is defined in the dictionary as

1. a school of Hindu philosophy advocating and prescribing a course of physical and mental disciplines for attaining liberation from the material world and union of the self with the Supreme Being or ultimate principle.
2. any of the methods or disciplines prescribed, esp. a series of postures and breathing exercises practiced to achieve control of the body and mind, tranquillity, etc.
3. union of the self with the Supreme Being or ultimate principle.

Now obviously I am not a Hindu. Christianity and Hindu philosophy have multiple contrary points of view and beliefs. I am not saying nor do I think Christians who participate in Yoga are saying that Christianity and Hinduism are compatible. They are not. The real question is can a Christian participate in the physical components of Yoga without crossover into the spiritual elements?

Why do we always ask the wrong question? There are deeper questions that need to be addressed to determine the right response. Those deeper questions include the following:

• What is the nature of spiritual power, especially the realm of the demonic/satanic?
• Are Christians susceptible to spiritual forces by proximity?
• Are Christians susceptible to spiritual forces because they read a book, watch a movie, or participate in some physical posture or mechanism?
• Can people be overcome by a spiritual force outside of themselves? Can a Christian?
• What is the extent of Satan’s power, demonic power?
• Does the Holy Spirit (who resides in some way in the believer) submit himself to the presence of a demonic element if the believer (host) submits himself to that element?

The above questions presuppose the following:

• The existence of a being called Satan and the existence of the demonic realm.
• That Satan and demons have power

You know…this is just stupid. I am here trying to define and delineate something that is just silly. It is in the same category as Christians opposing Harry Potter, Halloween, Christmas, Easter, Rock and Roll music etc.

Just because something is proposed or practiced by non-Christians doesn’t mean it is necessarily evil, bad or objectionable. Just because something is practiced by Christians doesn’t mean it is good or worthy of praise. So with regard to Yoga, the spiritual principles and truth claims are obviously non-Christian. The physical stretches, positions and movements are not “necessarily” evil or off limits. Meditation and/or clearing the mind are good things. My wife’s answer to what she meditates on while exercising with a Yoga DVD: “Not falling over.”

For the most part, Yoga in America has nothing to do with Hinduism

No one has been harmed spiritually by participating in simple Yoga exercises.

People should be smart enough to distinguish between the destructive and innocuous, the false and the true. In fact, maybe more Christians should do Yoga, they certainly need to relax.

Technorati Tags: Yoga, Christianity, Hinduism, John MacArthur, Doug Pagitt

I cannot wait for this movie to come out (November 2). What a great book this is. Khaled Hosseini is the author. It is a great story about fathers and sons, friendship, betrayal and attempted restoration. Hosseini is an engaging author and more westerners need a dose of humanity from that part of the world. Hosseini’s second book, A Thousand Splendid Suns is also gripping.

Technorati Tags: Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns