Baptist leader’s yoga position a stretch
How far will some people go to get national media attention? And how does the proliferation of blogs and other electronic media play into this phenomenon?
It seems anyone can get ink or TV coverage if the message they offer is outrageous or erroneous. People respond on Web sites or in letters to editors pointing out the fallacy or folly. I’m just questioning the intent.
A few weeks ago, an obscure Florida preacher (number of followers in double digits) got way too much notoriety for threatening to burn the Quran to protest a proposed New York Islamic center two blocks from the site of the 9/11 attacks. When his penchant for manipulating the media came to light, he called the whole thing off. No negotiations, no bonfire, nada.
Meanwhile, the wife of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf reported to police that she had received death threats. ABC’s “This Week” then featured her in a town hall debate titled, “Should Americans Fear Islam?” How is this helpful?
Aside from untalented young celebrities and politicians, men of the cloth appear to be the latest to vie for 15 minutes of fame. Apparently unfulfilled by speaking directly to their flocks, they publish their opinions online, from where they are picked up by national media outlets.
Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler has revived an old debate by urging Christians to avoid yoga. Yoga!!! The benign practice of stretching and meditation is now under attack from the Baptist leader who claims, “It’s just not Christianity.” Well, whoever said it was?
Is there some reason they cannot peacefully coexist? Yoga is not a religion anymore than Tai Chi, Qi Gong or other martial arts and meditation practices are religions. Though yoga has roots in India where Hinduism thrives, it has spread to countries where religions from Buddhism to Christianity flourish.
Mohler doesn’t consider his view “eccentric.” Really? Well, it’s said that Pat Robertson once called yoga “really spooky,” and a few other Christian leaders have posited it may be incompatible with the teachings of Jesus. How about the teachings of Moses or the Buddha?
At a time when our President and other world leaders are calling for tolerance and increased understanding of different religious traditions, we might do better to publish and broadcast real information about faiths based in other cultures. Two of these come to mind: an article in last Sunday’s Parade, “We’ve Found Peace in This Land” featuring a family of Iraqi refugees resettled in Lincoln, Nebraska; and a PBS special report, “God in America, A New Adam/ A New Eden” scheduled to air Monday are surely more helpful.
Modern medicine has embraced yoga as beneficial in maintaining health. Meditation has been proven to reduce high blood pressure and yoga’s gentle stretching poses to ease pain and stiffness from arthritis. Yoga classes are routinely included for breast cancer patients coping with side effects of chemotherapy. Along with acupuncture (is this therapy also considered anti-Christian perhaps because it evolved over thousands of years in the Orient?), these therapies are often provided to cancer patients through the Wellness Community.
A young Christian woman who also leads classes in the basement of the local Methodist Church teaches our small yoga class. Among her students is a retired Army chaplain, a Baptist; a Catholic who leads a Bible study group, members of several Protestant congregations and one agnostic. We combine traditional yoga poses with focused breathing and a little meditation. Each session closes with an opportunity (not required) to assume prayer pose and say “Namaste.” That’s about as close as we get to anything resembling religious practice.
It is possible that Mohler is concerned about losing church members in light of published figures showing nearly 7 percent of American adults practice yoga while only 6.7 percent of adults are Southern Baptists (according to a Pew Research Center Forum on Religion and Public Life). Get over it, Mohler, there could be other reasons why you may be losing followers.
So where’s the conflict? A California megachurch pastor has called yoga a “false religion” though practitioners never refer to it as religion. Others object to meditation and chanting (the part Robertson found spooky). Chanting has not been part of the instruction in any yoga class I’ve attended. But I sometimes listen to Dick Sutphen’s CD of “Hypnotic OM” when my mind is racing and distracted. The intonations are useful for inducing deep relaxation. Call it what you will: meditation, pain management, or just taming the brain. But don’t call it religion.
And maybe our powerful media outlets could ignore some of these folks seeking their 15 minutes of fame. Surely we have more pressing issues to discuss.