Yoga: More than Meets the Eyes? HIRD

By the Rev. Dr. Ed Hird

Over 68,000 people have read this article since April 2013.  I was amazed by the remarkable interest.  You may find this a stretching article in body, mind and spirit.  I have intentionally avoided writing this article for years, because I knew that it might be unavoidably controversial.  To be honest, I have been waiting for someone else to write this article instead of me.  Like most pastors, I want people to like me.   With genuine reluctance, I eventually faced my conflict avoidance, obeyed the Lord and read hundreds of yoga books in our local public libraries.  In preparing this article, I have not read one book which warns against yoga.  All book citations in this article are from yoga advocates and practitioners.

               To many people, yoga is just the hottest new exercise fad for younger women.  Twenty million North Americans are now doing yoga, including around four million men.  These twenty million people are currently being trained by over 70,000 yoga practitioners in at least 20,000 North American locations.[1]  Many people confuse yoga with simple stretching.  Stretching and calisthenics are good things which I participate in weekly at the local gym.  Yoga has not cornered the market on healthy stretching and calisthenics.  Physical fitness does not begin and end on a yoga mat.  I am convinced 

that we do well when we take care of our bodies as part of our Christian stewardship.  God wants us to be healthier in body, mind, and spirit. We all need to get back to the gym on a regular basis, whatever our views of yoga.  Your body will  thank you.

I unknowingly participated in yoga, in the form of martial arts, for twenty years before renouncing it.[2]  After much prayer, I reluctantly gave it up because I didn’t want any gray area in my Christian life.   It is not an easy or light thing for someone to renounce this, even as a Christian.  For many, it is absolutely unthinkable.  To even imagine giving it up may leave some feeling threatened or even angry.  In hindsight, I realized that the ritual motions and postures (asanas or katas) had gotten very deep into my psyche, shaping my very identity.[3]  Somehow over twenty years, they had become ingrained in me and even became part of me.  Without intending it, I was to some degree serving two masters.  This was a hard truth for me to accept.  I have heard of one Christian who is so entrenched in yoga that they have vowed to never give up yoga even if God himself told them to stop.  It makes you wonder sometimes who is in charge of our lives.

              Historically yoga was only taught in secret to high-caste male Brahmins.[4]  It was very much a guy thing for the wealthy and powerful.   In recent years, North American yoga has largely stripped itself of its more obvious Eastern trappings: gurus, incense, Sanskrit, and loin cloths.[5]  It has gone through a remarkable image makeover in a relatively short time period.  Yoga classes and paraphernalia have become a ten-billion+ dollar consumer-driven industry, involving designer spandex, yoga mats, and DVDs.[6]  Old-time Yoga purists have called this new development the yoga industrial complex.  In some parts of North America, yoga moms are replacing the demographic of soccer moms.  Yoga has become such a strongly entrenched cultural fad that in some parts of North America it is being taught to children, often using tax-payers’ money, in otherwise strictly secular public school systems.  Spiritually speaking, yoga has replaced the Lord’s Prayer which, you will remember, was bounced from our children’s classrooms for being too religious.

             This North American yoga industry has registered thousands of copyrights, patents and trademarks, sometimes resulting in threatening lawsuits.[7]  The Indian Government is so concerned about the yoga copyrighting that they have set up their own taskforce to protect yoga from being pirated by Westerners:

“Yoga piracy is becoming very common, and we are moving to do something about it,” says Vinod Gupta, the head of a recently established Indian government task force on traditional knowledge and intellectual-property theft.

‘We know of at least 150 asanas [yoga positions] that have been pirated in the U.S., the UK, Germany and Japan,’ he says. ‘These were developed in India long ago and no one can claim them as their own.’ In an effort to protect India’s heritage, the task force has begun documenting 1,500 yoga postures drawn from classical yoga texts — including the writings of the Indian sage, Patanjali, the first man to codify the art of yoga.”[8]

                 There are seven main kinds of yoga: Hatha Yoga, Bhakti Yoga (devotion), Karma Yoga (action), Jnana Yoga (wisdom), Mantra Yoga, Tantra Yoga, and Raja Yoga (royal).   In the 15th Century AD Hatha Yoga Pradipika, its first three verses teach that the ignorant masses are not yet ready for the lofty Raja Yoga, and so Hatha Yoga has been developed as a “staircase” to lead them to Raja Yoga.  [9]   The most popular yoga offered in one’s local Recreation Center is Hatha Yoga, so-called physical yoga involving numerous yoga techniques called asanas.  These yogic asanas appear to the uninitiated as if they are just stretching exercises.  The more fully initiated realize that yogic asanas are worship postures to Hindu deities.   The yoga insiders all know the real scoop.  They also know that North Americans are not quite ready yet for the full truth about the religious identity of yoga.  My question is this: Is it really honest and respectful to pretend yoga is just a physical activity without any spiritual implications?[10]  More importantly, should people get themselves bent out of shape over Christians doing yoga?  

To read the rest of the article, click on: http://edhird.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/yoga-more-than-meets-the-eyes/

THE REASON FOR THE SEASON - Robert Scott

As this entry is published, it is twenty-five days until Good Friday. We are approaching the most important festival of the Church year.

Some may wish to challenge me on this point but I believe that, were it not for the events of Easter, the rest of what we do would be senseless and empty.

Certainly, Christmas gets the most attention from the secular world. There are more special programs on television. The community seems to become more involved in the events leading up to the Nativity. That has been true, at least, in the nine or ten communities where I have lived in my church career. SEARS does not put out a Spring edition of the Wish Book.

What we do at Easter is something that no other faith community can do. We celebrate an empty grave.

Let's not have any foolish talk about grave-robbing followers, a swooning Jesus who rolled back the stone after he recovered from a pain-induced faint, or any of the other fantastic theories that eliminate the possibility of the intervention of God, the Resurrection of a Saviour, and the salvation of all who put their faith in Him alone.

Christians, of all the so-called 'faith communities' of the world, are the only people on earth who do not have a grave where the mortal remains of the object of their worship lie. We can thank God for that. Because of what the empty grave signifies, we should be a people who reverence this season more than any other. Without the Resurrection, Christmas is just another, elaborate baby shower. Without the Easter reality, there is no reason to gather as the community of faith to worship.

If Jesus did not die for the express purpose of taking away our sins; if he did not rise again to demonstrate that God has the power to do such a thing; if Jesus is just another 'guru' with a new way to express belief in 'a higher power' that could be just about anything you choose to call 'god', then we would be better off following our favourite author in the 'Self-Help' shelves of our local book store.

Somebody has got to say this. It might as well be me. We are wretched sinners—all of us. We deserve eternal separation from God. We are supremely bad people, no matter what the 'feel good' proponents tell us. Folks who can't stand to hear that they are sinners are making those folks rich.

With regard to our relationship with God, we messed up pretty badly. Read Genesis to get your first inkling of how bad things went just shortly after the creation. The Bible is full of stories about bad people and the account of the life of one divinely good one.

We may do 'good' things. We might not have intentionally hurt anyone. At least, we have not heard many complaints about our behaviour. But, God looks at it differently. He said that the penalty of eternal separation was what we deserved for our disobedience.

Like a loving parent, though, He wanted to bestow His grace upon his Creation. Someone else took your place and mine. Someone else experienced what it would be like to have the Heavenly Father turn his back and just walk away. At the moment that Jesus cried out, “… why have you forsaken me?” he was feeling that abandonment that should have been the outcome for us all.

Easter is a happy occasion for Christians because God demonstrates His love for us. Jesus came to take away the fear of a vengeful god. Christ died on the Cross, took our sins, bore our shame, and experienced the penalty for our sins. And finally, and gloriously, He rose again. And he has commissioned us to spread the good news.

He is risen indeed!

Robert Scott is a pastor and the author of ADVERTISING MURDER, LOST YOUTH and MURDER EXPRESS, titles in the Jack Elton Mystery series, Published by AVALON Books, New York, N.Y.

To Resolve or not To Resolve - M Laycock

I was delivering Christmas cards last week and stopped in to the small gym where I have been noticeable only by my absence lately. I admit I felt a little guilty going in the door. The owner greeted me with a wide smile and we wished one another a Merry Christmas. Then I said, “One of my New Year’s resolutions will be to get here more often.” My friend shook her head. “Oh don’t do that, don’t make yourself feel guilty about it!” Then she stammered a bit. “But …. I don’t mean …. Do come back!”

We laughed and I assured her I would.

I’ve been thinking about what she said ever since. I’ve been thinking about guilt. It does seem to be a big part of what we do at this time of year. We feel guilty for all the things we didn’t do in the past year - like finish that novel or write that article that’s still in draft form in the computer -and most of us resolve to do better. So guilt isn’t such a bad thing, if, and that’s a big if, we make the changes necessary in our lives. If guilt is unresolved it becomes an unhealthy thing and can lead to bitterness and anger that will only make us miserable. But guilt that leads to change, that’s healthy guilt.

So I have decided to make that New Year’s resolution, and a few others – like finish that novel and write that article - and I’ve gone a step further. I have a plan for carrying it out. Often that’s the key. If we just dwell on our guilty feelings and set no goals or plans for how to change, nothing constructive will happen. Unhealthy guilt will result.

I’ve heard many people scoff and say that all religion does is make you feel guilty. They are absolutely right. But Jesus has gone a step further. He has set out a plan that wipes away the guilt. All we have to do is move from religion to relationship. Accept Him as our brother, our friend, our saviour, and no amount of guilt can hold us down.

The word guilt appears a few times in the Bible. My favourite is in the book of Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 22 – “let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”

I like those words, “assurance”, “cleanse” and “washed with pure water.” Though the guilt of our sin may bear us down, there is forgiveness. No matter what we have done, or what has been done to us, God forgives, and we are set free “by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body…” (Hebrews 10:20).

The best resolution any of us can make as we move into 2009 is to get to know Him more. I pray we will all resolve to do so. It’s the only way to get rid of all that guilt.

Worship in Laughter and in Truth - Arends

I have a confession to make. Recently, I threw out three boxes worth of my kids’ Sunday School crafts. I felt heartless and vaguely evil. But really, one can only store so much fun foam in a single house.

Though I tried to be ruthless, there was one piece of art I was compelled to rescue from the recycle bin. My daughter made it in 2004, when she was three.

Bethany was excited the day she brought her “worship” craft home from church. It had involved cutting out and colouring pre-supplied pictures of children engaged in four different acts of worship, and then gluing those pictures onto the sheet. (OK, that’s not much of a craft, but she was three. You were expecting decoupage?)

She was particularly proud of this assignment because of the gluing part. Bethany really, really, really likes to glue things. I think she may have a future in adhesives.

After I had finished acknowledging the excellence of the glue-work, I asked Bethany to tell me what each of the pictures represented. “Praying” she said, when I pointed to the little girl with her hands folded. “Giving,” she said when I pointed to the boy putting coins in an offering plate. “Reading,” she shouted when I pointed to the girl with a Bible.

I saved the best picture for last – the little boy with his mouth open wide in song. Singing is my favourite form of worship. I knew it would be Bethany’s too, what with her mother being a singer and all.

“Laughing,” said Bethany, when I pointed to the boy with the open mouth.

I stand corrected. Laughing is my favourite form of worship.

I never really thought about it before, but laughter is a bit of an obsession with me. I’ve been unconsciously backing up a Laughter-As-Worship theory for a while now, collecting various quotes on the matter. I was recently compelled to stop reading Anne Lammot’s Plan B long enough to shout a Super-Bowlian “YES!” (complete with fist-pump) and scribble this line from the book on an airplane napkin: “Laughter is carbonated holiness.” I’ve always agreed with e.e. cumming’s proclamation that “The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” And anyone who knows much about me will know why I give a hearty amen to this bit of wisdom from Woody Allen: “I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose.” (In my case, there was an unfortunate incident involving Diet Coke, and the memory of it gives the “laughter is carbonated holiness” idea a certain poignancy.)

Recently our neighbourhood association asked families to purchase commemorative paving tiles as a fund-raiser for the construction of a water park. They suggested that each family supply their names and a favourite quote to be engraved on the soon-to-be-splashed-upon chunks of cement. We debated, agonized, and nearly despaired of finding just the right saying, until in the nick of time one of us remembered this from Karl Barth: “Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.”

Of course Barth had to have meant the good kind of laughter – the kind borne from joy or relief or gratitude or the sweet surprise of community. (“I've always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, ‘Ain't that the truth,’” says Quincy Jones.) There is also derisive laughter – the kind borne from pettiness or vulgarity (which is different than earthiness) or cruelty. But that is something else altogether. It’s not hard to tell the redemptive kind – the laughter that is, I believe, reflexive, even involuntary worship – from the destructive kind. (“If you like a man's laugh before you know anything of him, you may say with confidence that he is a good man,” said Fyodor Dostoevsky.)

A good laugh is a release – even if only for a moment – from worry, from strife, from self. It is an abandonment, a cleansing, an affirmation. It is a sudden, often unbidden, confession that someway, somehow, all is well, or at least there is a hope that it can be.

I think it’s telling that we talk about “gales” of laughter. We instinctively recognize that laughter belongs to the world of wind, or Spirit – unexpected joy arrives on the gust of a fresh current and carries us to a different place than the one it found us in. And that is why I suspect that Lamott is right – that laughter is holiness, that it is part of the life of God, and that to laugh from your belly is to worship the Giver of all good gifts.

The Trinitarian theologians use the word “Perichoresis” to describe the mutual indwelling – the happy fellowship – of the Father, Son and Spirit. That relationship is often pictured as a tireless and joyful divine dance. I can’t think about that holy dance without remembering certain dances that have been known to take place in our family room. (For Shy-Repressed-Reserved-Uncoordinated-Canadian-Baptists, we can really cut a rug.) When our kids were toddlers, Mark and I would twirl and spin and dosado them until they were helpless with laughter so hard it was soundless, and then we would laugh at them laughing until we were all worn out with gladness. If we’d have thought of it, we could have quoted the Psalmist as we held our aching sides on the family room floor. “Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. … The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.” (Ps 126:2-3)

It’s serious business, laughter. It’s the kind of sacrifice of praise that puts our insides right. The old cliché is true – laughter is a medicine that reminds us that our sickness will one day be healed and we shall be whole and holy.

We’re not given many specifics about the Other Side, but I am convinced of two things. First, there will undoubtedly be special rewards for Sunday School teachers. These prizes will be awarded according to a “craft index” that recognizes the total number of crafts an individual has had to come up with per years lived. Second, I’m quite certain that in the Father’s house, there will be laughter. It will be deep and delightful, and in abundant supply.

Until then, laughter is the Elmer’s Glue that attaches us to the Goodness that inhabits this world, and to the Gladness that hints at the world to come. Drop by sometime, and I’ll show you the sticky, dog-eared craft that proves it.

www.carolynarends.com

Great new Christian Popular Culture and Science Mag - O'Leary

Check out Salvo, a lively Christian popular science and culture magazine that deserves a zillion more subscribers and will reward you handsomely for your support. Go here for a free excerpt from my book By Design or by Chance?, for example.

Hard pill as it is for me to swallow, the other columnists are all better than me, so be sure to just get lost in the site. And remember to feed the kitty.

You can read

The Privileged Planet
An excerpt from Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay W. Richards' groundbreaking book on the ways in which our place in the cosmos is designed for discovery by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay W. Richards

Science and the Church
What it means to question Darwinism by Herbert London

Full Contact
My dream dialogue with Ellie Arroway by Regis Nicoll

By Design or By Chance?
An excerpt from Denyse O'Leary's comprehensive book on the theories surrounding the origin of life by Denyse O'Leary

The New Religion of Computer Consciousness
Transhumanists are working on their own cyber-immortalized Tower of Babel by Leslie Sillars

"Protection" from What?
Abstinence, fertility cycles, and sex education by Kate Bluett

Marriage Ain't What It Used to Be
. . . Or is it? by Mike D'Virgilio

Everybody's Doing It
Planned Parenthood's Teenwire and its encouragement of adolescent sexual behavior by Dawn Eden

Sex Boom Bah
Cheerleading gone wild by Herbert I. London

In Praise of Free Love
by Sam Torode

The Devil Made Me Do It
Freedom, responsibility, and the media by Thomas M. Sipos

Holiday Wars
Twas the season for discrimination by Thomas M. Sipos

A Doctor in Spite of Himself
A review of Fox's new television series Houseby Mike D'Virgilio

Housewives Not Desperate
Sexist show calls Hollywood's progressive bluff by Adam Groza

None Too Revealing
An interview with David Seltzer, the writer behind the confusing—and confused—NBC television series Revelation by Bobby Maddex