Christian Yoga Phenomenon

[Guest guest]

Reformulating yoga in a Christian context

By Alexandra Alter

RELIGION NEWS SERVICE

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/news/nation/6339282.htm

ANNANDALE, Va. - Marylyn Mandeville sits crossed-legged on a mat in

front of 11 of her students. Her hands are folded as if in prayer,

framed by the slogan on her T-shirt: "Know Yoga, Know Peace." A gold

cross rests on the Om symbol emblazoned on her shirt.

 

"Namaste," she says to the class, bowing deeply while offering the

Sanskrit salutation "I bow to the God within you."

 

No one in the Parkwood Baptist Church, not even the pastor, reacts to

Mandeville's T-shirt, gesture, or the New Age flute music playing in

the background. They're lying flat on their backs in Savasana, the

Corpse pose, having endured two hours of vigorous stretching.

 

"Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is light," she

continues. "Jesus said, you will know the truth and the truth will

set you free. Yoga will free your body, let God free your life."

 

Mandeville, who has been teaching yoga at Parkwood Baptist for the

past two years and often has up to 75 participants in a single class,

is part of a growing movement to reformulate yoga, a 5,000-year-old

practice that originated in India, in a Christian context.

 

While some argue that taking up a yoga practice might lead Christians

down the dangerous path of New Age mysticism, Mandeville says she

considers it part of her ministry to teach other Christians how to

look after their bodies.

 

"There's an important Scripture that says we are God's temple and

we're supposed to take care of that temple, but we don't do that,"

she said.

 

The Rev. Jim Hamacher, the church's pastor, who was back on the yoga

mat after recovering from back surgery, said he was apprehensive at

first about introducing yoga classes.

 

"You call yourself a Christian church, a Southern Baptist church no

less, and then you start offering yoga, well, there are some people

who are going to wonder what you've turned into," he said.

 

But Hamacher concluded that bringing relaxation and meditation

techniques into the church might help to revive a strain of

spirituality that had been filtered out of Christianity over the

years. He also saw health benefits to offering yoga classes.

 

"I've always believed that the salvation that Jesus brings is to make

a person whole, and this is part of that," Hamacher said. "When you

talk about ministering to the whole person, you're ministering to

body, mind and spirit."

 

As yoga becomes increasingly popular, with an estimated 15 million

practitioners in the United States according to a recent study by

Yoga Journal, alternative forms of yoga are steadily grabbing more

adherents. At least half of those people are coming to yoga from a

Christian background, says the Rev. Thomas Ryan, a Catholic priest

and author of "Prayer of Heart and Body: Meditation, Yoga as a

Christian Spiritual Practice," published by Paulist Press in 1994.

 

"There are an enormous number of people engaging in Eastern practices

like yoga and meditation who need assistance making the points of

connection with their Christian faith," said Ryan, who will lead a

yoga retreat at the Kripalu Yoga center in Western Massachusetts this

August.

 

"There is a sense among some that this comes from Hinduism, but when

one looks at yoga, it really belongs to world spirituality," he added.

 

Other pioneers in Christian Yoga say they have been overwhelmed by

the growth of the movement as it spreads nationally and even

internationally. Susan Bordenkircher of Mobile, Ala., has gotten

requests for her yoga video "Outstretched in Worship" from Christians

in Indonesia and Singapore and missionaries in Chad. She said that

although some concepts in yoga may be at odds with Christianity,

there is much to be gained from the practice.

 

"There is some of the history of yoga that involves worshipping

different gods that is contradictory to Christian concepts," she

said. But rejecting the yoga practice altogether would be a mistake,

Bordenkircher warned.

 

"It's kind of throwing the baby out with the bath water, because the

postures themselves are so good," she said. In her video and classes,

Bordenkircher injects yoga postures with a Christian flavor by

teaching "moving mantras," during which students silently recite

scriptural passages such as "You are my strength, Oh God," as they

stretch. A United Methodist, Bordenkircher said yoga practice has

taught her how to pray Scripture in a visceral way.

 

But while fans marvel at the growing success of the movement, others

are seeking to draw more distinct boundaries between the Christian

faith and popular New Age practices.

 

Daniel Akin, dean of the school of theology at the Southern Baptist

Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said Christians who are

drawn to the physical benefits of yoga should avoid its spiritual and

psychological underpinnings.

 

"Yoga is rooted in Eastern mysticism, and Eastern mysticism is

incompatible with Christianity," he said. "There are some people who

are looking for relaxation in the form of meditation, but I don't see

the need to go to yoga to do that," Akin said, adding that the Bible

holds ample opportunities for meditation.

 

Others say it's impossible to extract the physical benefits of yoga

from its spiritual roots.

 

Laurette Willis of Tulsa, Okla., a yoga veteran of 22 years and a

born-again Christian, said the feeling of euphoria she got from yoga

left her vulnerable to "psychic influences" she believed to be

demonic.

 

"Yoga led me down a false rosy path," Willis said. "It opened the

door to 20 years of involvement in the New Age movement."

 

After becoming a Christian in 1987, she developed "PraiseMoves,

Fitness for His Witness," a series of 20 stretches set to Scripture,

in 2001. Willis has been so overwhelmed by requests to teach that she

is in the process of certifying 20 new PraiseMoves teachers around

the country and has produced a video set for release in August.

 

Willis says many yoga postures are based on ancient Hindu worship of

the sun and moon as deities, and rejects the notion that they can be

redeemed by putting a Christian spin on them.

 

"Christian yoga is an oxymoron," she said. "It's like the fellow who

says, 'I'm a Christian Buddhist.'"