Friday, October 8, 2010

Albert Mohler and Christian Yoga

Since everyone else is attacking Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville Kentucky, I can't help but jump on the dogpile. 

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Southern Baptist leader who is calling for Christians to avoid yoga and its spiritual attachments is getting plenty of pushback from enthusiasts who defend the ancient practice.

Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler says the stretching and meditative discipline derived from Eastern religions is not a Christian pathway to God.
Mohler said he objects to "the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine."
"That's just not Christianity," Mohler told The Associated Press.

Well, it will soon be Christianity, if enough people decide that it is. 

Sometime around the year 325, people decided that "The Trinity" was Christianity.

About 1500 years after that, Protestants decided that Infant Damnation was no longer part of Christianity.  They invented something called "the age of accountability".  It worked, it was handy.  Everyone felt better.  The Catholics already had a place called Purgatory, so it helped us keep up with 'em.

Religious beliefs are fluid.  They change.  They evolve. 

Tortillas were not a part of traditional Christianity, since Christianity first grew and developed in the Middle East.  Tortillas originated someplace in Latin America, perhaps more than 10,000 years ago.  Many Christians, even in Louisville, Kentucky, have been known to consume tortillas. 

Mohler said he objects to "the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine."

Good lord in heaven, what a bass-ackward witch doctor is Albert Mohler.  Let's start from the top:  Christians kneel.  Christians clasp their hands in prayer, as a gesture of supplication.  Christians sometimes lift their hands, with their palms turned upward, as if to receive whatever heaven is offering.  Christians bow their freakin' heads.  Those are the examples most likely on display in the Protestant churches of Louisville. 

Branch out geographically and historically, and you'll find examples of Christians fasting, mortifying the flesh, flogging themselves and going through all sorts of other contortions to escape the idea that "this" is all there is. 

It boils down to this:  Yoga is different from anything that Dr. Mohler grew up with.  It's also a threat.  You don't need Albert Mohler with you if you're going to practice yoga. 

There's nothing in the curriculum at Dr. Mohler's Louisville Angel Factory that prepares him for this.  If current trends continue, theologians will suddenly discover a pre-existing Baptist/Yoga tradition that goes all the way back to W.A. Criswell. 

I could go on and on with this, but I'm starting to break out in stigmata
 
The picture came from Christian Yoga magazine.
Additional pic at the request of Cedric Katesby (see comments).  This statue depicts Mother Earth being nuzzled by an infant Al Gore.  Also from Christian Yoga magazine. 
I don't think Cedric gets out much. 

4 comments:

Cedric Katesby said...

"Christian Yoga."
Talk about a loaded phrase.

While I thought your choice of illustration was good, if you are going to increase blog hits, you must include the nudey statue from the same link.

I don't care how you justify it.
Come up with an excuse.
Embed the Rodin nudey statue in an article or something!
In fact, any nudey stuff by Rodin would be just fine.
Don't worry so much about the article itself.

(Of course, maybe that's just me.)

Hot Sam said...

I saw a good documentary called Yoga, Inc. About the commercialization and in-fighting within the yoga community. It is all of genuine spiritual movement, philosophy, fad, business, cult, and scam.

I can see why some yoga philosophy conflicts with christian dogma, but there's no reason to be insecure about it. If your christian faith can't survive yoga, it can't survive.

Dr Ralph said...

The yoga-practicing, semi-vegetarian spouse had quite a bit to say about Dr. Mohler, but to repeat it would definitely be un-Christian.

I reminded her of the Christian admonition to never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity (it's in the Bible somewhere, I swear).

Cedric Katesby said...

And so it came to pass that Rodin nudey statues spread across the blogosphere...and there was much rejoicing.
:)