Christians and Yoga

Doug Pagitt and John MacArthur did a bit of head-to-head on CNN on Yoga and Christians. In this blog I aim to explore the foundation below this tension and hopefully shed some light for those being swayed in either direction.

Playing Catchup

 You can view their dialogue here if you haven’t already:

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Additionally, there is an excellent article on Wikipedia exploring “Yoga” which I recommend reading before exploring my comments (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga) as it will give a bit of an overview of yoga.

 There seems to be much continuing controversy around compatibility of Christian faith with yoga practice. Personally, I don’t want to argue for or against either MacArthur or Pagitt in this blog. I’ve never met either of them, but would like to respect both of them, and invite you, the reader, to comment with the same intention.

What is Yoga?

As explored on Wiki, Yoga is a banner term covering a number of different practices. In reacting to Christians practicing yoga many have forgotten that the Western worldview denies the spiritual and does little with reference to the origins of what it imports.

Hence, when importing yoga we’ve generally just taken the postures and breathing exercises and made use of them. We’ve de-constructed yoga, excorcised its spiritual roots, humanised its focus, and then commercialised it as another form of exercise to be consumed.

Western yoga bears as little resemblence to Eastern Yoga as what a can of tuna resembles a real tuna. Oddly enough, a number of Christians are often very superstitious of yoga because they have a little knowledge about where it comes from usually stemming from textbook references to yoga in the context of Hinduism. To some degree I would include MacArthur in this. The reactionism expressed by many has little to do with the kind of yoga Pagitt and others make use of and promote. My exploration on convergence may clear the tension up a bit.

MacArthur and Pagitt

 Getting back to MacArthur and Pagitt. I agree with MacArthur in that someone who follows Christ and has committed his or her life to Him should not go and worship another god or goddess. I agree with Pagitt that someone who does follow Christ should take care of their body and this includes exercise and exercising.

Exercise includes a wide range of activities and so it matters little what prefernece people have. Whether one plays squash, runs, practices yoga, rock climbs, cycles, goes to gym, etc. is not the issue. By exercising people are getting healthier and hence stewarding their body.

What MacArthur and many other Christians need to understand is that Pagitt and company are not promoting the worship of anyone but Christ and that in borrowing exercises from other cultures they are not engaging in the worship of other gods and goddesses either.

How can I say this? Well, in the past cultures and religions were inextricably linked but that’s not the case any longer. Now we live during the tension between old cultures and worldviews and the emergence of new ones.

The Convergence of Culture and Spirituality

We are living during a period in time when the cultures and histories of people who used to be isolated are converging. A number of people live within the centre of a culture, whether African, Eastern or Western. Many, particularly westerners or the westernised within other cultures, live not only within outposts of modern culture but also in the place of cultural and historical and spiritual convergence and cross-pollination. Needless to say they are living within the liminal space between their historical point of origin and in historical contribution toward co-producing an emerging culture, a post-culture, the era of postmodernity or postcolonialism. Allow me to illustrate.

In the past every culture was separated and so, to simplify, we find Africa, the West and the East neatly contained in their boxes.

Then, the West modernised and in turn modernised much of Africa and the East. Though every culture has continued to evolve we find that modernisation, colonialism and westernisation have impacted other cultures. Hence we find pockets where the culture remains untouched (well, kind of) and pockets where the culture is blended (this is a simplification). The west has, however, not remained untouched. Hence the west is influenced by the very cultures it has influenced.

Modernisation, in general, enabled people to travel. Which in turn opened up their world. So, many got to go out to the broad world and find themselves and what worked for them. For many years people had to choose between the West along with Atheism and Christianity or the East along with Buddhism or Hinduism. A number of Christian biases still stem back to this time.

More recently, as the cultures have mutually cross-pollinated each other to such an exten that we find the emergence of new cultures, spoken of under the banner of postmodernity, which brings out complex issues like postmodernism and post-colonialism and the problem of God/-ess but also the challenge of how to prefentially integrate truth, art, medicine, practices, exercise, etc. healthily and maturely.

By this satege, people are no longer choosing between Africa, the West and the East or remaining westernised within them but moving on to co-produce a new emerging culture which is more globally connected than locally rooted.

Looking back at culture, religion and the gods & goddesses within them we recognise them distinctly. Should we explore the relationship between the gods and goddesses, the religions they manifest within, and the culture they’re set in we can recognise three distinct layers and hence we can, critically and maturely, distinguish between them. For some there can be no such distinction. For others such a distinction is not a necessity but remains perfectly valid.

So we find that cultural and religious practices may be distinguished from the divine or divinities, the gods and goddesses, wherein they find their origin.

Why? Because there is a human side, what we do and how we live and how we orientate our lives, and a divine side, the Being or beings we lend recognition to as God/-ess. And so, human religious practices are significant in as much as they connect us with a source, a power, a god or goddess. And so, we can sacralise ordinary practices (e.g. footwashing, bathing and sex) and objects (e.g. bread and wine) and even exercise (e.g. yoga) in the name of different beings/Beings/Being. But equally, we can desacralise them and import them and equally re-sacralise them should we intend to.

In conclusion

The postmodern Christian aims to integrate truth wherever s/he finds it, remain faithful to the Risen Lord, and somehow live in a complex, evolving, varied and vibrant society.

I respectfully understand MacArthur to live within an older paradigm, where East and West don’t meet. I imagine that much of his experience is certainly during the era when Christians were abandoning their western roots and faith and that he is responding out of this as well as a desire for integrity in faith. I respectfully understand Pagitt to live within a newer and emerging paradigm, where our culture as East and West converge and produce something new and I see him as responding to postmoderns who’re discovering much, including yoga and Christ, and seeking to integrate both into their life and faith. Doug Pagitt, among many, is such a Christian and is deliberately and responsibly desacralising an exercise form from another culture while enabling some he shepherds to steward their bodies. John MacArthur, among many, is the kind of Christian that seeks to actively avoid postmodernity and view it as an evil.

Where do you stand? Do you see yoga as an evil or something good? Do you see postmodernity, the era we are entering, as something to stand against or something to embrace? How do you understand being missional in this era?

Lets not forget that Jesus sends us out of our culture to other cultures and we would do well to remember that the postmodern world is an equally valid culture wherein Christ will be found and come to reign among those inhabited by His Spirit.