Author: Alexandra Alter
Publication: Religion News Service
Date:
URL: http://www.beliefnet.com/story/129/story_12947_1.html
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 Hammacher 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 this 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." In the introduction to her book, which details
the Praisemoves postures and the corrsponding scritpural passages, Willis
argues that yoga's emphasis on cultivating divine energy within oneself
conflicts with Christianity's goal of finding salvation through Christ.
But K.L. Seshagiri Rao, a professor
of Hinduism at the University of Virginia and the editor of the Encyclopedia
of Hinduism, said yoga complements all religions, adding that he has seen
many Christians whose faith has been strengthened by their yoga practice.
"Yoga means joining together. It's
the joining of the individual spirit with the Universal spirit," Rao said.
"No matter what religion you practice, you become a better person if you
follow the principals of yoga."