To Judge, or Not to Judge
Christ commanded us not to judge others, but aren't there times when common sense or prudence requires it? Asked by Stephen Hunt, St. Paul, Minnesota
Answered by Roger E. Olson | posted 06/29/2005 09:00 a.m.
Even people who know very little about the Bible are usually familiar with Jesus' saying "Judge not, that ye be not judged" (Matthew 7:1, KJV). This command is part of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount; it is Jesus' most popular saying because our culture values tolerance so highly.
But it is usually ripped out of context and misinterpreted.
Matthew 7:1-5 includes Jesus' warning about trying to take a speck out of a neighbor's eye while ignoring the log in your own eye. In verse five, Jesus makes clear the audience he is addressing: "You hypocrite!" When Jesus says "Do not judge," he is warning people against heaping criticism and condemnation on others without being willing to examine one's own behavior. Clearly the context is one in which some religious leaders were harshly condemning other people while attempting to justify their own sinfulness.
Furthermore, many people are unaware of balancing texts about judging in the rest of the New Testament. These include Jesus' command "Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment" (John 7:24, NRSV), and Paul's rhetorical question "Is it not those who are inside [the church] that you are to judge?" (1 Cor. 5:12). Clearly not all judging is forbidden. If that were the case, the church could have no boundaries; the body of Christ would not be a body but a gaseous vapor!
Paul urged the Corinthian church to exclude the man who was living with his father's wife; he ordered them not to associate with people who claim to be Christians but live blatantly sinful lives without repentance (1 Cor. 5). Did Paul simply forget Jesus' command not to judge? Was he unaware of it? That's doubtful. Rather, we should suppose that Jesus meant only to condemn hypocritical judging. When the church must discipline a member, it should always do so in full recognition of everyone's lack of perfection and need of the Savior.
Some churches and Christian organizations avoid church discipline because it is a form of judging, and judging is wrongly equated with intolerance. Judging is then (ironically) judged incompatible with the spirit of Jesus' teaching. Church discipline is surely the more biblical approach, even as it is fraught with danger.
The New Testament condemns every spirit that says Jesus Christ has not come in the flesh (1 John 4). Today the problem is more likely to arise around denials of Christ's deity. And yet Christ's deity is a nonnegotiable of Christian faith that is crucial to the gospel. Christians should not tolerate denials of such central truths within the church, and must discipline with love those who knowingly reject the truth of the Incarnation.
Similarly, the New Testament condemns immorality, including homosexual behavior (Rom. 1:26-27). Churches that condone such behavior among believers are abdicating their responsibility to shepherd God's flock.
Church discipline inexorably involves making judgments and even judging people's behaviors, but it can be done in a nonjudgmental and humble manner. One church I know stripped a man of membership, without shaming or humiliating him, because he refused to cease an adulterous relationship or repent of it. He was encouraged to continue attending worship services, and his involvement in the church eventually contributed to his repentance and restoration to full fellowship. The church acknowledged that everyone sins, but recognized the importance of a repentant spirit. Without such humble discipline, there is no real discipleship.
Finally, even though the context of Matthew 7 may not require it, one is justified in thinking that Jesus does not want us to take God's place in determining individual persons' ultimate spiritual fate. This would be another example of inappropriate judging. Which specific individuals of our acquaintance will end up in heaven and which will end up in hell is not for us to determine. That judgment belongs to God alone.
But who should be a member of a church, and how members should behave as such, must sometimes be decided by the church, based on beliefs and behaviors.
Roger E. Olson is professor of theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary of Baylor University, and author of The Westminster Handbook to Evangelical Theology.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
A post from a friend of mine:
Dear Sisters and Brothers,You might find the following article of interest. It's found in _BusinessWeek_ and is entitled "Earthly Empires, How Evangelical Churches AreBorrowing from the Business Playbook."<http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_21/b3934001_mz001.htm>Last week I ate lunch with a man who used to work for Mr. Osteen's father,and I told him about the interview that I had seen young Joel give on CNN afew weeks ago, on June 7, 2005, on "Paula Zahn Now."Judy Woodruff: "But critics say it's all just cotton candy Christianity:tasty, but little substance. There's no fire and brimstone at Lakewood, notalk of sinners or Satan, no talk of politics, abortion, gay marriage."Joel Osteen: "I don't know if I want to go there, you know. I mean, Ijust -- you know, I'm for the -- I don't even know where to go. I haven'treally addressed it much."<http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0506/07/pzn.01.html>I won't quote what the man said to me, but he confirmed that Joel Osteenskirts issues that will make people feel bad about themselves.With the opening of his new church at Houston's old Compaq Center, Mr.Osteen is in the news a lot lately. On June 20, 2005, he was on "Larry KingLive."Larry King, CNN Host: 'Tonight, Joel Osteen, evangelism's hottest risingstar, pastor for the biggest congregation in the United States. He literallyfilled the shoes of his late father who founded the church, and wait untilyou hear what he had to overcome to do it. Pastor Joel Osteen is here forthe hour. We'll take your calls. It's next on LARRY KING LIVE.'Joel Osteen is the author of the number one "New York Times" best-seller,"Your Best Life Now." There you see its cover. "Seven Steps to Living atYour Full Potential." There is now a compendium been published called "YourBest Life Now Journal," a guide to reaching that full potential. Joel Osteenis pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. His father before him. Hehas been called the smiling preacher. We met.'. . .King: "How many people come to your church?"Osteen: "We have about 30,000 each weekend.". . .King: "Is it hard to lead a Christian life?"Osteen: "I don't think it's that hard. To me it's fun. We have joy andhappiness. Our family -- I don't feel like that at all. I'm not trying tofollow a set of rules and stuff. I'm just living my life."King: "But you have rules, don't you?"Osteen: "We do have rules. But the main rule to me is to honor God with yourlife. To life a life of integrity. Not be selfish. You know, help others.But that's really the essence of the Christian faith."King: "That we live in deeds?"Osteen: "I don't know. What do you mean by that?"King: "Because we've had ministers on who said, your record don't count. Youeither believe in Christ or you don't. If you believe in Christ, you are,you are going to heaven. And if you don't no matter what you've done in yourlife, you ain't."Osteen: "Yeah, I don't know. There's probably a balance between. I believeyou have to know Christ. But I think that if you know Christ, if you're abeliever in God, you're going to have some good works. I think it's acop-out to say I'm a Christian but I don't ever do anything ..."King: "What if you're Jewish or Muslim, you don't accept Christ at all?"Osteen: "You know, I'm very careful about saying who would and wouldn't goto heaven. I don't know ..."King: "If you believe you have to believe in Christ? They're wrong, aren'tthey?"Osteen: "Well, I don't know if I believe they're wrong. I believe here'swhat the Bible teaches and from the Christian faith this is what I believe.But I just think that only God with judge a person's heart. I spent a lot oftime in India with my father. I don't know all about their religion. But Iknow they love God. And I don't know. I've seen their sincerity. So I don'tknow. I know for me, and what the Bible teaches, I want to have arelationship with Jesus."<http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0506/20/lkl.01.html>Last night I kept thinking about how much "fun" the Christian life is as mywife and I visited an eighteen year old woman who used to attend our church.She's facing ten years in prison for a series of arrests over the past sixmonths, all drug related. She was dressed in an orange jumpsuit, and shecried a lot. At one point I left my wife in the interview room with her andwalked over to the sergeant at the desk to ask if I could leave my Biblewith the young woman. He was watching the television monitor and grippinghis Taser, waiting to see if the shouting match between some females downthe hall called for more back-up.After we left our parish jail, we drove over to one of our hospitals to praywith one of our members who had chunks of his large intestine removedbecause of cancer. We are waiting for the test results today to see if thecancer has spread to his lymph nodes. We got home a little after 8:00.What a "fun" evening!Now, don't get me wrong. We know the joy of the Lord -- it is our strength(Nehemiah 8:10.) -- but we also what it is to weep. (Romans 12:15.) Since Ipastor a medium sized church, my wife and I personally know the people whoattend, some quite well. And that means that we do a lot of weeping. As myfavorite atheist wrote: "To know people well is to know their tragedy: itis usually the central thing about which their lives are built." [BertrandRussell, _The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell_ (New York: Routledge,2000), p. 194.]Pro Rege,Bob"Why do you say that you are righteous by faith only? Not that I amacceptable to God on account of the worthiness of my faith, but because onlythe satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ is my righteousnessbefore God; and I can receive the same and make it my own in no other waythan by faith only." (The Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 23, # 61.)Robert Benn Vincent, Sr.Grace Presbyterian Church4900 Jackson StreetAlexandria, Louisiana 71303-2509Tutissimum Refugium Sanguinis Christi80 Hickory Hill DriveBoyce, Louisiana 71409-8784318.445.7271 church318.443.1034 fax318.793.5354 homebob@rbvincent.comhttp://www.rbvincent.comhttp://www.grace-presbyterian.orghttp://www.gcsla.org
Dear Sisters and Brothers,You might find the following article of interest. It's found in _BusinessWeek_ and is entitled "Earthly Empires, How Evangelical Churches AreBorrowing from the Business Playbook."<http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_21/b3934001_mz001.htm>Last week I ate lunch with a man who used to work for Mr. Osteen's father,and I told him about the interview that I had seen young Joel give on CNN afew weeks ago, on June 7, 2005, on "Paula Zahn Now."Judy Woodruff: "But critics say it's all just cotton candy Christianity:tasty, but little substance. There's no fire and brimstone at Lakewood, notalk of sinners or Satan, no talk of politics, abortion, gay marriage."Joel Osteen: "I don't know if I want to go there, you know. I mean, Ijust -- you know, I'm for the -- I don't even know where to go. I haven'treally addressed it much."<http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0506/07/pzn.01.html>I won't quote what the man said to me, but he confirmed that Joel Osteenskirts issues that will make people feel bad about themselves.With the opening of his new church at Houston's old Compaq Center, Mr.Osteen is in the news a lot lately. On June 20, 2005, he was on "Larry KingLive."Larry King, CNN Host: 'Tonight, Joel Osteen, evangelism's hottest risingstar, pastor for the biggest congregation in the United States. He literallyfilled the shoes of his late father who founded the church, and wait untilyou hear what he had to overcome to do it. Pastor Joel Osteen is here forthe hour. We'll take your calls. It's next on LARRY KING LIVE.'Joel Osteen is the author of the number one "New York Times" best-seller,"Your Best Life Now." There you see its cover. "Seven Steps to Living atYour Full Potential." There is now a compendium been published called "YourBest Life Now Journal," a guide to reaching that full potential. Joel Osteenis pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. His father before him. Hehas been called the smiling preacher. We met.'. . .King: "How many people come to your church?"Osteen: "We have about 30,000 each weekend.". . .King: "Is it hard to lead a Christian life?"Osteen: "I don't think it's that hard. To me it's fun. We have joy andhappiness. Our family -- I don't feel like that at all. I'm not trying tofollow a set of rules and stuff. I'm just living my life."King: "But you have rules, don't you?"Osteen: "We do have rules. But the main rule to me is to honor God with yourlife. To life a life of integrity. Not be selfish. You know, help others.But that's really the essence of the Christian faith."King: "That we live in deeds?"Osteen: "I don't know. What do you mean by that?"King: "Because we've had ministers on who said, your record don't count. Youeither believe in Christ or you don't. If you believe in Christ, you are,you are going to heaven. And if you don't no matter what you've done in yourlife, you ain't."Osteen: "Yeah, I don't know. There's probably a balance between. I believeyou have to know Christ. But I think that if you know Christ, if you're abeliever in God, you're going to have some good works. I think it's acop-out to say I'm a Christian but I don't ever do anything ..."King: "What if you're Jewish or Muslim, you don't accept Christ at all?"Osteen: "You know, I'm very careful about saying who would and wouldn't goto heaven. I don't know ..."King: "If you believe you have to believe in Christ? They're wrong, aren'tthey?"Osteen: "Well, I don't know if I believe they're wrong. I believe here'swhat the Bible teaches and from the Christian faith this is what I believe.But I just think that only God with judge a person's heart. I spent a lot oftime in India with my father. I don't know all about their religion. But Iknow they love God. And I don't know. I've seen their sincerity. So I don'tknow. I know for me, and what the Bible teaches, I want to have arelationship with Jesus."<http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0506/20/lkl.01.html>Last night I kept thinking about how much "fun" the Christian life is as mywife and I visited an eighteen year old woman who used to attend our church.She's facing ten years in prison for a series of arrests over the past sixmonths, all drug related. She was dressed in an orange jumpsuit, and shecried a lot. At one point I left my wife in the interview room with her andwalked over to the sergeant at the desk to ask if I could leave my Biblewith the young woman. He was watching the television monitor and grippinghis Taser, waiting to see if the shouting match between some females downthe hall called for more back-up.After we left our parish jail, we drove over to one of our hospitals to praywith one of our members who had chunks of his large intestine removedbecause of cancer. We are waiting for the test results today to see if thecancer has spread to his lymph nodes. We got home a little after 8:00.What a "fun" evening!Now, don't get me wrong. We know the joy of the Lord -- it is our strength(Nehemiah 8:10.) -- but we also what it is to weep. (Romans 12:15.) Since Ipastor a medium sized church, my wife and I personally know the people whoattend, some quite well. And that means that we do a lot of weeping. As myfavorite atheist wrote: "To know people well is to know their tragedy: itis usually the central thing about which their lives are built." [BertrandRussell, _The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell_ (New York: Routledge,2000), p. 194.]Pro Rege,Bob"Why do you say that you are righteous by faith only? Not that I amacceptable to God on account of the worthiness of my faith, but because onlythe satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ is my righteousnessbefore God; and I can receive the same and make it my own in no other waythan by faith only." (The Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 23, # 61.)Robert Benn Vincent, Sr.Grace Presbyterian Church4900 Jackson StreetAlexandria, Louisiana 71303-2509Tutissimum Refugium Sanguinis Christi80 Hickory Hill DriveBoyce, Louisiana 71409-8784318.445.7271 church318.443.1034 fax318.793.5354 homebob@rbvincent.comhttp://www.rbvincent.comhttp://www.grace-presbyterian.orghttp://www.gcsla.org
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
A response to "Yes To Yoga"
Take a Pass on Yoga
How can I support a practice that is targeting the young and the weak?
by Holly Vicente Robaina posted 06/07/2005 09:00 a.m.
This is a response to Agnieszka Tennant's "Yes to Yoga," which recently appeared on Christianity Today's website. Agnieszka wrote her article in response to my piece, "The Truth About Yoga," which appeared in Today's Christian Woman's March/April 2005 issue.
While I recognize Agnieszka's right to practice yoga, I've got to take a pass—and I feel compelled to encourage other Christians to pass on yoga, too.
I was deeply involved in the New Age before I became a Christian. Trances, channeling spirits, and past-life regression were normal practices for me back then. So was yoga.
Like Laurette Willis, whose story is featured in "The Truth About Yoga," I was raised in a Christian home. I accepted Jesus as a child, was baptized, attended a Christian school, and participated in Bible quizzing. When I headed off to college, I thought my faith was rock solid.
A Ouija board game in college started my journey into the New Age. It seemed so innocent at the time—a plastic pointer on top of a piece of cardboard printed with the alphabet. It seemed like Monopoly or Scrabble. Though I'd been warned about Ouija boards by church youth leaders, this didn't look like anything that could hurt me.
It took many years and many prayers for me to let go of my New Age practices and to be healed from the pain they caused me. Until last fall, when I met Laurette Willis, I'd never met another Christian who'd come out of the New Age. (To be fair, I've kept pretty quiet about my experience.) Laurette told me she hadn't met any before, either. (And she's been extremely vocal about her experience.)
Both Laurette and I have met quite a few New Agers who'd grown up in Christian households, attended church, or even been professing believers.
Just before I wrote "The Truth About Yoga," I was looking for a stretching routine that would offer an alternative to yoga. I'd practiced yoga for years and loved the feel of stretching and relaxing from a day's stresses. But after I became a Christian, I sensed something spiritual about yoga that made me uneasy. (I later discovered yoga's Hindu origins and understood why I'd felt uneasy—New Age beliefs and practices are largely derived from Hinduism.)
So when I heard about a new exercise program dubbed "Christian yoga," I thought I'd found my alternative. And I figured TCW readers would love to learn about it, too.
I interviewed two Christian yoga instructors along with Laurette and had contacted others when I began putting the story together. As I was working on it, I felt troubled by some of the statements made by Christian yoga instructors and characteristics of their programs. At first, I ignored it, thinking I was hypersensitive and being too nitpicky because of my own New Age past. I became deeply concerned again when I discovered one of my interviewees—a Christian yoga instructor who'd been featured prominently in articles by several Christian publications—had links to a New Age website on her Christian yoga site. I prayed about it, began deeply researching more than a dozen Christian yoga programs, and prayed some more. Finally, I contacted Today's Christian Woman editor Jane Johnson Struck. We agreed it was best to stick to a profile on Laurette Willis.
Laurette never contacted me about her PraiseMoves program, nor did she send promotional material to TCW. I didn't even know she was working on a book for Harvest House. I found her website through a search engine, and it was my decision (with support from the TCW editors) to focus on her story.
The big differenceI've found that yoga practitioners—both Christians and those who are not believers—are extremely defensive of yoga. I can understand why. Stretching feels fabulous, and there's a dearth of stretching programs out there. That was yet another reason it seemed helpful to highlight PraiseMoves, a stretching program created by a Christian, for Christians.
Agnieszka seems to believe PraiseMoves is yoga with Christian terminology thrown in. I'd correct that statement and say Laurette's program is a Christian stretching program that seeks to reflect the physical benefits of yoga while replacing Hindu spiritualism with Christian worship.
Is there really a difference? I've practiced yoga with many different instructors (who all said they taught purely "physical exercise" without any yogic spiritualism), and I've done the PraiseMoves program myself. So I'd offer a resounding "Yes, there's a big difference," along with an illustration.
I have a Buddhist friend who practices ancestor worship—she goes to a temple, lights a stick of incense, and leaves food for her deceased relatives. There are Christians who light candles in remembrance of deceased relatives, or set a place at their holiday table for someone who has passed. The actions are similar, but the intent and settings are different. The Christians aren't worshiping their deceased relatives (intent), or performing a symbolic gesture inside a Buddhist temple or in a uniquely Buddhist way (setting).
I believe Agnieszka's personal intent in practicing yoga is good and pure. She loves Jesus, sees yoga as exercise, and likely would never be seduced into the deeper spiritualism that is inherent in all yoga. But yoga has a history, a "setting" of postures and language that pays homage to Hindu deities. While American instructors may water down that language, I think it's safe to say most are still using it. The word namaste is still used in many yoga classes, including Agnieszka's, and it's a term Hindus use when paying respect to their deities. Even when used between friends, the term still really means, "I bow to the god within you." (Agnieszka offers a different translation in her article. While the word gets translated differently depending on the source, I believe my translation, which comes from a number of Hindu websites, is closer to its true intent. It is a Sanskrit/Hindu word, and Hindus believe all living things are part of god, i.e. we are all gods. Some explain this belief as "monotheistic polytheism.") And most instructors—including, it seems, Agnieszka's—use traditional Sanskrit terms that have been translated into English, such as downward facing dog, corpse pose, and sun salutation. The last one, by the way, directly pays homage to the Hindu sun god—it isn't called a "salute to the sun" for nothin'.
Minority reportEven if a Christian can get past the Hindu origins of yoga, what about those who are instructing the class? What's their intent? On the Internet, you'll find a jillion yoga instructors who offer definitions similar to this one found on yogabasics.com: "Yoga is … aimed at integrating mind, body and spirit, and achieving a state of enlightenment or oneness with the universe. What is normally thought of as 'yoga' in the West is really Hatha Yoga, one of the many paths of yoga. These different paths of yoga are simply different approaches and techniques that all lead to the same goal of unification and enlightenment." The definition was written by the website's founder, who has instructed yoga for 16 years.
As for American-style yoga being just exercise, the site goes on to say: "More than just stretching, asanas [yoga postures] open the energy channels, chakras and psychic centers of the body. Asanas purify and strengthen the body and control and focus the mind."
These are not fringe views shared only by hardcore Hindu yogis. Rather, Agnieszka's view—that the Hindu spiritualism within American yoga has largely been extracted, making it purely exercise—seems to be in the minority. Kaiser Permanente, a major healthcare provider, says this about yoga on its website: "Yoga has been practiced for thousands of years in India and is based on the idea that the mind and body are one. It is thought that yoga improves health by improving how you see the world, which calms the spirit and decreases stress." Kaiser offers low-cost yoga classes to members, and regularly advertises this in its member newsletter.
Yoga is everywhere. Classes are taught in churches and nursing homes, through city recreation programs, and at elementary schools—both private and public. Meanwhile, numerous studies show prayer and faith have a healing effect, and that religion is good for your overall health. But you probably won't see your local city hall renting a room for prayer meetings at the senior center any time soon.
Perhaps it has become so common that it's now easy to overlook yoga's origins—and its inherent Hindu spirituality—even when the Hindu and yoga communities are loudly proclaiming, "Yes, all of yoga is Hinduism. Everyone should be aware of this fact" (from an e-mail written to Laurette Willis by a staff member of the Classical Yoga Hindu Academy in New Jersey).
Agnieszka references 1 Corinthians 8 in her article to illustrate how yoga might not cause a strong Christian to stumble. But she doesn't mention the last part of the passage, where Paul goes on to say:
"Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ" (verses 9-12).
And I'll admit it—I loved yoga. Perhaps I'm even a strong enough Christian now to begin a yoga class again. But my decision to say no to yoga isn't just about me. Children are being exposed to yoga's spiritualism at school and in after-school programs. (I remember being taken through a guided meditation as a teen at a youth recreation program, though I had no idea what it was at the time.) And I've read many stories about doctors who encourage the elderly, depressed patients, the mentally ill, and terminal patients to practice yoga for its mental and spiritual benefits—as if there is no better comfort available in the world than yoga.
So even if I'm strong enough, how can I support a practice that seems to be targeting the young and the weak? I take 1 Corinthians 8:13 most seriously: "Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall."
For me, giving up yoga is even easier than it would be to give up meat because there are alternatives. (There aren't many alternatives to a good steak!) I can still stretch. I can meditate on Scripture. I can slow down, take deep breaths, relax, and thank God for the many gifts he's given me. And I can pray that more Christians like Laurette Willis will be moved to develop alternatives to yoga.
Lastly, I'd like to address the idea that some evangelicals are engaging in fear-mongering about yoga. It's easy to become afraid of things we don't understand, especially practices that use a different language and come from a different culture. But fear also can be a God-given response that keeps us out of danger. As someone who was deeply involved in New Age and metaphysical practices, I can tell you from experience: There is a spiritual realm in this world. There are spiritual battles being fought. And there are frightening things from which we need to run—even if, like that Ouija board, they look benign on the surface.
Take a Pass on Yoga
How can I support a practice that is targeting the young and the weak?
by Holly Vicente Robaina posted 06/07/2005 09:00 a.m.
This is a response to Agnieszka Tennant's "Yes to Yoga," which recently appeared on Christianity Today's website. Agnieszka wrote her article in response to my piece, "The Truth About Yoga," which appeared in Today's Christian Woman's March/April 2005 issue.
While I recognize Agnieszka's right to practice yoga, I've got to take a pass—and I feel compelled to encourage other Christians to pass on yoga, too.
I was deeply involved in the New Age before I became a Christian. Trances, channeling spirits, and past-life regression were normal practices for me back then. So was yoga.
Like Laurette Willis, whose story is featured in "The Truth About Yoga," I was raised in a Christian home. I accepted Jesus as a child, was baptized, attended a Christian school, and participated in Bible quizzing. When I headed off to college, I thought my faith was rock solid.
A Ouija board game in college started my journey into the New Age. It seemed so innocent at the time—a plastic pointer on top of a piece of cardboard printed with the alphabet. It seemed like Monopoly or Scrabble. Though I'd been warned about Ouija boards by church youth leaders, this didn't look like anything that could hurt me.
It took many years and many prayers for me to let go of my New Age practices and to be healed from the pain they caused me. Until last fall, when I met Laurette Willis, I'd never met another Christian who'd come out of the New Age. (To be fair, I've kept pretty quiet about my experience.) Laurette told me she hadn't met any before, either. (And she's been extremely vocal about her experience.)
Both Laurette and I have met quite a few New Agers who'd grown up in Christian households, attended church, or even been professing believers.
Just before I wrote "The Truth About Yoga," I was looking for a stretching routine that would offer an alternative to yoga. I'd practiced yoga for years and loved the feel of stretching and relaxing from a day's stresses. But after I became a Christian, I sensed something spiritual about yoga that made me uneasy. (I later discovered yoga's Hindu origins and understood why I'd felt uneasy—New Age beliefs and practices are largely derived from Hinduism.)
So when I heard about a new exercise program dubbed "Christian yoga," I thought I'd found my alternative. And I figured TCW readers would love to learn about it, too.
I interviewed two Christian yoga instructors along with Laurette and had contacted others when I began putting the story together. As I was working on it, I felt troubled by some of the statements made by Christian yoga instructors and characteristics of their programs. At first, I ignored it, thinking I was hypersensitive and being too nitpicky because of my own New Age past. I became deeply concerned again when I discovered one of my interviewees—a Christian yoga instructor who'd been featured prominently in articles by several Christian publications—had links to a New Age website on her Christian yoga site. I prayed about it, began deeply researching more than a dozen Christian yoga programs, and prayed some more. Finally, I contacted Today's Christian Woman editor Jane Johnson Struck. We agreed it was best to stick to a profile on Laurette Willis.
Laurette never contacted me about her PraiseMoves program, nor did she send promotional material to TCW. I didn't even know she was working on a book for Harvest House. I found her website through a search engine, and it was my decision (with support from the TCW editors) to focus on her story.
The big differenceI've found that yoga practitioners—both Christians and those who are not believers—are extremely defensive of yoga. I can understand why. Stretching feels fabulous, and there's a dearth of stretching programs out there. That was yet another reason it seemed helpful to highlight PraiseMoves, a stretching program created by a Christian, for Christians.
Agnieszka seems to believe PraiseMoves is yoga with Christian terminology thrown in. I'd correct that statement and say Laurette's program is a Christian stretching program that seeks to reflect the physical benefits of yoga while replacing Hindu spiritualism with Christian worship.
Is there really a difference? I've practiced yoga with many different instructors (who all said they taught purely "physical exercise" without any yogic spiritualism), and I've done the PraiseMoves program myself. So I'd offer a resounding "Yes, there's a big difference," along with an illustration.
I have a Buddhist friend who practices ancestor worship—she goes to a temple, lights a stick of incense, and leaves food for her deceased relatives. There are Christians who light candles in remembrance of deceased relatives, or set a place at their holiday table for someone who has passed. The actions are similar, but the intent and settings are different. The Christians aren't worshiping their deceased relatives (intent), or performing a symbolic gesture inside a Buddhist temple or in a uniquely Buddhist way (setting).
I believe Agnieszka's personal intent in practicing yoga is good and pure. She loves Jesus, sees yoga as exercise, and likely would never be seduced into the deeper spiritualism that is inherent in all yoga. But yoga has a history, a "setting" of postures and language that pays homage to Hindu deities. While American instructors may water down that language, I think it's safe to say most are still using it. The word namaste is still used in many yoga classes, including Agnieszka's, and it's a term Hindus use when paying respect to their deities. Even when used between friends, the term still really means, "I bow to the god within you." (Agnieszka offers a different translation in her article. While the word gets translated differently depending on the source, I believe my translation, which comes from a number of Hindu websites, is closer to its true intent. It is a Sanskrit/Hindu word, and Hindus believe all living things are part of god, i.e. we are all gods. Some explain this belief as "monotheistic polytheism.") And most instructors—including, it seems, Agnieszka's—use traditional Sanskrit terms that have been translated into English, such as downward facing dog, corpse pose, and sun salutation. The last one, by the way, directly pays homage to the Hindu sun god—it isn't called a "salute to the sun" for nothin'.
Minority reportEven if a Christian can get past the Hindu origins of yoga, what about those who are instructing the class? What's their intent? On the Internet, you'll find a jillion yoga instructors who offer definitions similar to this one found on yogabasics.com: "Yoga is … aimed at integrating mind, body and spirit, and achieving a state of enlightenment or oneness with the universe. What is normally thought of as 'yoga' in the West is really Hatha Yoga, one of the many paths of yoga. These different paths of yoga are simply different approaches and techniques that all lead to the same goal of unification and enlightenment." The definition was written by the website's founder, who has instructed yoga for 16 years.
As for American-style yoga being just exercise, the site goes on to say: "More than just stretching, asanas [yoga postures] open the energy channels, chakras and psychic centers of the body. Asanas purify and strengthen the body and control and focus the mind."
These are not fringe views shared only by hardcore Hindu yogis. Rather, Agnieszka's view—that the Hindu spiritualism within American yoga has largely been extracted, making it purely exercise—seems to be in the minority. Kaiser Permanente, a major healthcare provider, says this about yoga on its website: "Yoga has been practiced for thousands of years in India and is based on the idea that the mind and body are one. It is thought that yoga improves health by improving how you see the world, which calms the spirit and decreases stress." Kaiser offers low-cost yoga classes to members, and regularly advertises this in its member newsletter.
Yoga is everywhere. Classes are taught in churches and nursing homes, through city recreation programs, and at elementary schools—both private and public. Meanwhile, numerous studies show prayer and faith have a healing effect, and that religion is good for your overall health. But you probably won't see your local city hall renting a room for prayer meetings at the senior center any time soon.
Perhaps it has become so common that it's now easy to overlook yoga's origins—and its inherent Hindu spirituality—even when the Hindu and yoga communities are loudly proclaiming, "Yes, all of yoga is Hinduism. Everyone should be aware of this fact" (from an e-mail written to Laurette Willis by a staff member of the Classical Yoga Hindu Academy in New Jersey).
Agnieszka references 1 Corinthians 8 in her article to illustrate how yoga might not cause a strong Christian to stumble. But she doesn't mention the last part of the passage, where Paul goes on to say:
"Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol's temple, won't he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ" (verses 9-12).
And I'll admit it—I loved yoga. Perhaps I'm even a strong enough Christian now to begin a yoga class again. But my decision to say no to yoga isn't just about me. Children are being exposed to yoga's spiritualism at school and in after-school programs. (I remember being taken through a guided meditation as a teen at a youth recreation program, though I had no idea what it was at the time.) And I've read many stories about doctors who encourage the elderly, depressed patients, the mentally ill, and terminal patients to practice yoga for its mental and spiritual benefits—as if there is no better comfort available in the world than yoga.
So even if I'm strong enough, how can I support a practice that seems to be targeting the young and the weak? I take 1 Corinthians 8:13 most seriously: "Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall."
For me, giving up yoga is even easier than it would be to give up meat because there are alternatives. (There aren't many alternatives to a good steak!) I can still stretch. I can meditate on Scripture. I can slow down, take deep breaths, relax, and thank God for the many gifts he's given me. And I can pray that more Christians like Laurette Willis will be moved to develop alternatives to yoga.
Lastly, I'd like to address the idea that some evangelicals are engaging in fear-mongering about yoga. It's easy to become afraid of things we don't understand, especially practices that use a different language and come from a different culture. But fear also can be a God-given response that keeps us out of danger. As someone who was deeply involved in New Age and metaphysical practices, I can tell you from experience: There is a spiritual realm in this world. There are spiritual battles being fought. And there are frightening things from which we need to run—even if, like that Ouija board, they look benign on the surface.
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