Yoga can be a surprisingly controversial issue among Christians. This can be quite a surprise for people who are new to Christianity or who have never encountered nor considered any possible issues with yoga.
And frankly, why would most Americans see yoga as something dangerous to their Christian faith? The average American who participates in yoga is a woman who is concerned about her fitness or flexibility or combination thereof, probably taking a class in the gym, and it’s really just another workout to her. It’s maybe more calming and mentally peaceful than a session on the treadmill or upping her squat max, but the yoga class isn’t exactly a spiritual encounter.
Some people may not personally enjoy yoga, whereas for others its very enjoyable. And for some it’s simply a great option, such as yoga for pregnancy. Some people may practice it only to help flexibility and mobility, and for others it may be the way they exercise.
Yoga unarguably has health benefits. Yoga improves flexibility and increases range of motion and the body’s ability to support its own weight while going through said motions. It can improve muscle tone, especially if doing something like power yoga, which is more geared towards strength. Even the milder types of yoga will build core strength. It helps improve balance and posture, which can be highly beneficial as one ages. It often improves lung capacity because of the deep breathing done through the poses. The same deep breathing helps relax the body, regardless of the difficulty of the poses performed, which can relieve stress and tension, which is directly related to the improved mood and concentration people often experience with regular yoga practice. Yoga can lower blood pressure and the risk for heart disease. It can also help improves symptoms of asthma and arthritis.
So what, then, is the problem? Why do some Christians have a huge problem with yoga and its practice in light of all these benefits and the relatively non-spiritual nature of most yoga-for-fitness in Westernized yoga?
The problem is one that I can, to an extent, sympathize and agree with. Yoga, in its original form and in Eastern practice, can be a very spiritual thing. Although various sects of Hinduism see it in slightly different ways, it was and still is a religious practice in Hindu culture. The meditation is used for spiritual purposes.
It is certainly true that the practices of a polytheistic religion should make a Christian wary and shouldn’t be engaged in, especially as such. Yoga spiritual practices can easily lead a Christian into something similar to Gnosticism, which held that salvation came through a mystical inner knowledge; not too different from the goals of Eastern yoga meditation. It could lead a Christian away from proper biblical meditation and into unwitting idolatry, especially because of many New Age-type beliefs and practices involving yoga and meditation for enlightenment and spirituality. Meditation is spoken of in the Bible, but certainly not in the context of emptying one’s mind. Meditation is a practice of turning one’s mind to God and to His Word, of “being still and know[ing] [He] is God.” It is not a practice of becoming one with the universe, or of self-realization, but of turning one’s mind to God and to scripture. As far as the spiritual, meditative aspects of yoga go, this is certainly something to be avoided.
On the other hand, most Westernized yoga-for-fitness has so deviated from this spirituality that it has become yoga only in name, and it’s very easy to avoid any yoga that does include such spirituality. Yoga has even been combined with other types of exercise, such as Pilates, creating a fitness approach that is greatly appealing to many people, women in particular. Yoga as it is practiced in most gyms is merely using the very beneficial movements to do a series of exercises that involve stretching and toning. It’s hard to see the idolatry in that. Those who practice the original yoga with a religious focus are often bothered by this purely physical fitness approach to their religious practice, in fact. If they could get the fitness industry to call their non-spiritual fitness yoga by another name, they probably would.
Moreover, it is not difficult for a Christian to be aware of the potential pitfalls of participating in yoga that includes any spiritual activities and consciously avoid it. I have a yoga app on my phone. I deliberately chose one that includes no meditation or any mention of anything spiritual. It is, in fact, often a yoga-Pilates mixture (or yogalates). I really enjoy lifting weights, calisthenics, and even an occasional jog, but I find yoga to be relaxing if I don’t feel up to anything more strenuous, and it’s great for flexibility. It’s so non-spiritual, it’s not even a question.
Still, I also understand that perhaps some people can’t disassociate the spiritual from the physical, even when it comes to the highly Westernized yoga-for-fitness. For those people, avoiding yoga perhaps is the best option.
The issue reminds me a bit of the question of eating meat that was sacrificed to idols that is spoken of in 1 Corinthians. Paul clearly warns the church in Corinth away from idolatry, but he also says some interesting things about eating meat that may have been sacrificed to idols.
8:4 Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.” 5 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
7 However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.
He also said:
10:25 Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. 26 For “the earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof.” 27 If one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you are disposed to go, eat whatever is set before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. 28 But if someone says to you, “This has been offered in sacrifice,” then do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience— 29 I do not mean your conscience, but his. For why should my liberty be determined by someone else’s conscience? 30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks?
31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
There were some Christians in Corinth that had no problems eating of meat that may have been sacrificed to idols, because they understood that the idols were worthless and powerless and that they had freedom in Christ. But there were other Christians who could not disassociate the two and therefore avoided meat as a matter of conscience. Both approaches were not wrong, as long as neither harmed the other. The person who felt free to eat should not try to make the person eat who could not eat the meat without seeing it as idolatry. The person who did not eat should not judge the one who partook for their freedom in Christ. But all should avoid idolatry.
I think the practice of yoga is similar. There is an association between yoga and idolatrous religious practices, but Westernized yoga-for-fitness often removes those practices and it is very possible for a person to completely disassociate the two and avoid idolatry while still pursuing a fitness routine that takes many or all of its movements from the Eastern practice. This is freedom in Christ. But a Christian who cannot separate the two, especially in practice, probably should avoid doing yoga of any sort. This is a matter of conscience. No matter what, Christians should always remember what true meditation and spiritual enlightenment is: immersing oneself in scripture, contemplating it and God, and pursuing a Christian life characterized by love and truth.
it is also interesting to note that if we refrained from doing anything that is associated with or even comes from the practices of othfrom religions, there are some things that are not vilified the way yoga is that we would be unable to do. Many martial arts, for example, are rooted in Eastern religions and spirituality. Yet Christians do not usually hold the same stance against martial arts that they might against yoga, and don’t even contemplate the Buddhist monks that developed the martial and still practice it in their monestaries. I think yoga-for-fitness receives the attention it does mainly because of the New Age philosophies. That is a poor reason indeed for Christians to become unbendingly legalistic over such an issue that, for most Christians who practice it, has no real bearing on spirituality.
The Life of Lee 