#63 Is Yoga Sinful?
What is yoga?
Yoga is historically a religious practice from Hindus that helps you become one with the universe. Although within the past 70-80 years yoga has been imported to the western world largely without the religious aspects into the everyday lives of many americans and widely seen to be about as religious as pilates.
Arguments Against Yoga
Yes
Michael Knowles yoga is “demonic and bad” but stretching and meditating is fine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odfuNepea8E
John Piper, ‘yoga in its roots is opposite of Christianity.’ goal of yoga is ‘a healthy balanced approach to life.’ Piper suggests then to choose something else other than yoga. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwLakR3kvK8
Mark Driscoll, claims that yoga may be sinful as it is seen as a religious practice by some people and even demons. Thus doing yoga may be to invite demons into your life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVblAQQDMkc
Refutals
No
Yoga is two things 1 is what it technically is which is a Hindu practice to bring you closer to oneness with the universe. And 2 it is what everyone believes and practices it which is fancy stretching. I say fancy stretching as there is history, poses, the positions have names, and there is evidence that the stretching affects your body. This is in every way better than just stretching. In the way that the majority of Christians use yoga today it shouldn’t even technically be called yoga.
Piper may be wrong here because the Christian generally does not approach yoga for religious purposes. It is a matter of exercise and its general effectiveness compared to stretching in general. This is not the realm of Pastors but of Doctors. Yet even so you can take the meditation practices of yoga and use them to meditate on God.
This is a view of the world which says that demons come into our lives through our actions, location, and in things. While I don’t deny that demons are at work in this world, the idea that they come into our lives through things and practices like yoga seems somewhat absurd.
What The Bible Says
Claims like these are difficult to refute because of their lack of biblical evidence to back them up. There are not really any verses in the Bible (at least as far as I can tell) that show demons coming through items or practices.
The best evidence that I can find for making a reasonable judgment in either direction is 1 Corinthians 10:19-20 which reads “What do I mean then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not want you to become sharers in demons.” From this we may gather that like food sacrificed to idols yoga is nothing. Even if it is sacrificed to idols that does not make it impermissible but rather a bad idea as Michael Knowles stated. But draws us into context as context makes a world of difference here. True yoga is Hindu and it is in a way sacrificed to demons. Yet ‘american yoga’ that you would find at a strip mall may or may not have any religious aspect to it. I would suggest in those cases to avoid yoga groups and instructors that take a religious approach. Then finally there is yoga on your own. When you do yoga on your own as a christian I have to believe you have no intention of opening yourself up to demons. Finally, on your own you may even bring God into the picture and seek to draw closer to him through yoga.
My Experience
I personally practice yoga almost daily. I do it on my own and only do the stretches, not the meditation. Generally when I do yoga it is in silence or I am listening to a book. It has been extremely useful to me after long runs to aid in my recovery. Yet what is the difference in this and just stretching? Certain stretches are yoga stretches and not all yoga positions stretch you. So yoga is in a way a subcategory of stretching but in other ways separate.
