Yoga Fire

Yoga is dumb (<-Thesis statement). I am listening to "Working for the Weekend" by Loverboy right now (<-red herring statement that has nothing to do with thesis). Despite the misleading implications of Street Fighter, yoga will not make you breathe fire or stretch your limbs really far when fighting in a room full of ornately adorned elephants. Yoga is like the French bottled water of the exercise world. It is a scientific fact that yoga will not get you in shape. Hey, 1975 called, and it wants its lame, isometric exercise back. I know, it strengthens your core, stretches your..blah, blah, blah. I get it, celebrities do it. It's Eastern. It's meditative. It's popular. So it's virtuous. Which brings me to my next point. Go jogging. Now for some more points.

As a Christian, one should take the time to ask the question of whether or not it's okay to practice yoga. Before you blow it off as preposterous to ask such a question, consider the following statement. No, consider the next statement after this. Yoga is Hindu worship. It is a meditative exercise designed to help one unify in spirit with Brahma and learn to connect with one's inner light. It is taken very seriously by serious Hindus. It isn't just the new way to look sexy in this season's turban.

In answering the permissibility of yoga, let us consider the Bible, because, you know, it's the basis for Christianity and Christian ethic. One can take the approach that Paul takes with the Corinthians when he discusses eating meat sacrificed to idols (I Cor 8). He explains that, as saints, we know that idols are worthless, and we are under the one true God. Therefore, meat sacrificed to idols can be redefined as just food. In the same way, we can view yoga as simply an exercise that can be enjoyed for its non-real-exercise virtue apart from its original use as worship. (See paragraph 1 on the uselessness of yoga as an exercise). This seems pretty valid from a Scriptural standpoint. I'm now listening to "Down Under" by Men at Work.

However, I hear from many Christians that yoga is their way to meditate and pray to our God. This takes the argument to a new level, assuming we defeated the boss of the previous level. Hy-doo-kin! (Second Street Fighter reference). I believe we are starting to tread on the thin ice of syncretism at this point. (First ice pond fishing reference). Worshiping The Father through yoga would be the equivalent of me busting out my prayer rug and bowing in a prayer ritual in church. It would seem really out of place and incongruent with Christian worship. I'm not saying it can't be done or that it is immoral. Now I am. As Paul wrote, "All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable" (I Cor 10:23). But since we established that yoga is dumb, we can rest assured that it is. Finishing off with "Time to Pretend" by MGMT.