LOUISVILLE, Ky. (ABP) — A veteran culture warrior, described in a recent Christianity Today cover story as "the most prominent public intellectual" in the Southern Baptist Convention, admitted surprise at controversy over an article he wrote advising Christians not to practice yoga.
Al Mohler
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"Oh, what a fracas I started on yoga," Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, tweeted Oct. 7. "Unbelievable."
Mohler — a contributor to the Washington Post's On Faith blog feature who has been quoted in newspapers including The New York Times, USA Today and The Washington Post and who regularly appears on national news programs — is no stranger to controversy. He once called the Roman Catholic Church a "false church" and the papacy an "unbiblical office." He declared married couples who choose to be childless in "moral rebellion," denies evolution and believes women cannot serve as pastors and that wives must submit to their husbands in the home.
None of that, however, prepared him for the backlash to his Sept. 20 column titled "The Subtle Body — Should Christians Practice Yoga?" After an Associated Press story about the reaction appeared Oct. 7, Mohler said in a follow-up blog that he was receiving e-mail messages at the rate of 100 per hour.
Most took issue with his conclusion that "Christians who practice yoga are embracing, or at minimum flirting with, a spiritual practice that threatens to transform their own spiritual lives into a 'post-Christian, spiritually polyglot' reality."
"The first lesson — count the cost when you talk about yoga," Mohler reflected. "These people get bent out of shape fast."
Mohler found some defenders. John Mark Reynolds of Biola University called it "a courageous post condemning the importation of yoga into the church." Most of the reaction, however, ranged from incredulity to ridicule to outrage.
"That Southern Baptist circle just keeps getting smaller and smaller and we find ourselves further and further from its narrowing circumference," Ed Sunday-Winters, pastor of Ball Camp Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., blogged after dealing with a church member angered by Mohler's suggestion that her yoga exercises are somehow un-Christian.
"[The] main reason I have to denounce yoga is that I can't touch my toes," Chris Seay, pastor of Ecclesia, a church in Houston that caters to younger Christians, quipped on Twitter. "Fundamentalism keeps getting more and more ridiculous."
"Demonizing yoga is no different than demonizing rock music," Seay said. "The real question is how do we engage culture with gospel, not hide from it?"
Ashley Grizzle
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Ashley Grizzle, administrative coordinator at Wieuca Road Baptist Church in Atlanta, said she "got fired up" after reading about Mohler's comments in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and posted a link to it on her Facebook wall, where it prompted a conversation.
"My yoga time IS my time with God," Grizzle wrote in her initial comment. "It's when my body is most at peace and I am able to center my thoughts. Why is that so awful?"
"Yoga is a physical practice that evokes true communion between me and God, a very personal and private time," Grizzle said Oct. 12. "When I practice yoga, it's the only time of the day where I am able to push out other thoughts, and totally be in tune with God. Who is Al Mohler to say that isn't right?"
Grizzle said she suffers from insomnia, and many times yoga is the only thing that helps her sleep through the night, working better than sleeping pills, hot showers or any other form of exercise. She said it "broke my heart" to read derogatory things about something that helps her with a physical ailment.
In his original column, Mohler said there is nothing wrong with physical exercise, and the stretching positions used in yoga are not the main issue, but he argues that trying to separate the physical and spiritual aspects of yoga is spiritually naïve.
"The bare fact is that yoga is a spiritual discipline by which the adherent is trained to use the body as a vehicle for achieving consciousness of the divine," Mohler wrote. "Christians are called to look to Christ for all that we need and to obey Christ through obeying his Word. We are not called to escape the consciousness of this world by achieving an elevated state of consciousness, but to follow Christ in the way of faithfulness."
Grizzle responded that she is not "escaping" when she practices yoga, but rather "looking to Christ."
"I welcome God in those quiet, peaceful moments, and that is 'our time' together," she said. "I don't push God aside or look for a spiritual high elsewhere. I don't have to. He is right there."
Yoga, developed 5,000 years ago in India, was brought to the United States in the early 20th century. It was popular during the hippie culture of the 1960s and 1970s as a way of achieving a drug-free "high." But during the past 10 years or so it has exploded onto the American scene for its stress-reduction and physical-fitness benefits.
Between 15 million and 20 million people now practice yoga nationwide, and conservative Christians aren't the only ones voicing concern. The Hindu American Foundation issued a position paper earlier this year criticized a "trend of disassociating Yoga from its Hindu roots."
Mohler isn't the first Southern Baptist leader to deal with the controversy. LifeWay Christian Resources removed Christian yoga titles from their online bookstore three years ago after customer complaints.
Grizzle said that yoga may not be for Mohler, "but it is a wonderful practice for many people, and for many people who may never set foot inside of a church."
"I wish someone like him [Mohler] who has made a career of centering his world on living out his faith would show more respect for those who want the same thing in life and in our relationship with God, only we have a different way of getting there," she commented.
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Bob Allen is senior writer for Associated Baptist Press.