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[loretta]

My younger daughter has started to learn yoga at school.  She is only 6 and doesn't quite understand what the fuss is all about. I know that there are real dangers involved in practising yoga.

Yoga is an ancient spiritual discipline whose central doctrines are utterly incompatible with those of Christianity. Even hatha yoga, often considered to be exclusively concerned with physical development, is best understood as merely a means of helping the yogi reach the goal of samadhi, or union with "God." Furthermore, we've seen that all yoga, including hatha, has the potential to be physically, mentally, and spiritually harmful.

Where Yoga Leads (according to Hindus)

In an article dated May 14, 2006, Darryl E. Owens of the Orlando Sentinel quoted Sannyasin Arumugaswami, managing editor of Hinduism Today.

Arumugaswami said Hinduism is the soul of Yoga “based as it is on Hindu Scripture and developed by Hindu sages. Yoga opens up new and more refined states of mind, and to understand them one needs to believe in and understand the Hindu way of looking at God. … A Christian trying to adapt these practices will likely disrupt their own Christian beliefs.”

Prior to BT I would get quite het up about it. Soon after my conversion, I discontinued my elder daughter's Bharat Natyam (Indian dance form primarily used in idol worship) class. Now post BT, I'm not so sure what to do about yoga. I know that all evil, including yoga is of God and even though I protect my kids from the dangers of yoga, they could get ensnared by some other evil. 

They may later go to college and live down the street from an Ashram, see the word “yoga” and get those wonderful warm fuzzies, sign up for classes and be on a whole ‘nother path quicker than you can sing, “Swami, how I love ya.”

As a Christian parent what should I do?

[Dennis Vogel]

I'm assuming you are talking about the religious part of Yoga and not just the physical (I have a Yoga exercise DVD that teaches the physical only which I do not have a problem with).

This is very difficult for someone not living and understanding the culture in India.

When I was in the third grade one of my classmates belonged to one of the fringe Christian religions (JW's, Seventh Day?) and would leave the classroom whenever a subject was being taught that her parents did not want her to participate in. The teacher explained this very nicely to the class and I do not think it caused any problems for my classmate.

This may be an option if there is no retaliation from your daughters classmates. Being ostracized can be very hard on a child. Everyone wants to fit in.

I would not give too much credence to what others say about Yoga. If you look hard enough I'm sure you will find some credible person saying Yoga enhances Christianity. In the end you have to decide based on what is taught and how much of it is counter to your beliefs.

But I will pray and think about this as I'm sure you are.

[loretta]

I would not give too much credence to what others say about Yoga. If you look hard enough I'm sure you will find some credible person saying Yoga enhances Christianity.

Based on the information I have, the physical aspect of yoga is inseparable from the spiritual.  I don't believe that Yoga enhances Christianity, rather we have to be careful about the whole worldview that is attached to such spiritual practices.

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=KKZ6PGNX&utm_source=Christian%20Living%20Connection%20-%20Christianity.com&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=11/17/2011

[Dave in Tenn]

The whole notion that putting one's body into positions is a "spiritual" act is hogwash, as far as I'm concerned.  It doesn't matter who makes the claim, yogi or christian. 

[cjwood]

okay guys, i do yoga exercises in the privacy of my home and have done so for years.  the different poses and the stretching help my fibromyalgia.  i NEVER think about where yoga started or any of the "spiritual" aspects of it.  i have no advice for you loretta on this one.  i use yoga only for the physical relief it brings me, and YES, you can separate the physical from the spiritual with regards to yoga.  i am proof of that.

claudia

[loretta]

Yogi Bear and his good pal Boo-Boo would put themselves in any position to get honey.

Ah, honey, isn't that what we're all after?!

I have permission of the mods to share these links, not to scare anyone really.  I am not scared anymore, now that I know the truth.  But I believe that yoga and other eastern spiritual practices are of Babylon, and we are told to 'come out of her'.  Just my opinion.

http://www.probe.org/site/apps/nlnet/content.aspx?c=fdKEIMNsEoG&b=4282487&ct=5507689&notoc=1

http://www.yogadangers.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2X1HC-3s3uI

http://praisemoves.com/about-us/why-a-christian-alternative-to-yoga/

[Dennis Vogel]

You never told us Loretta if the school is teaching a full-blown religion or just some physical exercises?

[loretta]

I don't know how you would describe, a full-blown religion, Dennis.  I used to be an HIV/AIDS activist and we knew there was no such thing as full-blown AIDS.  You either had HIV infection or AIDS, which meant you were seriously ill.

Likewise, the yoga starts off innocuous enough, standing on one leg, which my little one finds funny.

Eventually in the higher grades, they move onto teaching the fundamentals of yoga, chanting OM etc, which has caused other believers to pull their kids out of the program altogether.

Here is my testimony, for what its worth.

More than a decade ago, while I was working outside the home, my shoulder muscles would get taut as soon as I started working on the computer, which would take about 20 mins to relax.  I realised that I needed to strengthen my back muscles, so I began to do some back exercises.  This one in particular involved lying on my stomach and raising my torso causing my back to arch and it brought tremendous relief. I was at the time seriously considering signing up for yoga classes. Soon after my conversion though, I came across a coffee table book on yoga and I saw that the posture I described above was used in yoga to worship the snake god (a position similar to a cobra rearing its head).  Other postures included worship of the sun god ( surya namaskar - meaning bowing to the sun ) and many other of hinduism's billion gods .  I promptly stopped doing the exercise and believe me, I've never had those muscle tautness since.

2 Thessalonians 1:11 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you  worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power:

Now, post BT, I believe that God was confirming to me, at the time, not that the exercise per se was wrong, but that yoga and all that it involves does not bring glory to God.  All that I've found out in my research about yoga in subsequent years as a Christian, has confirmed this to me.

[Dave in Tenn]

I'll just leave this here:

1Co 8:1  But concerning the sacrifices to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
1Co 8:2  But if anyone thinks to know anything, he still has known nothing as he ought to know.
1Co 8:3  But if anyone loves God, he has been known by Him.
1Co 8:4  Then concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other God except one.
1Co 8:5  For even if some are called gods, either in the heavens or on the earth; (even as there are many gods, and many lords);
1Co 8:6  but to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we by Him.
1Co 8:7  But the knowledge is not in all; but some being aware of the idol eat as an idolatrous sacrifice until now; and their conscience being weak is defiled.
1Co 8:8  But food will not commend us to God. For neither if we eat do we excel, nor if we do not eat are we lacking.
1Co 8:9  But be careful lest this authority of yours become a cause of stumbling to the weak ones.
1Co 8:10  For if anyone sees you, the one having knowledge, sitting in an idol-temple, will not the weak one's conscience be lifted up so as to eat things sacrificed to idols?
1Co 8:11  And on your knowledge the weak brother will fall, he for whom Christ died.
1Co 8:12  And sinning in this way against your brothers, and wounding their conscience, being weak, you sin against Christ.
1Co 8:13  On account of this, if food offends my brother, I will not at all eat flesh forever, so that I do not offend my brother.

On account of this, if I had a daughter I would teach her first the knowledge.

[onelovedread]

On your last comment, Dave, it's never too late. 

[loretta]

On account of this, if I had a daughter I would teach her first the knowledge.

Tks Dave, so true.  I'll let her learn to stand on one foot in the meantime!