Paging Jesus. Please call the office. What we've got here is a failure to communicate:
A Southern Baptist leader who is calling for Christians to avoid yoga and its spiritual attachments is getting plenty of pushback from enthusiasts who defend the ancient practice.
Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler says the stretching and meditative discipline derived from Eastern religions is not a Christian pathway to God.
Mohler argued in his online essay last month that Christians who practice yoga "must either deny the reality of what yoga represents or fail to see the contradictions between their Christian commitments and their embrace of yoga."
He said his view is "not an eccentric Christian position."
Other Christian leaders have said practicing yoga is incompatible with the teachings of Jesus. Pat Robertson has called the chanting and other spiritual components that go along with yoga "really spooky." California megachurch pastor John MacArthur called yoga a "false religion." Muslim clerics have banned Muslims from practicing yoga in Egypt, Malaysia and Indonesia, citing similar concerns.
I'm positive there are plenty of people who fully embrace the spiritual aspects of yoga.
But I'm just as positive there are more people (by far) who just like to stretch.
But no, you can't relax, stretch out, and get a little serenity and focus and still be a Christian if you use a method invented by brown people.
If you want some exercise, do the kind approved by the very white and not at all brown Jesus himself. Extreme fighting!
"Hard punches!" he shouted from the sidelines of a martial arts event called Cage Assault. "Finish the fight! To the head! To the head!"
The young man was a member of a fight team at Xtreme Ministries, a small church near Nashville that doubles as a mixed martial arts academy. Mr. Renken, who founded the church and academy, doubles as the team’s coach. The school’s motto is "Where Feet, Fist and Faith Collide."
That didn't make you retch just a little bit? Well, do you wonder why churches would be turning to something as seeming incompatible with a religion of peace (Hello!) as this?
The goal, these pastors say, is to inject some machismo into their ministries — and into the image of Jesus — in the hope of making Christianity more appealing. "Compassion and love — we agree with all that stuff, too," said Brandon Beals, 37, the lead pastor at Canyon Creek Church outside of Seattle. "But what led me to find Christ was that Jesus was a fighter."
The outreach is part of a larger and more longstanding effort on the part of some ministers who fear that their churches have become too feminized, promoting kindness and compassion at the expense of strength and responsibility.
"The man should be the overall leader of the household," said Ryan Dobson, 39, a pastor and fan of mixed martial arts who is the son of James C. Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, a prominent evangelical group. "We’ve raised a generation of little boys."
Good to know.
I'm thinking there's maybe a ministry opportunity in pointing out that Jesus was a drinker, as well.
Of course, just to man it up a little, you should probably plan on smashing the bottle over someone's head when you're done. Maybe a yoga dude, praise God.