06-03-2006, 10:20 PM
June 3, 2006, 2:32AM
Churches blend the discipline of yoga with biblical theology
http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3923593.html
Churches blend the discipline of yoga with biblical theology
By BARBARA KARKABI
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Christian music plays in the background as the women take their places on cross-shaped mats.
For the next hour, Laura Gates gently leads them through exercises that may look like yoga but are known as "PraiseMoves: The Christian Alternative to Yoga."
Instead of referring to the "downward-facing dog," a yoga posture that encourages flexibility and helps the flow of blood to the head, Gates calls the move the "tent" and recites a portion of Isaiah 54:2 ("Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings").
During the class at Second Baptist Church's North campus in Kingwood, Gates' students may do as many as 23 different moves. Each posture has an accompanying Bible verse to put the focus on God. Classes begin and end with prayer.
The practice of yoga, which means "union" or "discipline," began in India 5,000 years ago and has evolved through the centuries. It became part of Hinduism as sages and priests used the postures during meditation to seek a union of body, mind and spirit. In the West, hatha yoga, with its emphasis on fitness and health, has become very popular and is considered more secular.
Though an estimated 15 million to 20 million people practice yoga in the United States, it has been controversial in some Christian churches for years. But with the rise of "Christian alternatives," some mind-sets are changing.
"Yoga is very closely identified with the Hindu religion," said the Rev. Gary Moore, senior associate pastor of Second Baptist Church. "There are many wonderful physical benefits, but you need to be careful how you play the spiritual aspect of it. There are parts of it that are not accept-
able to a Christian community. We take the best parts and apply it to an exercise regime."
Second Baptist's fitness center at Woodway offers "flexible strength" classes as an alternative. Teachers make sure that it's understood the class is purely physical, he said. Bible passages and prayers are generally used.
The Roman Catholic Church issued a warning about yoga and other Eastern practices in a 1989 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. In 2003, the church reaffirmed its position and warned against mixing Catholicism and Eastern practices in a kind of cafeteria of world religions, said Lawrence Cunningham, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame.
"The Christian approach is fairly new," said Gates, to date the only certified PraiseMoves instructor in the Houston area. "But as Christians, we believe that we can present it and God will open the door."
Gates, 62, took yoga classes for several years and enjoyed them, until one day she heard something troubling.
"It was like the lights went on," she recalled. "We were being asked to bow down to something, I don't even remember what it was, but it was like water thrown in my face. Under my breath I said, 'I bow down to no one except my God, the Lord my God,' and I started praying. I decided it was not comfortable for me anymore."
Gates, who lives in Humble, began searching the Internet for a Christian alternative. She found what she was looking for with Laurette Willis and her PraiseMoves program.
Willis, who lives in Oklahoma, had taught yoga for 20-plus years before becoming a Christian in 1987 and leaving her New Age past behind. She came to think of yoga as "the missionary arm of Hinduism and the New Age movement." But she was also aware of the physical benefits of stretching, and after prayerful thought came up with what she calls "a Christ-centered alternative."
Susan Bordenkircher takes a slightly different approach in her yoga ministry, described in Yoga for Christians (W Publishing Group, $20). Though she, too, has a "Christ-centered approach," she uses the traditional names for yoga positions.
"I totally respect the way yoga has developed over the centuries," she said from her home in Alabama. "The difference between the two is the intention of the class. Instead of quieting yourself to find the divinity within yourself, we are looking for a closer relationship with God."
Bordenkircher, a Methodist who taught traditional yoga and other exercise classes for 11 years, incorporates Scripture verses as mantras, uses affirmations of Christianity with different movements and always ends with prayer.
"I feel strongly that God is using yoga in a way that is beneficial to Christians," she said. "Using the term is important to our ministry, because it shows yoga can be embraced by Christianity."
Though no one in Houston is certified in Bordenkircher's Yoga for Christians yet, there are variations on the theme.
Judith Carman, a voice teacher, sees yoga as an extension of her voice lessons. She teaches yoga to her students and is offering a five-week series on "Yoga as a Spiritual Practice" at Trinity Episcopal Church.
While Carman teaches yoga from her background as a Christian, she emphasizes that yoga is not a religion but a spiritual practice that originated in India.
"People and churches need to lose their fear of yoga," she said. "Yoga is nonsectarian in itself; it's how you choose to think about it. In the '60s, it did have the trappings of Hinduism. When I go to a yoga class, if there is a Hindu chant, it's not my tradition, but it's OK with me. But that puts a lot of people off."
Carman teaches traditional yoga positions, but when focusing on breathing or doing mantras, she repeats maranatha, an Aramaic word that means "come, lord." That's the approach used by the World Community for Christian Meditation, she said.
During class, she may use a Bible verse or a favorite quote, such as Mother Teresa's "In silence we are filled with the energy of God that makes us do all things in joy."
Traditional yoga teacher Joy Winkler has heard of Christian yoga but doesn't understand the need for it.
"I don't want to say anything negative, because if that works for people, I think it's amazing," Winkler said. "For me, yoga is so inclusive that I don't see the need; it meets people where they are."
Winkler has a studio in the Heights and has taught yoga at a Christian school. Her philosophy is that the benefits of yoga are universal, whether done at a gym, studio or church.
But Willis and Gates point to a recent Orlando Sentinel article quoting Sannyasin Arumugaswami, managing editor of Hinduism Today.
Hinduism, he said, 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 and understand the Hindu way of looking at God. ... A Christian trying to adapt these practices will likely disrupt their own Christian beliefs."
Ramesh Bhutada, a Houston businessman and Hindu who studied yoga for 15 years, disagrees with Arumugaswami, saying yoga is open to everyone.
"They will get the benefits, regardless of faith or religion," said Bhutada, a member of the Swami Vivekananda Yoga Institute in Houston. "If one goes into deeper, very advanced aspects of yoga, or if they go into an ashram or become a sannyasin (someone who renounces the material world) â then a Christian might have to resolve that."
Suzy Shapiro, president of the Yoga Association of Houston, said that while there are fundamentalists and liberals in Christianity and Hinduism, yoga is ultimately what you make of it.
barbara.karkabi@chron.com
Churches blend the discipline of yoga with biblical theology
http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3923593.html
Churches blend the discipline of yoga with biblical theology
By BARBARA KARKABI
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Christian music plays in the background as the women take their places on cross-shaped mats.
For the next hour, Laura Gates gently leads them through exercises that may look like yoga but are known as "PraiseMoves: The Christian Alternative to Yoga."
Instead of referring to the "downward-facing dog," a yoga posture that encourages flexibility and helps the flow of blood to the head, Gates calls the move the "tent" and recites a portion of Isaiah 54:2 ("Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings").
During the class at Second Baptist Church's North campus in Kingwood, Gates' students may do as many as 23 different moves. Each posture has an accompanying Bible verse to put the focus on God. Classes begin and end with prayer.
The practice of yoga, which means "union" or "discipline," began in India 5,000 years ago and has evolved through the centuries. It became part of Hinduism as sages and priests used the postures during meditation to seek a union of body, mind and spirit. In the West, hatha yoga, with its emphasis on fitness and health, has become very popular and is considered more secular.
Though an estimated 15 million to 20 million people practice yoga in the United States, it has been controversial in some Christian churches for years. But with the rise of "Christian alternatives," some mind-sets are changing.
"Yoga is very closely identified with the Hindu religion," said the Rev. Gary Moore, senior associate pastor of Second Baptist Church. "There are many wonderful physical benefits, but you need to be careful how you play the spiritual aspect of it. There are parts of it that are not accept-
able to a Christian community. We take the best parts and apply it to an exercise regime."
Second Baptist's fitness center at Woodway offers "flexible strength" classes as an alternative. Teachers make sure that it's understood the class is purely physical, he said. Bible passages and prayers are generally used.
The Roman Catholic Church issued a warning about yoga and other Eastern practices in a 1989 document from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. In 2003, the church reaffirmed its position and warned against mixing Catholicism and Eastern practices in a kind of cafeteria of world religions, said Lawrence Cunningham, professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame.
"The Christian approach is fairly new," said Gates, to date the only certified PraiseMoves instructor in the Houston area. "But as Christians, we believe that we can present it and God will open the door."
Gates, 62, took yoga classes for several years and enjoyed them, until one day she heard something troubling.
"It was like the lights went on," she recalled. "We were being asked to bow down to something, I don't even remember what it was, but it was like water thrown in my face. Under my breath I said, 'I bow down to no one except my God, the Lord my God,' and I started praying. I decided it was not comfortable for me anymore."
Gates, who lives in Humble, began searching the Internet for a Christian alternative. She found what she was looking for with Laurette Willis and her PraiseMoves program.
Willis, who lives in Oklahoma, had taught yoga for 20-plus years before becoming a Christian in 1987 and leaving her New Age past behind. She came to think of yoga as "the missionary arm of Hinduism and the New Age movement." But she was also aware of the physical benefits of stretching, and after prayerful thought came up with what she calls "a Christ-centered alternative."
Susan Bordenkircher takes a slightly different approach in her yoga ministry, described in Yoga for Christians (W Publishing Group, $20). Though she, too, has a "Christ-centered approach," she uses the traditional names for yoga positions.
"I totally respect the way yoga has developed over the centuries," she said from her home in Alabama. "The difference between the two is the intention of the class. Instead of quieting yourself to find the divinity within yourself, we are looking for a closer relationship with God."
Bordenkircher, a Methodist who taught traditional yoga and other exercise classes for 11 years, incorporates Scripture verses as mantras, uses affirmations of Christianity with different movements and always ends with prayer.
"I feel strongly that God is using yoga in a way that is beneficial to Christians," she said. "Using the term is important to our ministry, because it shows yoga can be embraced by Christianity."
Though no one in Houston is certified in Bordenkircher's Yoga for Christians yet, there are variations on the theme.
Judith Carman, a voice teacher, sees yoga as an extension of her voice lessons. She teaches yoga to her students and is offering a five-week series on "Yoga as a Spiritual Practice" at Trinity Episcopal Church.
While Carman teaches yoga from her background as a Christian, she emphasizes that yoga is not a religion but a spiritual practice that originated in India.
"People and churches need to lose their fear of yoga," she said. "Yoga is nonsectarian in itself; it's how you choose to think about it. In the '60s, it did have the trappings of Hinduism. When I go to a yoga class, if there is a Hindu chant, it's not my tradition, but it's OK with me. But that puts a lot of people off."
Carman teaches traditional yoga positions, but when focusing on breathing or doing mantras, she repeats maranatha, an Aramaic word that means "come, lord." That's the approach used by the World Community for Christian Meditation, she said.
During class, she may use a Bible verse or a favorite quote, such as Mother Teresa's "In silence we are filled with the energy of God that makes us do all things in joy."
Traditional yoga teacher Joy Winkler has heard of Christian yoga but doesn't understand the need for it.
"I don't want to say anything negative, because if that works for people, I think it's amazing," Winkler said. "For me, yoga is so inclusive that I don't see the need; it meets people where they are."
Winkler has a studio in the Heights and has taught yoga at a Christian school. Her philosophy is that the benefits of yoga are universal, whether done at a gym, studio or church.
But Willis and Gates point to a recent Orlando Sentinel article quoting Sannyasin Arumugaswami, managing editor of Hinduism Today.
Hinduism, he said, 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 and understand the Hindu way of looking at God. ... A Christian trying to adapt these practices will likely disrupt their own Christian beliefs."
Ramesh Bhutada, a Houston businessman and Hindu who studied yoga for 15 years, disagrees with Arumugaswami, saying yoga is open to everyone.
"They will get the benefits, regardless of faith or religion," said Bhutada, a member of the Swami Vivekananda Yoga Institute in Houston. "If one goes into deeper, very advanced aspects of yoga, or if they go into an ashram or become a sannyasin (someone who renounces the material world) â then a Christian might have to resolve that."
Suzy Shapiro, president of the Yoga Association of Houston, said that while there are fundamentalists and liberals in Christianity and Hinduism, yoga is ultimately what you make of it.
barbara.karkabi@chron.com