Professor Candy Gunther Brown discusses the brand extension of yoga into so-called “Christian Yoga” in her blog post at Psychology Today. More and more Christians and even evangelical pastors believe that inherently spiritual activities from other religions and even the occult can be put into a pseudo-rational centrifuge where the supposed benefits of these activities can be separated from their spiritually suspect roots. The latest of these fads is the totally non-scientific Enneagram personality types that have become the subject of sermons by pastors and several books promoted by leading Christian publishers.
Unfortunately, the inherent idolatry behind these practices is becoming virtually invisible to much of American evangelicalism. The power of idol worship is that it creates the spiritual power to deceive. Faith in the idol becomes more powerful than faith in the God of the Bible. In Brooke Boon’s book on “Holy Yoga,” she states that she had given herself to yoga before giving her life to Christ. However, she couldn’t give up yoga because she couldn’t subordinate it to her Christian faith. She decided to serve two masters and as Dr. Brown states in her article, Boon is now is integrating more Hindu metaphysical concepts into her “Holy Yoga” teaching.
Brown also discusses the research showing how yoga practice leads to changes in spiritual practice and religious beliefs over time. These research findings for some reason have not deterred the growth of yoga by evangelicals and trendy pastors will ignore this research at their own and their congregations’ peril.
Dr. Brown Psychology Today Post: Why “Christian” Yoga?