Did Not Know.

Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned and I did not even know it. I did not even feel guilty doing it. I did not even know it was mentioned in the Scriptures. My friend had some physical pains and problems that necessitated that he stop playing squash and riding horses so he looked around for something to do while he recovered. He went to a couple of the Yoga sessions at the YMCA and enjoyed them and invited me to come and join him. So, for fellowship with him and for the physical benefits of stretching, I went to yoga sessions for about three months.

Now the President of Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Ky. has come out and announced that Yoga is a religious discipline of the spirit and mind that is contrary to the Word of God. Yoga is not a "fit activity" for Christian people. Yoga has its origin in a spiritual discipline that sees the body as a channel and means by which the Spirit comes into the human person. Albert Mohler says that Christians do not accept the physical body as a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine. Turns out that even Pat Robertson has decided that aspects of Yoga are "really spooky" and ought to be avoided by real Christians.

And there I was doing it and did not even know I was sinning against the Holy. I was one of those who was not aware and failed to see the contradictions between my Christian faith and the participation in the exercises of Yoga. Why even devout Muslims in Egypt, Malaysia and Indonesia have banned Yoga from their faithful. Yoga has to be a lot more wicked than I could even imagine.

How can it be possible that "the body" as a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine" is not a Christian concept? If it is not the body how in the world does Communion work? If it is not the body that is part of the obtaining consciousness with God what are all those monk and nuns doing with fasting, and praying on their knees? Wasn't this one of those ancient councils debate about whether or not Jesus had a real body?

I don't know about Yoga, I just did it to get a thirty minute session of stretching my muscles, and I did not know I was a heretic, but if my body is not part of me and does not help me in my awareness and response to the Holy, then maybe it does not matter what I do with my body. Maybe drinking, smoking, dancing all those things that were once forbidden by Southern Baptists might now be permitted. Gosh, that would be a holy miracle.