Posted on 02/22/2006 9:02:19 AM PST by laney
Can yoga and its religious roots be separated? Some who have been concerned about Eastern influences of yoga have looked to hatha yoga for answers, since hatha yoga is supposed to simply be the flexibility exercises without the spiritual influences. But Laurette is convinced that yoga and Hinduism are inextricably linked, and beyond that, there can be no such thing as Christian yoga.
“Christian yoga is an oxymoron,” said Laurette. “It is like saying someone is a Christian Buddhist or a Christian Hindu. What some people are doing is that they are trying to make yoga Christian. Even Hindus are saying that you cannot do that.”
Laurette’s Story: Sucked into Yoga and the New Age
Laurette first got involved in yoga as a little girl. Her mother used to give free yoga classes to the college students, and Laurette was the demonstration model. Laurette loved being the center of attention, so yoga was fun. In addition, the exercises really relaxed her mother.
But Laurette warns that yoga’s ability to bring a sense of calm is one of its deceptive charms: “That’s one thing people look at, too,” said Laurette. “They say, ‘My doctor, my chiropractor, my physical therapist says to do it. It helps me. I feel less stressful.’ Well, it wouldn’t be a hook if it didn’t have something good in it.”
Yoga also fulfilled a spiritual need in Laurette’s life. Though her family went to church, Laurette says she never heard the message of salvation preached there.
“We didn’t know about living the victorious Christian life,” she explained. “We were not aware of the deception that is inherent within yoga and its connections to Hinduism. It seemed so spiritual, so it was fulfilling a void that was in our lives. I have found that any part of our lives that is not submitted to the lordship of Jesus Christ is an open door for the enemy. … As I look back, that was the open door to the New Age for us. We began getting into Edgar Cayce, Ouija boards, crystals, and all kinds of things.”
Finding Christ on April Fool’s Day
An only child, Laurette lost both her parents within the span of a couple of years while she was working as a struggling actress in New York. Grieved and lonely, she decided to move to Oklahoma and join a New Age community there to start her life over. A year after her move, Laurette says she came to the end of herself. That’s when she cried out to God.
It was April Fool’s Day 1987, and as Laurette likes to tell it, “I went from being a fool for the world to a fool for Christ.” Laurette prayed, surrendering her life to God. “I fell on my knees and on my face, and I felt a physical weight lift off of me that I learned later was the weight of sin,” she said.
Laurette was delivered from years of alcoholism, an addiction that began at age 13. And four days after praying, she met her husband to whom she has been married for almost 19 years.
“I found that everything that I was looking for in the New Age and metaphysics and the occult, the wisdom of God was in the Bible,” she said. “I had no idea there was so much in the Bible. I thought that Christianity was just kindergarten, and I was into the higher things.”
PraiseMoves: The Christian Alternative to Yoga
Laurette remembers keenly the day God brought her the idea for PraiseMoves™. She says it was February 25, 2001 at 10:35 a.m., and she had just finished working out to a Denise Austin video. Laurette was contemplating in prayer an idea for a form of exercise besides aerobics that wouldn’t be yoga but that would be gentler on her 40-something body. “I thought that something would involve stretching and praising and moving and Scripture, and suddenly the idea of PraiseMoves™ came.”
For the next two years, Laurette prayed about the idea and put it together. The foundational Scripture for PraiseMoves™ is 1 Corinthians 6:20, which says, “You were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”
PraiseMoves™ postures are stretching exercises with an accompanying Scripture verse. “Every posture in PraiseMoves™ is tied to a Scripture, so that while we are stretching and strengthening the body, we are also being transformed by the renewing of our mind, nourishing our spirit, and praising the Lord,” said Laurette.
As you do the strengthening posture, you are supposed to think about the correlating verse. For instance, there is a posture called the vine, a pose that strengthens the spine and arms. The matching Scripture verse is John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
Just how important is it for the Christian to incorporate Scripture into daily living, even into such mundane endeavors as exercise? Well, for Laurette, the Word of God has been the key to a transformed life.
“I look at how my life has changed over the years since I turned my life to Christ,” she said, “and it was really after I made a conscious decision to memorize Scripture, to get it on the inside of me, to begin to allow myself to be transformed by the renewing of my mind on the Word of God, that I really noticed a tremendous change in my life.”
Laurette believes that as Christians we should view exercise as something that can and should be godly. After all, the term “godly fitness” is part of the title of her latest book. What exactly does godly fitness look like at its most basic level?
“Whatever we do, we do as unto the Lord by focusing on Him, by realizing that this is not a cult of the body. I am not trying to get my body to look a certain way to meet the world’s standards. I want to be a fit witness for Him,” Laurette said.
Can yoga and its religious roots be separated?
IMHO yes they can....
Can sweatin to the oldies and Richard Simmons be separated?
If you can get over a fascination with spandex, yes.
Good question!
I think this woman is a bit off her rocker..I never been to a Yoga class where people were praying to Hindu Gods??
ping
Note that the article citation has TM next to the new approved/improved technique.
$cientology also has trade secrets.
I have many positions on this subject!
New Age is hard to define. It includes a variety of beliefs, fads, and rituals.
It seems to be a marriage of Science & Easternism Cult-religious organizations and can be a mixture of Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Spiritualism
Some New Agers subscribe to some parts, some to others.
There are those who would say things like dancing are also incompatible with Christianity. I think it's not unfair to refer to those who think there's something un-Christianlike in yoga as "Nuts".
I happen to think there's a lot that's un-Yogalike in Christianity.
Anything that might be harmful or toxic to the body or mind is un-christian/godly like, but for someone to say that a stretching and excercise program that a person actually reaps good health benefits from is sinful or not christian seems IMO to be a bit teetering on lunacy...
I WOULD SAY THIS NO DOUBT IS SAN FRANFREAKO>>>
This is not the invention of "naked yoga guy" George Monty Davis, who made headlines last year for (legally) striking naked yoga poses at Fisherman's Wharf, nor a "hot nude yoga" class for gay men, popular in Boston, Dallas and Los Angeles, or in any way connected to Internet-sold videos of voluptuous women doing naked yoga on wave-washed beaches with horses galloping by.
If Jack La Lane only knew what they would turn excercise into!
RE: doing Yoga as a Christian. I say it depends on how spiritually mature the Christian is.
If they arent careful...they could be doing things that would open themselves up to ungodly "stuff".
This PraiseMoves deal seems like a clever alternative.
The 91 year old Jack LaLanneis still alive and working out two hours every morning...I saw him on some TV special in December, and he and his 78 year old wife both looked quite spry.
ping
Yes I believe what you say does have some merit...
As a Christian (That Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the reeedemer of Sin) I also can say I do beleive that Eastern Culture and Medicine has some substansial health benefits....
For the most part the Christian Religion has stayed away from the benefits of excerice, good nutrition if it had to do with anything they feel came from a un-christian source...But we have learned many benefits health wise from Eastern and Indian Culture that can be very helpful to the Christian Community
What would an ungodly thing be, that could be done practising yoga?
I know! I saw him as well!
He's a Big Juicer!!! I would rather buy the Juice from a Health Store than use my juicer as it takes a day and a half to clean the darn thing!!
Since many christians are Buddhists or Hindus in effect.. Why not?.. Actally good Buddhists are very good people.. If your christianity is about being good.. Very probably you're Buddhist.. except Buddhists do it better.. less so Hindus.. Buddha actually was a Hindu at one time..
The only ones that can say this is NOT so.. Are people that know nothing about either Buddhism or Hinduism.. and probably less about Christianity..
For Jesus came to make ALL religion OBSOLETE, and DID..
Being "christian" is not about what you believe its about Whom you are..
Its a family thing, being "born again"..
You are whom you are, you can't act like you are born again.. thats hypocrisy..
The very meaning of the word hypocrisy means acting.. What is, is... and what ain't, ain't...
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