Posted on 09/19/2017 5:25:10 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Recently Duke Chapel at Duke University in North Carolina tweeted photos of yoga exercises on the floor of its majestic worship space as part of Healthy Duke Week of Wellness. Built in the 1930s as a Methodist sanctuary in the style of a Gothic cathedral for what was then a Methodist affiliated school, Duke Chapel is now nondenominational.
There are Evangelicals and Catholics who critique yoga as wrong for Christians because its mantras originate in eastern religion. Setting aside that concern, should worship space be open to recreation and "profane" (i.e., secular) activities? Tai-chi? Kickboxing? Karate? Spinning? Ballroom dancing? Salsa? Hip-Hop? Ballet? Volleyball? Badminton? If not, why not?
Catholic and other liturgical traditions generally consecrate their worship spaces and open them to profane activities only after decommissioning. There is an understanding that the place where the Eucharist is served and the Word proclaimed is in some sense sacred, meriting reverence, dignity and protection.
Lower church Protestants and Evangelicals don't always attach the same sense of lofty spirituality to their worship space. Many congregations, especially new ones, don't own property, instead worshiping in rented school gymnasiums or theaters. Other congregations convene in multipurpose rooms with folding chairs, where space shifts from worship to meals to gymnastics or basketball.
Most traditional Protestant churches even if not very liturgical still have formal worship space filled with pews, faced by pulpit and altar, with walls adorned with Christian symbols. This space, while perhaps sometimes used for non-worship meetings, is still usually accorded respect and not host to recreation.
Worship space for many modern non-liturgical churches, while not hosting recreation, often resembles theaters without much if any sacred adornment, often purposefully so, ostensibly to avoid discomfiting unchurched visitors. Worshipers there, and increasingly in more traditional spaces, are often quite casual, wearing shorts, flip flops, baseball hats, carrying lattes or other drinks. These worshipers will often conform to more formality when attending weddings, funerals, graduations or other ceremonies they deem deeply significant.
This casual attitude at church should provoke reflection. Isn't worship deeply significant and meriting respect? Shouldn't Gospel proclamation, reading of God's word, and the Lord's Supper always together inspire awe, reverence and celebratory solemnity, no matter the surrounding architecture? And shouldn't ideally that architecture itself point Godward, conducive to worship? Shouldn't the space itself be deemed special, with expectation that God Himself is present, recalling that when Moses met Him in the wilds he removed his footwear in respect?
Duke Chapel, built as a medieval cathedral with such a sacred sense of God's presence in mind, was intended to inspire appreciation of divine awe and mystery. It's not a multipurpose room or gymnasium. There are plenty of places on the extensive Duke University campus for yoga practitioners and other exercisers to perform their craft.
But exercising and sweating in tights on floormats in a soaring cathedral beneath its stained glass and carvings of saints and martyrs seems to detract from the sacredness of that place. Moses in God's presence did remove his footwear and fall prostrate, but not to stretch and grunt. Today's sanctuaries may not equal Mt. Sinai or King David's Temple, but they should point in spirit to the same God, with consequent respect for His holiness from all who enter. This reverence honors God while also helping us to know Him a bit better.
It’s odd. Today on FR I’ve been called a liberal, a member of Black LIves Matter and a pagan (paraphrasing). It’s pretty pathetic when people who think they are smart or wise take one sentence and act as if they know me based on that sentence. Of course it’s even worse when one of them, despite warnings in The Bible NOT to do so, claim the authority to judge my soul.
Now in return, I won’t judge your soul. I don’t know anything about your soul. But I do know that you think far too highly of yourself and, based on your “sentence” believe God follows Sontagged.
Yes.
Yogi may be smarter that the average bear but even BooBoo or Cindy wouldn’t believe in the DNC’s platform.
Sadly, Yogi wouldn’t last long as an elected Republican, as he has ethics problems when it comes to picnic baskets....
I would accept it in the church basement or a social gathering are but NOT EVER in the sanctuary.
Uh...no, No, and NO!
I believe if you look into a bit more, you will find there is religion in yoga. Why don’t they just call it “stretching”??
Not true. Catholic churches are sacred.
Consecration establishes a valid place of Catholic divine worship as confirmed by the local ordinary (Bishop)
Can. 1214 By the term church is understood a sacred building designated for divine worship to which the faithful have the right of entry for the exercise, especially the public exercise, of divine worship.
Sure
Matthew 18:20 Verse (Click for ... For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the middle of them.
Unless you think (see above!) that is nonsense!
Why don’t they call the “Olympic Games” worshiping Zeus and pals? That’s what the flame is for - “Hey Zeus! We’re here! Watch us!”. Games in fact all organized sports ultimately come from pagan religious ceremonies!
Yep! needs to go into a “picnic basket rehab” clinic!
Can you show me why you believe this?
I am talking about pagan ceremonies with a better sense of artistic taste!
Satanic orgies should not be allowed there.
There has got to be other spaces where these Yoga exercises can be done. The fact they are doing Yoga in a room so obviously designed to be spiritual for Christians was not by accident. At a minimum, it is in bad taste and not respectful of those who hold such views.
:)
>>>Yoga is low grade witchcraft
I find it interesting that a solid Christian like Roy Moore has sought the endorsement for US Senate from the noted yoga practioner Sarah Palin.
Paul rebuked the members of the Corinthian church that had changed the Lord’s supper into a potluck, and doing so at the place of worship. He said, “What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in?” (1Cor. 11:22).
Same should go for exercise. (I’m sure back in Paul’s day most folks had a much more physical life, and therefore didn’t need to an aerobic workout.)
Most folks could get their workout done right in the house/apartment (and do it much cheaper) if they would only discipline themselves.
I’m a trucker, and they mostly don’t get enough exercise. But, occasionally I will see drivers doing calisthenics and jogging at truckstops. I’ve managed to keep a regimen that can be done in the sleeper (if it’s zero out, you make a way.) My current driving job has me home almost everyday, and the old Nordic track ski machine gets used 3 or 4 times a week.
I’ve heard stories about how the gyms are effective at damaging marriages. I fear God enough, and respect my wife enough to not go to a place that encourages a wandering eye. Don’t need TM to mess up your life, when just going to a gym can do the job as well.
RE: There is no religion in yoga
Some people in this thread disagree. See posts 17, 24, 36 and 37 of this thread.
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