Is Yoga Demonic?

Sermon for North Hill, November 6, 2010


Recently, the Seattle Times ran an article on its front page: Yoga: Is it demonic?

The article was provoked by the publication of a paper by the head of the Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, and by a statement by Mark Driscoll, senior pastor of Mars Hill Church, the most visible mega-church in the Seattle area.

Someone asked Driscoll, “Should Christians avoid yoga because of its demonic origins?” Mark's answer was an emphatic yes. If fact, he said, “If you sign up for a little yoga class, you are signing up for a little demon class.”

Driscoll's reasoning went like this: Yoga originated among Hindus and it is thoroughly entwined with Hindu religion and philosophy. Since Hinduism is pantheistic or panentheistic, yoga must be evil.

Given Driscoll's visibility in our area and the fact that a number of North Hill members practice yoga, I thought it would be worthwhile to examine the question.

The principles and Bible passages we'll examine in connection with yoga will apply to other areas of life as well.


John 1

Jesus meets Philip shortly after his baptism and invites Philip to follow him. Philip accepts the invitation. Almost immediately, he is so impressed with what he experiences in Jesus' presence that he goes off to find his friend Nathanael. “Nathanael,” Philip says, “we have found the one Moses wrote about, the one the prophets wrote about—Jesus of Nazareth.”

Nathanael laughs, “How could anything good come out of Nazareth?” If this guy you're talking about comes from Nazareth, there's no way he could be the Messiah. We know what kind of place Nazareth is. And it doesn't produce good people.”

What was Philip's answer to Nathanael's challenge?

“Come and see.”

John intends his readers to understand Philip's answer to Nathanael as the right answer to questions about spiritual reality. Don't get lost in arguments about history or mysterious, secret symbols or obscure genealogies. As a Christian who has been promised the guidance of the Holy Spirit, you can safely check things out for yourself. Come and see.

Nathanael's question would have been a perfect set up for John to give us information about the real origin of Jesus. Jesus isn't really from Nazareth. Jesus isn't really a Galilean. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the royal city. But John completely ignores the question of Jesus' earthly origin. If we had only the gospel of John as our source of information about Jesus, we would know nothing about the virgin birth or Bethlehem or Jesus genealogical connection with King David. John does not invite us to examine Jesus' ancestry or birthplace. John wants us to directly engage with Jesus. John wants us to follow Philip's advice to Nathanael: Come and see. This is a major theme in the Gospel of John.

In Chapter 4, Jesus has a conversation with a non-Jewish woman. After she visits with Jesus for a while at a place called Jacob's Well, she goes back into town and urges everyone to come meet Jesus. “Come see the man who knows my story. Come and see.”

Yes, the man is Jewish she says (that is from a people that are hostile to the Samaritan people and religion), still, she insists, just come and see. The woman is confident that if the people will just meet Jesus, they will come to the same conclusion she has. Come and see.

In chapter 7, the religious leaders, the people charged with conserving the faith and heritage of the people, decide they have to bring Jesus in for a formal inquiry. He is stirring up the people. He's creating a dangerous enthusiasm. The leaders send the police to arrest Jesus and bring him to the council. The police go, but they are so enthralled by Jesus' teaching (and I think, perhaps, intimidated by the massive crowd) that they come back to the council without Jesus. When the leaders ask incredulously, “Why didn't you bring him in?” the police answer, “No one ever spoke like this man!”

The implication behind their words: You would have to there. We can't describe what we experienced.

The leaders berate the police. “What! You mean this charlatan has deceived you, too! Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees—the religious conservatives—believed in him? No! But this mob that knows nothing of the Bible—a curse on them!”

Nicodemus spoke up. Does our law condemn someone before hearing him?

Notice the leaders' response: Are you a Galilean, too? Check it out and you'll see that prophets don't come from Galilee, and especially not THE prophet.

The religious leaders rejected Jesus, not because they had examined his character and teachings but because of they know about his origin. He came from Galilee. That's all they need to know.

Since Jesus had roots among the unsophisticated, ethnically-mixed, religiously-lax people of Galilee, he could not possibly be the Messiah. In fact, these leaders believed Jesus' roots in Galilee were sufficient cause to reject everything he taught. According to these angry critics, there could be no prophetic (i.e. authoritative) word from someone with Galilean roots.

Again, this would have been a perfect place in the story for John to have defended Jesus by explaining that before he lived in Galilee, Jesus had lived in Egypt. And before he lived in Egypt, he had been born in Bethlehem. John could have argued that Jesus' genealogical pedigree was as impressive as anyone's on the council. But John refused to go there. John's convictions about Jesus were not primarily rooted in prophecy or ancient scripture. John had spent time with Jesus. That direct engagement eclipsed all the theoretical underpinnings for Jesus claim to Messianic identity.

This direct engagement comes to a most dramatic climax in John 9. Jesus and his disciples came across a man who had been born blind. Jesus healed him. When the conservatives called the man in for questioning, they insisted they didn't know where Jesus was from implying that this was somehow very important. The man scoffs at their professed ignorance. Their professed lack of knowledge is utterly irrelevant.

The formerly blind man says, “Here's what I know: I was blind and now I see.” You birthers can go bury yourself in a library searching old records and fuzzy copies. I'm not going to waste my time. I was blind and now I see. That much I know for sure. And it is enough.

The gospel of John reassures us that we don't have to be experts in secret history. We don't have to know about hidden mysteries. If we are open to God, God will make himself known. We can God's guidance as we engage life. We do not have to be afraid that somehow the Devil is going to sneak in and deceive us. According to John the greatest threat to spiritual life is excessive caution, being closed to the leading and work of the Holy Spirit. In John's gospel, the people who are “deceived” are not tricked by the Devil, but blinded by their stubborn rejection of God's new work which does not fit their ancient prejudices.

With this study of the Gospel of John as our starting point, let's ask the question about yoga: is yoga good or bad?

The obvious first question is what do we mean by “yoga.”

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Yoga (with a capital “Y”) is a Hindu theistic philosophy teaching the suppression of all activity of body, mind, and will in order that the self may realize its distinction from them and attain liberation.

If that is what you mean by yoga, then Driscoll would be right to base his evaluation of yoga on theological/philosophical concepts. However, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary offers a second definition: yoga is “a system of exercises for attaining bodily or mental control and well-being.”

It is yoga in this second sense that I want to evaluate.

I'll begin with my own story.

A few years ago something went wrong with my right shoulder. I went to my regular doctor then to a sports medicine specialist. Went through the usual diagnostics. Had an MRI. Had an injection that “might” help. It didn't. Went to a chiropractor who helped ease the pain a little. Still I was chased from bed every morning by pain. Outdoor work at home and here at church hurt. I figured I'd live with chronic pain the rest of my life. Then I started doing a few exercises I found in a yoga book. Over the next couple of years I did my yoga routine every morning. After awhile I noticed the pain was diminished. Then months later it was almost completely gone. I could sleep in on my days off. Finally, just this week I pitched ten pounds of hay overhand across a fence into one of the horse stalls. As I did it, I suddenly realized, Wow! That didn't hurt! My shoulder is working!

Those of you who deal with chronic pain can imagine how happy I am with my new pain-free existence.

So when I hear someone like Mark Driscoll or other religious leaders going on about the evils of yoga . . . Yoga was invented by pantheistic Hindus. Yoga teaches you to look within yourself and we're supposed to look outward to Jesus. Yoga postures are opening you up to demons. . . . I just smile and say, I don't know about all that. This I know. I was in pain. Constant, incurable pain. And now I am pain free.

A critic who observed my yoga routine might argue that what I do is not “real yoga” because in addition to postures taught by the yoga book, I do postures I made up myself. And I throw in a bit of weight training as well.

Why not just call what I do “exercises” instead of yoga? Because the book that got me started was a book of yoga postures. The classes I have attended are called yoga classes. The teachers who have helped me are trained yoga teachers. It is a simple matter of respect to acknowledge the help I have received.

I was in pain and now I am pain free. And yoga played a major role in the wonderful change that I have experienced.

Now, I freely acknowledge that my experience with yoga is not all there is to consider. The few classes I have attended have not involved any rituals that appeared to be religious. There has been no chanting, no images. The classes have consisted of cycles of physical exertion and rest. Period. However, just a couple of weeks ago a friend told me that she started attending a yoga class looking for help with some physical problems. The instructor asked the class to chant with her. When my friend looked up the meaning of the words she was chanting, she discovered they were the names of Hindu gods. So, of course, she quit doing that.

Let's push a little further: can a practice that originated in a non-Christian or even anti-Christian environment be helpful and appropriate for Christians?

Yes. Emphatically, yes.

The Gospel of Matthew makes quite a point of highlighting the contribution that non-Jewish peoples and nations made to Jesus' story. When Jesus parents flee to Egypt to avoid Herod's slaughter of the infants, Matthew remarks, “This happened to fulfill the prophecy, 'Out of Egypt have I called my son.'” Notice, Egypt, the historical “land of slavery” has now, in Jesus' story, become a sanctuary, a place of refuge. Egypt, the land of false religion, the home of the worship of the sun god, is not described the place of Jesus.

Then Matthew reports on the visit of the Magi. These were deeply spiritual people in the tradition of Babylon and Persia. Some Christian critics of yoga scornfully point to yoga's connection with the ancient apostasy of Babylon and Persia, thinking this proves that Christians should have nothing to do with yoga. However, the first gifts Jesus received was from representatives of that very religion. And Jesus did not scorn their gifts.

So when we receive gifts from the realm of yoga, we are merely following in the pattern already set in the story of Jesus.

The dominant message of the Bible is God's penchant for redeeming, for drawing back into the center of his beneficent will, all people and all things that have been eccentric to his will.

In the Bible, Babylon first appears as an enemy of God's people. Then it becomes the place where God finally manages to cure his people of idolatry. Babylon is where the synagogue, the church as a center of Bible study, first came into existence. Before the Jews went to Babylon they did not have a culture of Bible study outside the temple in Jerusalem. And it isn't clear that there was a culture of study even in the Jerusalem temple. That changed in Babylon.

In Isaiah, the king of Babylon is described in such colorfully negative language that it has traditionally been interpreted as a metaphorical picture of the Devil. Then the prophet Daniel includes the personal conversion testimony of the king of Babylon—the most dramatic conversion story in all of Scripture, eclipsing even the conversion of the Apostle Paul on the road to Damascus.

When we evaluate yoga, we ought to root our assessment in present reality, not in history. This can get complicated because yoga, like Christianity, is highly varied.

Mark Driscoll is a Christian.
The pope is a Christian.
Jehovah's Witnesses are Christians.
George Bush is a Christian.
Barack Obama is a Christian.
Hillary Clinton is a Christianity
Glenn Beck is a Christian.
Robert Yates (a serial killer) is a Christian.

Based on this list of Christians how could you offer a single, simple answer to a question about whether Christianity is good, bad or indifferent. You can't. So with yoga. When someone asks you about yoga, you have to ask what yoga they have in mind. What book are they referring to? What class? What teacher? What practice? Some yoga instructors teach their students to chant praises to Hindu gods as part of their yoga practice. Others make no reference to any kind of religious practice or ideology.

In 1 Corinthians 8, the Apostle Paul addresses a question that has direct bearing on our topic. Meat was used in the rituals in pagan temples. Then that meat was available for people to eat—either given away or sold. The question arose, could Christians eat the meat.

Paul replies that it's a complicated question because two principles are involved—regard for the tender consciences of other people and the reality of a genuine spiritual connection between the pagan deities worshiped in the temples and the meat that was available for Christians to eat.

On the second point, Paul is emphatic. Even though the meat has come straight from pagan sacrifice in a temple devoted to a pagan God, Christians can eat the food without swallowing the devil. There is no spiritual defilement present in the food. The food is food. Period. For Christians, there is no inherent risk eating food that has been involved in demonic worship.

To apply this to yoga: there is no inherent risk in using postures that were brought into the market place of ideas and health practices from non-Christian worship systems. Just as Christians in Paul's day would not have in any way pledged allegiance to the deities in the temples where the meat originated, so Christians today will refuse to pay obeisance to Hindu deities. That does not mean we cannot received with gratitude the physical blessings that are available through yoga (Romans 14:6). In fact, we ought to receive such blessings and give thanks to God.

The gospels make it abundantly clear that Jesus desired the physical well-being of people. When we provide medical care or instruction in healthy living to people, we are cooperating with Jesus in his mission. When we participate in practices that support and improve health—things like good nutrition, exercise—and yes, yoga—we are cooperating with Jesus in his work in our lives. Jesus desires our future joy in eternity. Yes, of course. He also wants us to enjoy maximal well-being here and now. If you find that yoga decreases your pain, increases your flexibility and balance and strength, then by all means do it. If the book or teacher you are learning from asks you to do something that contradicts the lordship of Jesus, then by all means don't.

Come to think of it that is how we ought to engage with all of life, including preachers like Mark Driscoll and John McLarty. Take the good stuff God offers through their words and wisely reject their errors.