Senarighi's class, called Yogadevotion and taught in the main chapel of St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Mahtomedi, Minn., is part of a fast-growing movement that seeks to retool the 5,000-year-old practice of yoga to fit Christ's teachings. From Phoenix, Ariz., to Pittsburgh, Pa., from Grand Rapids, Mich., to New York City, hundreds of Christian yoga classes are in session. A national association of Christian yoga teachers was started in July, and a slew of books and videos are about to hit the market. But the very phrase stiffens yoga purists and some Christians--including a rather influential Catholic--who insist yoga cannot be separated from its Hindu roots. . .
Catholics face a more formidable skeptic. In 1989 the Vatican issued a document saying the practice of Eastern traditions like yoga "can degenerate into a cult of the body," warning Catholics against mistaking yoga's "pleasing sensations" for "spiritual well-being." It was signed by then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger--now Pope Benedict XVI. In a 2003 document the Vatican further distances itself from New Age practices, including yoga. Even so, Father Thomas Ryan, a Catholic leader of the Christian yoga movement, says he interprets the church's position not as a denunciation of yoga but as a reminder to "respect Christian logic" in its practice. "And that's what we're doing," he says.
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We haven't seen the referenced document, but we know a little bit about Eastern religions. Yoga is steeped in Hindu's monist ontology, which doesn't distinguish between God and the earth. Indeed, it doesn't distinguish between anything. All is one. All is Brahman. To see anything else, is an illusion (maya). The results of this fundamental premise rip through all aspects of existence, from day-to-day living to views on salvation. If yoga is a practice of regaining this "oneness," it's a sacrilege and affront against God, the One before Whom we are to kneel. . .
. . . not the One we're supposed to be.
