Yoga, Unchristian?

A Southern Baptist leader is calling on Christians to spurn yoga and its meditative attachments.

Southern Baptist Seminary President Albert Mohler argues in an online essay that Christians who practice yoga “must either deny the reality of what yoga represents or fail to see the contradictions between their Christian commitments and their embrace of yoga.” Mohler rejects “the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine.,” saying “That’s just not Christianity.”

An estimated 7 percent of adult Americans practice yoga, according to national surveys. Yoga has earlier been denounced by Pat Robertson as “really spooky” and a “false religion” by California megachurch pastor John MacArthur.

Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church, Seattle, told the Seattle Times, “Yoga is demonic. If you just sign up for a little yoga class, you’re signing up for a little demon class.”