LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Southern Baptist leader who is calling for Christians to avoid yoga and its spiritual attachments is getting plenty of pushback from enthusiasts who defend the ancient practice.
Albert Mohler, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president, says he objects to “the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine.”
“That’s just not Christianity,” he said.
Mohler said feedback has come through e-mail and comments on blogs and other websites since he wrote an essay to address questions about yoga he has heard for years. Other Christian leaders have said practicing yoga is incompatible with the teachings of Jesus.
“I’m really surprised by the depth of the commitment to yoga found on the part of many who identify as Christians,” Mohler said.
Yoga fans say their numbers have been growing in the United States. A 2008 study by the Yoga Journal put the number at 15.8 million, or nearly 7 percent of adults.
About 6.7 percent of American adults are Southern Baptists, according to a 2007 survey by the Pew Research Center Forum on Religion & Public Life.
