“It Really Works, You Should Try It”

Recently on an Indian train, I shared a compartment with 7 Hindus on a pilgrimage to South India. One man was on his 17th annual trip! They traverse India carrying a food offering. They trek up the mountain, wait to make their offering, and then walk down and board the train for home.

They were nice people. They had offered me several kinds of homemade food earlier. I realized the food had probably been dedicated to the idol they were going to venerate. Before taking it, I pondered what to do. If I refused the food, they might feel slighted. Would I be compromising by eating it? Seconds later I decided to be friendly and eat. I said a quick prayer to Jesus, “Lord, bless this food.” I personally felt the liberty to eat what the New Testament calls “food offered to idols”. I would not advise others to do it. Many Christians and Muslims in India would have said “no.”

Paul the Apostle spoke about this.

“But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol's temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols?

For through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whose sake Christ died. And so, by sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.”[1]

Please note two things in this passage. First, we are warned against placing a “stumbling block” before the one whose conscience is “weak.” Secondly, if I do that, I am sinning against that person’s conscience and against Christ. This is the principle. Paul concludes that to avoid making someone stumble, he will never do it again. Never!

Holy Yoga

Switching to a more common practice, today many “Christian” yoga establishments thrive. They sport such names as “Breath of Life Yoga,” “Yoga Devotion,” “Holy Yoga Ministries,” “Yahweh Yoga,” and one particularly sad one, “Saffron & Crimson,” – saffron being the color that Hinduism is identified with, and crimson, I am guessing, meaning Christ’s blood.

Because it is clearly controversial, yoga falls into the same category as eating food offered to idols. While it is a practice that some Christians obviously feel free to do, it also holds high probability to cause others to stumble by violating their conscience. Practicing aerobics or going to a gym, recognized as non-religious exercise regimens, eliminates this danger, does it not?

Yes, yoga is controversial. First, it is definitely a page out of Hinduism. Yoga (with its postures, breathing exercises, and meditation or “relaxation”) is meant to bring realization of the oneness of the “yogi” with God. This is pantheism. It is not biblical teaching. Says Swami Param, “All of yoga is Hinduism.”[2] We westerners try to neatly divorce the exercise from the philosophy behind it, and walk on dangerous ground by doing so.

Secondly, the breathing exercises are to release spiritual energy. Says one yoga website, “Proper breathing is to … control Prana or the vital life energy.”[3] The Sanskrit word “pranayama,” literally means to “lengthen or regulate the life-force.” One "Christian yogi” writes, “In the same way that measured breathing is essential to yoga, the Spirit—which in both biblical Greek and Hebrew also means breath—is indispensable to my soul. Breathe in. Breathe out. Holy Spirit in. Anything that's not from God out.”[4] I’m sorry, but where did Jesus say we deal with evil by breathing it out? That is not a Christian concept.

Thirdly is the stumbling block factor. I fear that those who say, “Yoga works for me, it totally reduced my pain,” will encourage others to try it. Some will delve further into Hindu ideas. That is the nature of Hinduism. If it gets its foot in the door, it tends to push in and occupy. Unfortunately, today many follow anything that works.

Yoga in Perspective

I wonder what Paul would say if gushing friends who attended classes at Yoga With A Difference said, “It really works, you should try it!” I’m speculating, but I think he might answer them “if doing yoga and telling others about it causes my brother to stumble, I will never do yoga again…”

I remember meeting Mother Teresa once when I lived in Kolkata. Two girls said to her, “O mother, we used to be Catholics, but now we’re in a Buddhist monastery.” She answered them with a question, “Wasn’t Jesus enough for you?”

[1] I Corinthians 8:9-13 New American Standard Bible
[2] http://nazareneblogs.org/whitehorsenazarene/2009/03/15/christian-yoga/
[3] http://www.a2zyoga.com/yoga-faqs/
[4] Yes to Yoga, by Agnieszka Tennant, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/mayweb-only/42.0b.html

A Forgotten Christmas Virtue

A well-known Christmas passage is found in the first chapter of Matthew’s Gospel.

Mat 1:23 "BEHOLD, THE VIRGIN SHALL BE WITH CHILD AND SHALL BEAR A SON, AND THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which translated means, "GOD WITH US."

I just watched an outstanding movie called “The Blind Side.” In the movie a Christian family takes in and raises a gigantic African-American teenager who has no stable family life of his own. His life is transformed by the love of his new “family.” It turns out the boy, Michael Oher, is a tremendous football player. Eventually he gets wooed by many of the major college football programs in the South.

In one scene, the scout from one program talks with Michael’s adoptive mother about taking her son to visit the campus. As a conscientious mother she lays down the guidelines for her son’s visit. “Two other schools took him to visit “titty clubs,” … you’re not going to do that. That confused Michael. Take him to a movie. Have him in bed by 10 o’clock.” I kept waiting for the usual Hollywood portrayal of the Christian family as narrow, bigoted, and living in a blind and irrational faith. But it didn’t happen. Instead the mother viewed sexual purity as a quality that her son should aspire to. The portrayal of the Christian love was genuine and life-changing for Michael. I guess that’s because it’s based on a true story, that’s the way reality is.

Back to our Christmas theme, the original Greek word for virgin was “parthenos.” It means a “maiden” or by implication an unmarried daughter. The Cambridge Dictionary defines the word as “someone who has never had sex.”[1] This is the understood meaning of the passage in Matthew. Mary was a young maiden who had never had sex. Not material for a Hollywood movie!

One important application of this fact is that Jesus, who is called “Immanuel,” (God with us) was born from a mother who had not had sex. Mary “was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.” [2] and not by a human father. This truth confirms Jesus as the Son of God.

It is interesting that the synonyms of the word “virgin” given by the same Cambridge dictionary run in two veins. The modern application of virgin is to think of it as “frigid”, “asexual”, and “sex-starved.” The second is what many consider the more outdated Victorian idea of “chaste” or “pure.” The latter is the intended meaning regarding Mary.

Today, many in our culture define a virgin in the first sense. “Do you mean you’re still a virgin? What is wrong with you?” Virginity has now become cause for shame. The modern idea of a virgin is a geek or someone so unattractive that no one would want to have sex with him/her. Sex before marriage provides bragging rights. It is not shameful. Virginity no longer has value.

The Bible teaches chastity before marriage. It is this positive purity that our modern society has been robbed of. In Mary’s time virginity was seen as socially acceptable, normal, and indeed required. Her pregnancy out of wedlock could only have been cause for reproach. This explains why Joseph nearly bailed out of the relationship.

Yet most parents wish that their child would remain a virgin until the right person comes along. And that too in spite of the fact that we parents haven’t, in most cases, followed our own advice. It’s often out of this pain that our very wish for their virginity springs. If virginity has no value, then why do many still wish it for their children?

Marriage is a life-long partnership of mutual sexual enjoyment and giving between one man and one woman. This is the Christian ideal and it is a badge of honor! Today that idea is derided. It is as G.K. Chesterton put it, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried.”

If you have lost your virginity before marriage, don’t despair, although something precious has been missed. Christ loves you. He is the one who forgives, cleanses, and restores our lives. In a relationship with Jesus Christ, we can begin anew. We can experience God’s best plan for our sexuality. There is hope! For “THEY SHALL CALL HIS NAME IMMANUEL," which translated means, "GOD WITH US."


[1] http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
[2] Matthew 1:18, New American Standard Bible