{"id":48,"date":"2010-04-23T11:55:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-23T11:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/04\/yoga-and-christianity-whats-the-deal.html"},"modified":"2010-04-23T11:55:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-23T11:55:00","slug":"yoga-and-christianity-whats-the-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/04\/yoga-and-christianity-whats-the-deal.html","title":{"rendered":"Yoga and Christianity: What’s the Deal?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

I have a new post at her.meneutics called, “Yoga, an Exercise in Discernment.” It begins:<\/p>\n

About 16 million adults in the United States practice yoga \u2014 an increase of 85 percent from 2004 to 2008 \u2014 and the Los Angeles Times<\/em> reports that both Christian and Jewish groups<\/a> are incorporating the Eastern meditation practice into their respective faith tradition. Explicitly Christian yoga classes, such as Laurette Willis<\/a>‘s PraiseMoves<\/a>, seek to “transform your workout into worship!” I’ve practiced yoga for over six years now, but haven\u2019t sought out a Christian class, instead being content to bring my faith to the class I attend. This exercise in Christian discernment has strengthened both my body and my spirit.<\/p>\n

<img src="http:\/\/blog.christianitytoday.com\/women\/upload\/2010\/04\/4491159511_aff9c4de29_b-thumb.jpg" width="404" height="270" alt="4491159511_aff9c4de29_b.jpg" title="National Cherry Blossom Festival @ Washington Monument. Courtesy of Daveynin \/ Flickr.com \/ <\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/daveynin\/<\/a> \/ CC BY 2.0<\/a><\/div>\n

” style=”border-top-width: 1px; border-right-width: 1px; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-width: 1px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(197, 197, 197); border-right-color: rgb(197, 197, 197); border-bottom-color: rgb(197, 197, 197); border-left-color: rgb(197, 197, 197); float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px; ” \/><\/a><\/div>\n

I had two reservations when I began practicing yoga. One, I don\u2019t like trying new things, and the thought of contorting my not-so-flexible body in front of others made me nervous. Two, I knew that yoga had Eastern origins, and didn\u2019t want to turn exercise into an unwitting endorsement of Hinduism. But the class was free, and I wanted to be more willing to try new things, and I figured my faith could withstand one yoga class. So I went.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To keep reading, click here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a new post at her.meneutics called, “Yoga, an Exercise in Discernment.” It begins: About 16 million adults in the United States practice yoga \u2014 an increase of 85 percent from 2004 to 2008 \u2014 and the Los Angeles Times reports that both Christian and Jewish groups are incorporating the Eastern meditation practice into…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-down-syndrome"],"yoast_head":"\nYoga and Christianity: What's the Deal? - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/04\/yoga-and-christianity-whats-the-deal.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Yoga and Christianity: What's the Deal? 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Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}