Jesus Christ Pose: Yoga and Christian Fundamentalism

(originally published in The Internationalist)

In northeastern Oklahoma, Laurette Willis lives with her husband on a beautiful ranch in the Ozark foothills. She is a well-known stage actor, motivational speaker and enterpreneur. She's also a Christian fundamentalist, believing first and foremost in salvation by grace, accepting Jesus as one's personal Savior, and the infallibility of Scripture as the Word of God.

Over the past few years, Willis has taken a very public stance against a trend that is sweeping across America. This time it's not drugs or rock'n'roll - it's yoga. While it's not remarkable that Christian fundamentalists would bristle at a new pseudo-spiritual movement, it is remarkable that, through Mrs. Willis, this seemingly immutable tradition could produce its own alternative to yoga: PraiseMoves.

Mrs.Willis's program is a Christian incarnation of yoga, complete with a Walkin' Wisdom Warm-Ups, Scripture Sequences, and a What Would Jesus Do? Relaxation Time - her answer to yoga stretches, vinyasa flows and meditation. Since its introduction, PraiseMoves has enjoyed enormous popularity in the Christian fundamentalist community. "We like saying, 'Transform your workouts into worship - with PraiseMoves!,'" says Willis. Each pose is a physical and spiritual meditation on Scripture, she explains. For example, "during the standing posture known as The Angel, we're stretching one leg back, stretching the hamstrings and reaching the arms up and forward slightly, lifting up the torso through the crown of the head. At the same time we're focusing on the scripture from Psalm 91:11, For He shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways."

In the United States, a massive 12% of the population is "very or extremely interested in the practice of yoga," (according to a Yoga Journal survey in 2003). Yoga attracts students of all religious backgrounds. However, Mrs. Willis - a former yoga student and instructor who underwent a profound conversion experience - proclaims that yoga is, at best, inextricable from Hinduism; and at worst, a Trojan horse of New Age agendas. 

Is yoga really a religion? Immediately we must define what a religion is. Though definitions vary many and wide, nearly all invoke acknowledgement of a force or value greater than oneself alone, and the observance of an associated moral code that directs how one behaves in relation to nature, the universe, and other human beings; with ritual and community being common effects. Yoga would then be a religion according to this definition. However, so would the EverQuest gaming community.

Scholars debate whether yoga predated Hinduism, but regardless, it's hard to deny that the two traditions coevolved. In a yoga studio, it's not uncommon to see figurines of Patanjali, the mytho-historical author of the Yoga Sutras. In some classes, instructors also light incense, lead chants to Patanjali, and play music featuring Sanskrit lyrics that praise Hindu gods. 

Yoga has evolved so quickly in the Western mainstream that the practice of yoga has fragmented into interpretations as many and varied as the instructors themselves. Increasingly, Hindi influence is the exception rather than the rule. According to a pioneering survey conducted out of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, the vast majority of yoga practitioners (~78%) in Australia practice yoga for fitness reasons rather than spiritual or mental reasons.

In America, too, yoga is developing into a purely secular medium. Multiple daily classes at YMCAs, gyms, corporate fitness facilities, and spas are in high demand. As Lauren Mechling reported in The New York Times, some yoga studios have even turned into social clubs, with parties and wine tastings accompanying class. Yoga classes at university sports facilities like Duke and MIT are usually sportier than those offered at traditional studios, with offerings like power yoga classes or yoga-Pilates "fusions," where techno-trance replaces devotional music and the smell of sweat replaces incense.

But even these seemingly innocuous incarnations are dangerous for Christians, says Mrs. Willis, who holds that any belief system not explicitly sanctioned in Scripture is a potential threat to her fellows' moral compasses. Instead, perfect freedom is found within, and only within, the Word. Therefore it is amazing how this seemingly strict tradition produced its own creation to address a new need; in this case, the need for the benefits imparted by yoga. PraiseMoves is an example of just that - a new adaptation for a changing world. It seems evolution has a place in Christian fundamentalism after all.