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American pastor says yoga is 'demonic'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8071253/American-pastor-says-yoga-is-demonic.html
An American pastor has provoked a religious row with Hindu leaders
after denouncing yoga as a 'pagan' and 'demonic' practice.
By Dean Nelson in New Delhi
Published: 7:00AM BST 19 Oct 2010
Pastor Mark says that yoga is 'pagan' in its roots
Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church, Seattle, is waging a
campaign against the increasing popularity of yoga in sports and
church halls throughout the United States, warning that it is 'pagan'
in its roots.
"Should Christians stay away from yoga because of its demonic roots?
"Totally. Yoga is demonic. If you just sign up for a little yoga
class, you're signing up for a little demon class," he said, according
to The Seattle Times.
His comments appeared to reflect a growing concern among Christian
preachers in the United States as the number of people practicing yoga
has soared beyond 15 million.
Last month Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert
Mohler warned his followers of the dangers of chanting 'Om' – the
droning sound used by Hindus to praise the divine – and inward
meditation.
"Christians are not called to empty the mind or to see the human body
as a means of connecting to and coming to know the divine. Believers
are called to meditate upon the Word of God – an external Word that
comes to us by divine revelation – not to meditate by means of
incomprehensible syllables," he wrote.
Their campaign provoked an Indian backlash, and ridicule from Hindu
and Christian leaders.
"Yoga kills stress, violence and hatred. How can it be called
demonic?" asked Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, one of India's leading Hindu
spiritual leaders, while a Catholic spokesman said his American
colleagues had misunderstood yoga.
Father Emmanuel, of Delhi's Catholic Archdiocese, told a television
channel that "many in western countries do not understand what yoga is
or how it helps."
"There is a view in some churches that yoga is anti-Christianity.
While it is a Hindu practice, it is certainly not anti-Christianity or
demonic. One can be a practising Christian and still do yoga," he
said.
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agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL" means that I believe
it is important for the people of this planet to know about what people think or
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clear: I support decriminalizing all drugs, as it is stupid to throw depressed
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your right to say it".
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"Ethics" is simply a last-gasp attempt by deist conservatives and
orthodox dogmatics to keep humanity in ignorance and obscurantism,
through the well tried fermentation of fear, the fear of science and
new technologies.
There is nothing glorious about what our ancestors call history,
it is simply a succession of mistakes, intolerances and violations.
On the contrary, let us embrace Science and the new technologies
unfettered, for it is these which will liberate mankind from the
myth of god, and free us from our age old fears, from disease,
death and the sweat of labour.
Rael
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