I read Albert Mohler’s blog entry (September 20, 2010) about Yoga in America only after I read his response to the responses others gave about the article. OK, I know that’s a bit confusing. Here’s a good explanation from the Gospel of Matthew: “Like little children calling out in the marketplace to others” (Matthew 11:16) the President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary once again found himself in a public complaining match in the public square. This crazy Culture War has us so trapped that we’re now evaluating the theology of our local health club practices. Such a needless and heavy burden gets placed on the shoulders of my generation by religious authorities today that it is no wonder we are emerging, according to Jesus, as “twice the sons of hell” as our teachers.
According to Molher’s October 7, 2010, complaint about the complaints on his original September 20 complaint (it really is this silly), there wasn’t enough biblical exegesis in the responses, nor was there enough theological understanding in the objections that people made. Of course it does not seem to matter that Mohler’s original piece contained no discernable theology outside of vague implications of following “foreign religions,” making his original blog posting itself more akin to pop culture than theological reasoning. Neither should we forget that Molher’s original complaint about Yoga contained no scriptural references at all, in spite of demanding that his responders provide them. This is a typical tactic of the plagued generations of war which hold Christianity captive. They will always demand more of others than they do of themselves.
Molher’s critique contained no scriptural evidence of the evils of Yoga; but let’s be honest, how could it and still stay true to the text? We could just as easily build a theological case against most anything as we could Yoga – Acetometaphine, shrimp, or the use of Styrofoam to name only a few. And what about visiting the doctor? That staff and serpent thing hanging on my physician’s wall alongside a pagan Hippocratic Oath (and the Bible gives sound advice about oaths) leaves me confused after every visit. What should my theological position be on that?
I’m neither taking up for Yoga here, nor am I condemning the use of Scripture in our everyday lives. I would go as far as to say that Molher’s continued insistence on applying biblical principles is a good thing, but reasonable people everywhere understand that this application has limits, perhaps not in theory, but most certainly in practice. Nevertheless, we don’t appear to be living in an Age of Reason, at least not when it comes to our self-appointed religious authorities. Our age is one which has fallen to two extremes: one side neglects to apply Biblical principles at all and uses emotion and human wisdom to interpret behavior; while the other side has elevated the Word of God to the fourth person of the Trinity: an object of worship for the sake of communicating an antiseptic God.
My personal exegesis of the Matthew 11:16-17 passage is that Jesus was referring to the "culture war" that had been making news in public places around Him for some time: a war between Epicureanism and Stoicism. Funny how little we've changed in 2,000 years. The same voices are doing all the same debating. Stoic, Albert Mohler, is just as responsible for the demise of my generation’s spirituality as Epicurean, Christopher Hitchens. Mine is a generation that has been drawn and quartered between two sides of a battle that has little to do with us. We are forced to watch the steamy entrails of our faith spill upon the cold ground of theology for the sake of differences between kings and priests to which we have never sworn our allegiance.
And now it seems that we shouldn’t stretch out or breathe too deeply before they rope us up and pat the horses.
In his response to his responders on Yoga, Mohler is quick to point out that even Muslim clerics have banned the practice. Tertullian once asked, “What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?” It would appear that the modern question for our scenario should now be, “What does the Mecca have to do with my health spa?” Are we now taking our cultural cues from restrictive Islamic practices? Is this really the Christ we need? Is it biblically sound to be this culturally intrusive? Since he didn't offer any theological or scriptural insight in his Yoga-bashing article, I suppose we're all left to guess.
I know why Mohler goes in search of exegetical purity in his local health club. He does it because he is scared and afraid, and part of me can’t blame him for that. There is a great deal of “feel good” Christianity out here and many have been defining God via their emotions for quite some time. People are flocking to entertainment-based worship services that are big on light boards and sound mixers, but low on any substantial theological understanding. My generation, as torn and as wounded as we are from these competing voices, is flocking to a "Comfort Gospel." We don't have the spiritual acumen to fix things.
There are some good reasons to be concerned for the future of the Church. I don’t blame Mohler for his fear. I blame him for projecting his fear onto the public instead of surrendering it to the cross of Christ. I am of the opinion that Dr. Mohler has become a sort of torchbearer of fear in blog after sullen blog over the past several years. Even his most recent October 4 article (Between the Boy and the Bridge) regarding loving homosexuals wasn’t honestly presented without first making sure we all witnessed him soak his theological hands in antibacterial cream before touching the subject. It seems like we now have God’s grace footnoted, subscripted, and distributed to masses in triplicate.
Unfortunately, the majority of Christians in my generation are ill-equipped to take on the restrictive biblical exegesis that Mohler presents in his writing. We’re too busy laying our minds at the feet of the worship guitarist; it's a cultural escape mechanism that has triggered in us. We've given up the fight for reason and laid down our swords. Without legitimate counter-voices to this madness, we all but give our hyper-religious authorities the unhindered access they need to club the baby seals.
There is a plague on both our houses. Agnostics, atheists, and practitioners of Yoga everywhere can smell the fear on the modern Christian and it makes them nauseous. This is a difficult time to be a rational believer and we've all but forgotten what the Wisdom literature teaches:
Ecclesiastes 7:16-18
16 Do not be over righteous,
neither be over wise—
why destroy yourself?
17 Do not be over wicked,
and do not be a fool—
why die before your time?
18 It is good to grasp the one
and not let go of the other.
The man who fears God will avoid all extremes .
Uh oh, a Bible verse. Here come the footnotes. And we all know they’re coming because in this backward age, the Good News of Jesus requires a theological “release form” in case of accidental bruising.
