Yoga and Faith

Apparently a retired Roman Catholic bishop has caused a stir by sending a letter to Women of Grace, a Catholic women’s group, condemning the practice of yoga as dangerous practice and “a pagan religion based on heathen beliefs and false doctrine of revelation involving such things as transmigration of souls, and so forth.”

I am not certain of the source of the bishop’s ruling, but I can say that I know an Orthodox rebbetzin of impeccable moral standing who does yoga with a group of equally devout Orthodox Jewish women (complying of course with with the Tznuit, the Jewish Laws of Modesty.)

Abrahamic faiths do not respond to the practice of yoga with much consistency, but it appears that the practice of yoga as an exercise can be divorced from the kinds of “pagan” beliefs and doctrines that caused the bishop such concern.