Religion mixed with a healthy dose of blind faith and stubbornness is one of those things that frightens me and fascinates me in pretty much equal measure. I’m not against religion by any means; I’m just pretty convinced that a lot of people who practice it are doing it all wrong. If it gives you strength, great. If it helps you comprehend or deal with a particularly traumatic period of your life, even better. Just bear in mind that if I’m ever going to find Jesus I’m going to start the search of my own accord and no amount of setting up a P.A. system outside Marks and Spencer and telling me that I’m going to the lake of fire is going to change that.
Coming back to the “you’re doing it wrong” theme, I discovered something completely by accident this morning that immediately made me think that: Praise Moves. Click the link. Pick your jaw back up off the floor. That’s right, Praise Moves is a Christian alternative to yoga.
Now having read the woman’s explanation about why this is required, I can see her reasoning. If we all do yoga we’re going to end up as soulless, godless, communist hippies who all think we’re coming back as goats in the next life. Yoga is eroding the very fabric of society as we know it and must be stopped at all costs. Just as well that there’s a healthy alternative available for a nominal fee. My favourite quote: “Over the next two years, I prayed, studied and developed the PraiseMoves® technique”. God hates yoga but He obviously loves brand protection. Sigh.
In fairness, I know that I’m not the target audience for Praise Moves (Praise Moves ®?), but it really confuses me that people with their self-proclaimed strong relationships with the Lord come across as being so insecure with their religion sometimes. So what if yoga’s basis is in Hinduism? Does performing a sun salutation condemn you to eternal damnation? You’d like to think that devoting your life to helping others might help negate this obviously heinous sin, but what do I know? I’m just a soulless, godless communist hippy.
