The Documentary Podcast · BBC World Service

Can yoga be Christian?

·26 min·1 clip

Alone on her yoga mat and crying, Annette arranged a bolster over blocks so she could wrap her arms around it in child's pose and felt 'the closest I've ever gotten to feeling like I'm having a hug from God.'

1. BBC World Service’s The Documentary Podcast asks whether yoga can ever be Christian. 2. Megan Lawton reports from a Nottingham church hall with Annette Lanchbury, and later speaks to Dr. Lorette Willis in northeastern Oklahoma; both are Christian women whose views matter because they reach opposite conclusions about yoga. 3. The episode examines whether yoga’s physical postures and breathing can be separated from Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain roots. 4. In Nottingham, Annette leads an hour of Christian yoga after 20 minutes of worship through song. 5. Annette says the class uses the same movements as ordinary yoga, including vinyasa and yin yoga training. 6. She says the difference is in the words, the Scripture, and “the truth of the gospel.” 7. Annette also says some people ask why she does not call it “mindful movement” instead of yoga. 8. The episode explains that traditional yoga grew out of ancient India and included meditation, controlled breathing, chanting, and asanas. 9. It notes that texts such as the Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali describe yoga as a spiritual path toward union with Brahman. 10. Annette says her mother in Zimbabwe was strict about spirituality, including removing black nail polish because it was associated with witchcraft. 11. She says her own mother later responded more positively when she heard about her yoga practice, linking it to worshiping God with “whole heart, body, mind, soul.” 12. Annette recalls that yoga’s Sanskrit and English posture names, such as mountain pose, eagle pose, tree pose, and child’s pose, made her think of Scripture. 13. She says a low point in her living room, with yoga blocks and a bolster in child’s pose, felt like “the closest I’ve ever gotten” to a hug from God. 14. Annette says she worries about leading anyone astray by speaking openly about Christian yoga. 15. She says her baseline test is whether the practice draws someone closer to God or away from God. 16. Lorette says Praise Moves was developed from her own 22 years of yoga experience, from age 7 to 29. 17. She says her family’s home life included schizophrenia, alcoholism, and rage, and that yoga seemed to provide peace and serenity. 18. Lorette says she found Jesus on February 25, 2001 at 10.35 in the morning, and that this led her to reject yoga and create something distinct. 19. The tone is interview-led and reflective, with short guided-movement excerpts and extended explanation from both women. 20. Listeners interested in Christian spirituality, yoga, or religion-and-body questions will get the most from this episode.

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