“We do the sun salutation but we’re worshipping the Son, Son Jesus Christ,” Cindy Senarighi, a teacher of Christian yoga, told Local 6, a central Florida news site and TV station last week. Though this trendlet has been percolating for years, it seems to be suddenly gaining ground; as both yoga and Christianity become more mainstream, perhaps this merger was inevitable. And so is the controversy. In the Local 6 story Russell Bush, a Baptist minister, says he shepherds his flock away from the 5,000-year-old practice: “I warn people against it. It opens you up to the influence of something that is not Christian.” And a Hindu scholar, Subhas Tiwari, denounces the spiritual fusion: “If you give me a recipe and I alter the ingredients of that recipe and give it back to you, am I giving you the same thing? Clearly not.”

The practice looks pretty much the same, but some intentions (sun becomes Son) and explanations (only one deity is acknowledged) shift. But some say none of that mind stuff matters: In a Beliefnet article on the topic, K.L. Seshagiri Rao, another Hindu scholar said, “Yoga means joining together. It’s the joining of the individual spirit with the universal spirit. No matter what religion you practice, you become a better person if you follow the principals of yoga.”

Image by Jim Gotigers.