(no subject)
Currently, feeling irritated due to a Facebook posting by a former high school teacher (who was/is uber-conservative-Christian in the somewhat scary kind of way) expressing his "deep concern" regarding the number of Christians practicing. . . (wait for it). . . yoga. He then had 23 comments, most of which agreed with this idea that yoga, being a practice deeply rooted in eastern philosophy and spiritual practice, therefore must be in some way, evil and spiritually "dangerous."
I felt tempted to respond with something like, "I was going to engage in a battle of wits but I see you've come unarmed," or similar but all that really accomplishes is, well, nothing. So, instead I sent him a respectful (I hope) e-mail discussing the physical and emotional benefits of yoga along with links to scientific studies to help substantiate my point and a little bit about my personal experience with yoga helping me heal my back, help me through pregnancy and childbirth as well as aiding me in my recovery from an eating disorder. I ended it with a message of "don't throw the baby out with the bath water," one can practice yoga without having to reject their own faith or converting to other religions.
I realize this is probably completely useless as, from what I can recall about this man (whom I very much respected as a seventh through tenth grader) once he gets onto something, he turns into kind of a fundamentalist zealot, banging on whatever idea he has in order to preserve the way he sees the world. I felt like I had to do it, though.
Honestly, what I really wanted to do was rant and rave about how it's people like him who really turned me off from the church in the first place but, again, I'm pretty sure that would not have accomplished much. One thing K has reminded me again and again is that when it comes to deeply emotional issues (particularly political and religious in nature) one must stick to facts and figures in a debate and keep the emotional stuff out. Once the argument becomes a personal attack, it loses it's power and only adds fire to fire.
It's really hard to do, though. All this irritation is making me feel like I need to go do yoga. Ah, the irony.
On another note, I've been blogging a bit elsewhere:
www.arleneart.typepad.com/28_days
www.arleneart.typepad.com/my_stories
I felt tempted to respond with something like, "I was going to engage in a battle of wits but I see you've come unarmed," or similar but all that really accomplishes is, well, nothing. So, instead I sent him a respectful (I hope) e-mail discussing the physical and emotional benefits of yoga along with links to scientific studies to help substantiate my point and a little bit about my personal experience with yoga helping me heal my back, help me through pregnancy and childbirth as well as aiding me in my recovery from an eating disorder. I ended it with a message of "don't throw the baby out with the bath water," one can practice yoga without having to reject their own faith or converting to other religions.
I realize this is probably completely useless as, from what I can recall about this man (whom I very much respected as a seventh through tenth grader) once he gets onto something, he turns into kind of a fundamentalist zealot, banging on whatever idea he has in order to preserve the way he sees the world. I felt like I had to do it, though.
Honestly, what I really wanted to do was rant and rave about how it's people like him who really turned me off from the church in the first place but, again, I'm pretty sure that would not have accomplished much. One thing K has reminded me again and again is that when it comes to deeply emotional issues (particularly political and religious in nature) one must stick to facts and figures in a debate and keep the emotional stuff out. Once the argument becomes a personal attack, it loses it's power and only adds fire to fire.
It's really hard to do, though. All this irritation is making me feel like I need to go do yoga. Ah, the irony.
On another note, I've been blogging a bit elsewhere:
www.arleneart.typepad.com/28_days
www.arleneart.typepad.com/my_stories