Biblical Propositions, Yoga Positions, and Contextualizing the Christian Message for People Who Work at CNN

by Phil Johnson



oug Pagitt's recent performance on CNN was documented last week by several bloggers, including Nathan Busenitz, Fred Butler, Shawn Anthony, and Doug Groothuis.

Groothuis had actually been invited to join a four-person panel on CNN but turned it down. Someone else must have declined, too, because in the end, the CNN segment featured only two guests. They pitted Pagitt against my pastor, John MacArthur, on the question of whether yoga is something Christians should practice or churches should sponsor.

John MacArthur, of course, believes in the authority of Scripture and the exclusivity of Christ. He said yoga as a spiritual discipline is fundamentally in conflict with authentic Christianity; and that Christians ought to seek spiritual wholeness through the truth of the Bible alone—not in ascetic practices borrowed from the sacraments and soteriology of Hindu mysticism. ("You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free"—John 8:32. The Bible is able to make us "complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work"—2 Timothy 3:17.)

And as if that weren't enough, the CNN host's reading of the dictionary definition of yoga ought to have settled the whole question.

But I was too busy to post about anything last week, and by the time I got my project done, the Great CNN Yoga Showdown was already old news.

I should mention that several Emergent-friendly bloggers also highlighted the exchange, and their comments are unusually revealing.

None is more revealing, however, than Doug Pagitt's own cynical podcast, made immediately after the CNN event—before Pagitt even left the building (HT: David "Hip Hop" Shannon).

Click here to listen to Doug Pagitt.

Todd Friel played portions of that podcast, interspersed with his own comments, on Wednesday's first hour of Way of the Master Radio. (Click on the poster below to hear the six-minute segment from WoTM Radio where Todd replied to Pagitt's remarks.)

Or click here to listen to Todd Friel.



I needn't say much more than Todd did about the Pagitt post-interview joint. Todd's analysis was spot on, except for one small but significant detail: the woman Pagitt was talking to in that podcast was not a member of his church but a woman who works for the studio CNN uses in Minneapolis. She gave no indication that she even professed to be a believer. Pagitt's sneering disdain for the sufficiency of Scripture needs to be evaluated in that context.

Now, given the typical Emergent approach to "contextualizing" the Christian message, I'd love to write Pagitt's insulting remarks off as merely a clumsy attempt to be "missional" and thereby connect with a CNN employee. After all, CNN hasn't exactly distinguished itself as a Christian-friendly organization, so someone might argue that Pagitt's display of hubris was merely an attempt to speak the language of that corporate culture.

Problem is, I don't think Pagitt was merely posturing for that woman's sake. I think he really does think yoga is more effective than the truth of Scripture as a remedy for the root causes of stress. Yoga positions, good; Bible propositions, blecch.

As a matter of fact, I think such a low view of Scripture is as much a staple in the Emergent culture as it is at CNN. It's just that with all the Emergents' fondness for double-talk, ambiguity, and equivocation, one doesn't usually get to hear it expressed with such straightforward transparency.

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