Furst Draft

'Why is everything a war?'

Here's a note from a reader regarding the Answer Man's ironic use of the phrase "War on Christmas" in a recent column:

Why is everything (or at least so many things) a “War On?” “The War On Drugs!” “The War On Poverty!” “The War On Terror!” “The War On [insert favorite item to rally against]!”
 
You recently mentioned “The War On Christmas!” Excuse me? Where is this “war?” Where are the weapons and battle plans? Where are the casualties? Aren’t we carrying things a bit too far? What is the obsession with war? I saw a bumper sticker some years back that said “Fight Racism!” I wondered: Do we shoot people who have low tolerance for others who are different from them? Bullet sales would soar. I’m waiting for a bumper sticker that says: “Fight the War On Violence!” Kill people who are not peaceful, right?
 
Did you REALLY say “the war on Christmas?” Or were you just referring to soldiers on the battlefield on December 25th? Otherwise, it seems like a systemic cultural issue. We might need to fight the war on turning everything into a war on!

The A-Man responded to this reader and said the reference was intended as a joke. The guy responded:

Truthfully, I take this with a grain of salt. However, the war on everything does concern me to some degree. As far as the war  on Christmas, I believe the Christians are waging more of a war on themselves than anybody else. Most of what they seem to want to save originally had nothing to do with Christmas,  and much of it would have once been considered blasphemous.

Oh, well...

 
 

Hate to impose, but here's another twist on yoga

Here's yet another twist on the yoga column:

Dear Jay,
 
First of all I want to thank you for publishing the article in the Faith column on Yoga, by Sara Schleicher.  It was a good thing to do, as you can tell by the many responses you've had.
 
I could read it was on the faith page, and so the title didn't offend me I think it was clear it was her experience.
 
I took Yoga many years ago, not just in a casual nature, but also took meditation courses along with it advanced classes.  Yoga for health and physical strength, and meditation for relaxation and a clear mind.  This was all I believed it to be.
 
It wasn't until later in my life when I had change of heart in my own Spiritual journey, and returned to the God of my fathers, that I dug deeper into the truth of what I had been into.
 
Yoga, according to The Random House Dictionary 1980-78 edition, the first word following Yoga is...n. Hinduism.
 
I read as much information as I could, searching for the truth, not for just a Christian slant, and what I found was rather shocking indeed. So much time has gone by I cannot give you a bibliography for some of this information,  but if one searched it out they too could find it on the internet I'm sure.  I do have some books yet that explain more clearly about Yoga etc. but unfortunately are out of print.
 
For Christians they must first determine if Yoga is simply exercise or a spiritual action.  Even the Yoga which focuses on the physical (Hatha Yoga) is still an excersize to join with God. (Braham)  These are the facts of Yoga.  The different poses which I took were a form of worship to this God Braham, which I was ignorant of at that time.
 
In order to determine if indeed Yoga can be turned into Holy Yoga, remains to be seen, but we as Christians can go to the source of our beliefs and read how God (Yahweh) feels about worshiping any other Gods. "I am the Lord your God... You shall have no other gods before Me.  You shall not make for yourself an idol....You shall not worship them or serve them; for I am a jealous God."  (Deut.5 6-9 in part)  Jesus words when asked which were the greatest commandments of God were..."You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." (body, mind and soul)
 
Mankind has always (myself included) rationalized what he does to fit his desires, and I think this is the same here - for both sides for and against.  But those people who claim to be Christians should face the truth of Yoga and then make their decisions.  I think Sara did this and expressed it well.
 
For myself, I am in full agreement with her.  Not as an emotional reaction, but an informed one.  The truth is there for those who want to search it out.  I read once.." Being ignorant is not so much shame, as being unwilling to learn."  Enough said.
 
Thank you.
 
Xenia R. La Baw

Umm...there were problems with that yoga column

Today's print column -- not too late to help me with feedback before we go to press:

For many Minnesotans who practice it, yoga is a good workout — a low-cost and low-impact way to "groove it," as the Blue Cross TV ads for wellness put it.

For others, yoga is a more spiritual practice, a discipline for mindfulness that originated in ancient India and has a cultural resonance for Hindus and others.

A week ago Saturday on the Faith pages, we ran a guest column by a Rochester woman on her own experience with yoga.

The writer, Sara Schleicher, describes how she learned about yoga at a health club, but in the end decided it was contrary to her strong Christian faith: "If I want exercise, there are many ways to go about it. But when it comes to a connection to the Divine, there’s only one place to find it. From now on, I hear the words of Christ and put that into practice."

That's a strong and unusual view, but we thought it was relevant in the Faith section. Unfortunately, we didn't label it as a column, which would explain to most readers that it was Biblically charged opinion.

The headline — "Yoga is worship and idolatry" — didn't help. Although Sara's column made that point, the headline seems like a statement of fact, and some readers thought it was offensive and absurd. The headline that Sara drafted for the column was more to the point: "Why I gave up my yoga practice," and that's what we now have on the online version.

And there were a few points in the column that should have raised red flags for editors. Sara writes, for example, that "The heart of yoga is idolatry." A lot of people would be insulted and offended by that, for religious and cultural reasons. An editor should have worked through those points with the writer.

We heard complaints from a few readers, including Stefanie Dickens Underferth of Preston, who wrote, "I was deeply disheartened" by the article. "The older I get, the more troubled I am when others use faith or religion as an excuse to judge or discredit another person's belief. As someone raised in the Christian faith, I can understand and respect that yoga may not be part of everyone's spiritual journey. It is a large part of my own, however, and I feel strongly about shedding some light on the points mentioned in the article, which I felt to be ignorant and unfair."

I'll post Stefanie's complete letter on my blog, and we'll publish another letter along the same lines in the Faith pages on Saturday. Take a look at both of them and you'll get a fuller view of yoga and learn more about not only its spiritual traditions, but why it has become a mainstream health trend nationwide.

Lessons learned. Thanks for the feedback.

Best wishes to Harley Flathers

You've probably noticed that Harley Flathers, the only guy who writes two entirely different columns for the Post-Bulletin every week, has been out of action for about a week. He's been ill recently; we talked last week, before his appearance at Yule Fest, and he said he'll have to take a break for a while from his "Back and Forth" and "As the Spirit Moves Me" columns.

Harley's not one to miss an opportunity to tell a great story, so he's clearly not feeling well. We'll just put aside some newsprint and ink for when he returns, hopefully soon, and in the meantime wish him the very best. He's one of the most remarkable and courageous people I know, and a lot of readers will join me in rooting for his quick return.

No lighting contest this year

In case you're wondering, we aren't running a holiday lighting contest this season. We've taking a year off to work on other projects but might plug it back in for next year.

In the meantime, if you know of a house that's extravagantly or creatively lit — maybe your own? — send a pic and some details, and we'll publish the best of them before the holidays. Your pics can go to Life Editor Marissa Block, mblock@postbulletin.com.

Join the crow-d tonight

Here's a last reminder to join us tonight for the last P-B Dialogues event of the year, an informal but enlightening conversation about the crow problem in downtown Rochester. The event is at 6:30 p.m. at the Rochester Public Library. Be careful where you park — the library parking ramp would be a cleaner alternative than a spot under tall trees in which 10,000 crows are roosting.

I got an ornery voice mail from a rural reader who think it's absurd how much time and attention the issue is getting from the city, Mayo, readers and us. I'll just say, if you live and work in certain areas of downtown Rochester, and if you park your car along certain streets, you know it's more than a typical nuisance. It's an eyesore and image problem for a city that welcomes millions of health-conscious visitors a year.

It's completely reasonable for the city to work on solutions, and for us to report on it.

More on the yoga column

Here's an email from Stefanie Dickens Underferth of Preston, regarding our errant handling of the yoga issue a few weeks ago -- I have a print column on that today, which I'll post here in a second:

I was deeply disheartened to read an article in the Post-Bulletin on Dec. 3 titled “Yoga is worship and idolatry.” The older I get, the more troubled I am when others use faith or religion as an excuse to judge or discredit another person’s belief. As someone raised in the Christian faith, I can understand and respect that yoga may not be a part of everyone’s spiritual journey. It is a large part of my own, however, and I feel strongly about shedding some light on the points mentioned in the article above, which I felt to be ignorant and unfair.

I can see that looking up yoga in the dictionary may lead some to put a face-value definition behind an argument that yoga is somehow blasphemous to anyone who is not a proclaimed Hindu. However, I have yet to encounter a yoga instructor who polls his/her students as they enter the studio. No one asks whether you are Hindu, Buddhist, Protestant, Muslim, Atheist, Jewish, Catholic, Agnostic, or Christian because all are welcome, embraced, and respected.

I certainly practice yoga for spiritual reasons. I happily chant "OM" in my own practice and along with my fellow classmates: a mantra that is used in the contemplation of ultimate reality. Within such meditation and mindfulness, one has a greater openness to being aware of positive thoughts and spiritual realities. “Namaste,” or literally “I bow to you,” is a greeting of respect for others. There are many interpretations of what it means in practice. My favorites include it being a symbol of gratitude and respect for others; allowing for the truth that we are all one when we live from the heart; an honoring of the place in others which is love, truth, light, and peace.

Interpreted from Sanskrit, those points sound quite similar to the message that Jesus Christ spread to his people, also in a very different language than the one I speak today.

I am sorry that Ms. Schleicher found meditation to be destructive to her faith and to lead her away from Christ. I believe meditation to be a form of prayer, and emptying the mind in meditation is a means by which to strive for peace and, for me, a way to let go of negative or destructive thoughts, both self-directed and those directed toward others. I assert that emptying one’s mind for this purpose does not separate one from her God, or Christ, or Savior but can only bring her closer to her divine power – that which exists within us and around us at all times.

Yoga does not “pretend to be sacred.” To me and many others, it is sacred. It is not “unspiritual and unfruitful,” and I believe that all people should feel welcome to practice the art form and embrace it in their lives, including Christians. It takes all kinds to make this world go round, and the more we open-mindedly experience of each other’s lives, the better we can understand and love one another.

Ms. Schleicher and I do have a fundamental difference of opinion. I believe there are many paths to the Divine, and I believe that there is more than one truth and more than one “right” religion. I am reminded of a message I recently heard that I will carry with me forever. When asked how he could respect other religions when he knew his own Jewish faith was “right”, a rabbi answered that God made trees, didn’t He? And if everything God made in His image was perfect, then why did He not make just one, perfect tree? Instead He made all kinds: oak, maple, sycamore, pine, etc. And all those many, perfect trees have branches, and they all reach out and up, toward the same place…to Him.

The Tree also happens to be one of my favorite yoga poses.

And here's an email from this morning, from a different perspective:

Dear Sir/Madam:
 
I write to express sincere appreciation for the article by Sara Schleicher.  The well researched, well written article clearly exposes the contradiction of Christian faith that yoga presents.
 
Thank you to Sara Schleicher for the excellent article and to the Post-Bulletin for publishing it.
 
 
Sincerely,
Reuben Unseth

 

 

More on yoga as an 'insidious danger to Christians'

Last weekend in the Faith pages, we ran a local guest column with the headline, "Yoga is worship and idolatry."

The headline wasn't quite appropriate -- it was more blunt than the column, and for an opinion of that kind, especially when it gets into spiritual matters, we try to include attribution in the headline or somehow make clear it's an opinion. Also, the column by local writer Sara Schleicher should have had a label indicating it was a column, in fact a guest column, and it needed a few other editorial touches.

So -- we didn't do our best work in presenting Sara's opinions.

A few readers had a problem with her thoughts on yoga, and we'll publish at least one particularly good response. Here's another that we received:

Re: Yoga is Worship and Idolatry by Sara Schleicher Post Bulletin Saturday, December 3, 2011

I’m writing in order to mitigate the stridency of Sara’s accusations about the idolatrous nature of yoga and its insidious danger to Christians. First, I think a definition of yoga as it is practiced is necessary. To use the root of a word as its meaning can be misleading. A smack on the lips is a kiss. The root word smacken means to strike.

In the Yoga Vedanta Dictionary by Sri Swami Sivananda, the definition of yoga is: the name of the philosophy by the sage Patanjali; teaching the process of union of the individual with the Universal Soul; union with God: unruffled state of mind under all conditions.

Yoga doesn’t belong to any one faith or spiritual tradition. It is a tool meant to fit the shape of any hand, even that of a Christian. In Yoga* and Christianity: Loving with All Your Parts, Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati writes: “Jesus said that his most important teaching was that ‘you should love the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ (Mark12:30). Yoga, writes Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati, is the art and science of increasing access to heart, soul, mind and strength. 

Yoga philosophy is based upon the wisdom that we are part of a greater whole. We have our individual consciousness and it is part of a greater, universal consciousness. I consider the Universal Consciousness to be another title for God. If my faith had a different origin, I’d use a different title of respect. The instructions given during a yoga class to empty one’s mind is actually meant to help connect to God.  If your mind is full of thoughts, there’s no room for God’s Word. Yogic meditation empties the mind of extraneous chatter, the incessant litany of wants, fears, regrets, and hopes that fill our consciousness.  Meditation is about becoming quiet, so that when God does speak, we hear what’s said.  Even prayers thought but not spoken are the equivalent of repeatedly dialing the number of the Party you want to reach. While you’re transmitting, the line remains busy.  He can’t call back until you get off of the phone. 

Idolatry is the worship of a physical object as a god. The moon and the sun are not worshipped in yoga. They are metaphors. Ha (sun) tha (moon) represents opposing energies: hot and cold (fire and water, following a similar concept as yin-yang), male and female, positive and negative. Hatha yoga attempts to balance mind and body via physical postures, purification practices, controlled breathing, and the calming of the mind through relaxation and meditation. The language of yoga has an Eastern origin. Sri T. Krishnamacharya, the Indian scholar and physician who had the greatest influence in the spread of Yoga to the West, advocated that Western yoga practitioners like Sara to use their own language, imagery, and names of the sacred to deepen their connection to the Divine.  Yahweh Yoga is a Christian-centered yoga tradition that Sara may want to investigate.  I also recommend A Meeting of Mystic Paths, Christianity and Yoga by Justin O’Brien and the Essence of Yoga by Georg Feuerstein.

Annette Homburger
Rochester,Minnesota

 

On the front page

Today on the front: EPA draft finding says fracking may be to blame for groundwater pollution; MN Ed Commissioner in RST to talk about changes in No Child; and how an Owatonna family is helping out at Ronald McDonald House.

Today in Answer Man

What to do if you get a suspicious-looking check for $18.04 in the mail, how to find out if you're related to a Pilgrim, and more on crows and computer pranks. All worth 50 cents or more.

This one ought to draw a crow-d

At the risk of giving too much attention to the crow problem in Rochester, we'll have a Post-Bulletin Dialogues program on Tuesday that will focus on the birds and the problems they cause for downtown workers, visitors and their cars.

The Rochester City Council voted this week to spend up to $25,000 this winter in an effort to disperse tens of thousands of birds that congregate in downtown trees and on buildings after dark. The mess they leave behind has led to complaints about health issues, litter and pollution, as well as the impact on the city's image for clinic visitors.

P-B Dialogues is a monthly series of informal community conversations. At 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Rochester Public Library, I'll be joined by Rochester City Council President Dennis Hanson; Jon Eckhoff, executive director of the Rochester Downtown Alliance; P-B "Nature Nut" columnist and naturalist Greg Munson, and others for an informal Q & A conversation about the issue.

Join us for coffee, cookies and good conversation. If you can't, add a question here and I'll toss it in my briefcase and read it at the meeting that night.

 

Another open meeting problem in Lyle

Our colleagues at KAAL-TV have lodged a complaint with the Lyle School Board and interim Superintendent Jim Dusso regarding a policy change that keeps TV camera crews pinned down during board meetings.

There's a lot of news to cover, and a TV camera crew often can't stick it out through a long meeting; ditto for reporters at times. Public officials sometimes complain about camera crews at public meetings, but it's generally resolved with polite conversation.

Not in this case. In late September, Dusso sent this letter to local TV news directors:

The position of the Lyle School Board for television coverage of school board meetings is as follows. All cameras must be set up 10 minutes prior to any school board meeting start time in the designated camera area. All camera equipment must stay intact and not be broken down or moved from the designated area until 5 minutes after the school board meeting was adjourned.

It is the position of the school board that the brake (sic) down and moving of cameras during school board meetings can be disruptive and can also create interruptions during the school board meeting. School board meetings are held for the board to conduct its' (sic) business in an open meeting forum, and the board wishes to reduce interruptions during the boards (sic) meeting time.

I'm not aware of another public board in our area that has that restriction; if you do, let me know. Again, news crews need to be as discreet and unobtrusive as possible during public meetings, but journalists need and generally receive wide latitude in covering news events.

As I read this, if a cameraman wants to move to another part of the room to shoot a different view of the meeting, it would be verbotten. That's ridiculous. I can imagine the same policy being used to restrict P-B photographers, who shoot both still photos and video. Reporters also shoot video now, of course. Will they be covered?

Here's a letter that KAAL News Director Mike Schram sent Tuesday to Dusso. We'll get a news story, possibly for Friday, that gets comment from KTTC as well, and perhaps Dusso, though he doesn't return our calls -- yet another problem with the Lyle district's communication with media.

On behalf of KAAL-TV ABC 6 News, I'm writing to lodge our formal objection to the "camera protocol" recently adopted by the Lyle School Board The new policy seems entirely unrelated to any real problems or issues that have been identified, and makes it very difficult for news organizations like ours to adequately cover the meetings and proceedings of the board.

I am concerned that you developed this policy without consultation from media organizations like KAAL-TV. It is our position that all news media should have the same free movement in and out of meeting rooms and in all publicly accessible areas to cover governmental bodies like the Lyle School Board as the rest of the public. The purposes of state and federal open meetings laws is to protect the media's rights to cover public bodies doing the public's business without these types of burdensome restrictions. We strongly disagree that setting up or taking down cameras during a meeting causes serious disruption. And I hope you understand that news coverage is of interest to our viewers -- many of whom are your constituents. The worst of the impact inflicted by the new policy therefore falls on them.

We have also consulted with our attorney about the new camera policy. He informs us that it almost certainly violates state law, including the Minnesota Open Meeting Law, because it unreasonably restricts the ability of the news media to provide coverage of public school board meetings.

We would therefore ask that the current policy be rescinded not later than Dec. 12, 2011. If you would like our input as to what an appropriate and legally valid media coverage policy might look like, we would be happy to provide it. In any event, I emphasize that this (is) an important issue for us, and that if the board fails to remedy the current policy soon, we will strongly consider taking further action.

We agree and we'll contact the Lyle district today to support Mike's letter. If you're in agreement, you might want to contact the Lyle district also: James Dusso, Schools Superintendent, Lyle Public Schools, 700 Second St., Lyle, MN 55953.