DENVER - Yoga is gaining a cultural acceptance all over the world, but some argue that yoga and Christianity don't mix because of the origins of the exercise.
One pastor goes as far as saying, "it's a form of demonism."
Denver resident, Niki Sparks is a devout Christian. She also practices and teaches yoga.
"I have been practicing yoga for five years and I now teach Holy Yoga," Sparks said.
She is part of a growing group nationwide that has combined the exercise with Christianity.
"Holy yoga is a combination of worship and exercise. We play Christian music and we read scripture. It's all yoga and all Jesus, 100% of each," Sparks said.
But there are many who believe the two cannot be combined.
Mark Driscoll is a pastor at a Baptist Church in Seattle.
He says yoga is Paganism.
"Yoga is opening to demonism. Should Christians stay away from yoga because of its demonic roots? Totally," Driscoll said.
The controversy lies in the origin of yoga.
The ancient Indian spiritual practice was created about 5,000 years ago.
It incorporates meditation and a Hindu practice of connecting spiritually to the universe.
"In a lot of traditional yoga classes they will talk about connecting yourself with the universe- but as a Christian I believe God created the universe and so anytime I'm connecting myself, I'm connecting myself to my creator- not the universe per say- God created the universe," Sparks said.
Sparks says yoga is really what you make of it and says she doesn't feel like she is doing anything wrong by using it to grow closer to her faith.
Yoga is gaining popularity. Today, the practice boasts 20 million followers all over the world, triple the number of followers from just 15 years ago.
(KUSA-TV © 2010 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)
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