Pretzel Logic

Boy, people get really bent out of shape when it comes to Yoga.

It all started with a posting in Albertmohler.com by Dr. Albert Mohler, the President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. To cut to the chase, Dr. Mohler does not believe Yoga is something Christians should do. Dr. Mohler has posted many blogs on many different subject and has for many years.

You should be wondering: “Where can I find an op-ed column that is an ad hominem attack on Dr. Mohler and gives little evidence of even trying to read the original blog post?” Have no fear, The Marietta Daily Journal is here! The MDJ is Cobb County’s newspaper of record and home of the ad hominem argument.

In the op-ed piece, “Seminary President Needs to Focus On Hate Groups” our old pal Dick Yarbrough uses his wit, such as it is, to skewer Mohler .

His piece begins, “Albert Mohler is at it again”. I love that. It gives the impression Mohler is a Baptist groundhog coming out every now and then to yell, “That’s a sin” and “It ain’t Krist-chan” (this is how Southerners say the word “Christian” by the way).

Everybody knows Baptists are fuddy-duddies and not nearly as hip or cool as Dick Yarbrough. We don’t dance, chew, or go with girls that do.

This leads to this paragraph: “You may recall that Albert is the guy who got his robe in a wad a few years back when the First Baptist Church of Decatur had the temerity to appoint a female as its lead pastor. Albert said at the time that Rev. Julie Pennington-Russell was qualified for the job, "except for the fact that she is a woman."

A couple of points. First of all, Southern Baptist churches do not “appoint” ministers. They are elected by a vote of the congregation. Since First Baptist Decatur is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention it supposed to follow the confession known as “The Baptist Faith and Message” which excludes women’s ordination.

Secondly, as a person with an “Al” name, I must admit “Albert” is the funniest of the “Al names” and it is knee slapping funny to refer to an individual with an earned doctorate by it. But really, would it have killed Mr. Yarbrough to have said, “Dr. Mohler”? I’m fairly certain Yarbrough would not have fallen over dead if he showed a tad bit of respect for Mohler,

Yarbrough continues, “Like a lot of Bible-thumpers, he went to great pains to pull out selected verses of the Bible to make his point about women not being qualified to be preachers. This is the same Bible that says divorce is a no-no (1Cor. 7:11) but which Albert and his crowd conveniently overlook regarding a certain Southern Baptist televangelist who is divorced.

The last time I checked the First Baptist Church of Decatur has not experienced a plague of locusts nor has anyone turned into a block of salt. First Baptist Church of Decatur: One. Albert: Zero.”

Just to be clear, the “certain Southern Baptist televangelist” is Charles Stanley. The last time I checked First Baptist Church of Atlanta has not experience a plague of locusts nor has any members that are a block of salt, either. You bet your sweet bippy that Bible says divorce is a no-no in more places than 1 Corinthians 7:11. However, I’m not sure how this makes Mohler wrong on women’s ordination and Yoga. So I guess since Mohler disagrees with Yarbrough, that make makes Mohler a “Bible-thumper”, although the Roman Catholic Church, Greek Orthodox, and Orthodox Jews believe basically the same thing

Yarbrough adds, “He says he objects to "the idea that the body is a vehicle for reaching consciousness with the divine." I have no idea what that means. Albert can get a little weird’. The quote Mr.Yarbrough uses is from an AP article on Mohler’s post and not from the original post at all. Maybe if Mr. Yarbrough actually read Mohler’s post, he would have an idea what it meant.

Mohler’s posting on his blog (which the AP article reported on) was about a book entitled, The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America by Stephanie Syman. Mohler details his objection to Yoga, which, you have to admit is not Judeo-Christian in origin. Mohler also adds, which has been conveniently left out of the AP article and Yarbrough piece that, “There is nothing wrong with physical exercise and yoga positions in themselves are not the main issue”. Mohler is objecting to the religious aspects of Yoga.

But Mr.Yarbrough hits his rhetorical stride wondering why Dr. Mohler doesn’t comdemn The Westboro Baptist Church creeps.

To be sure, the Westboro Baptist Church uses some very whacked out theology in thinking that the Lord would smite soldiers in the U.S. Army to condemn our country’s tolerance of the homosexual life style. They are a bunch a knuckle dragging publicity sluts that ought to be ashamed of themselves. I’m not sure what they have to do with Albert Mohler, women’s ordination, or Yoga.

I’ve never liked arguments that begin with “you can’t speak about A unless you first speak about B”. I suppose Mohler should have written: “Yoga is wrong—as wrong as those Westboro Baptist Church idiots” or “The Westboro Baptist Church will be doing Yoga….in Hell”.

Then again, that blog post wouldn’t have made the Associated Press wire and Mr. Yarbrough wouldn’t have read it and we would not have been treated to such a well researched and thought out column.