Bob Dutko and Yoga

Recently I was listening to Bob Dutko on my drive home.  He’s on a local Christian radio station from at 5pm, so I frequently hear him on my drive home.

He’s a trip.  He’s a young earth creationist who takes a very literal approach to the Bible.  He believes in angels (and angles) and demonic forces.  He’s very concerned about false prophets, and people following a “false Jesus”.    Earth is 6000 years old.  Dinosaurs and man lived together.  Noah’s ark.  What’s so fascinating, though, is that his show is called “Defending the Truth”, and he argues his viewpoints from (in his words), a logical and rational and scientific point of view.  He’s got no problem using the second Law of Thermodynamics to “prove” that God exists. 

On top of all that, he has this deliciously smarmy and smug attitude which I love to hate.  He’s a brilliant debater, and frequently has people with opposing points of view on his show (either outright atheists, or theists who have a different interpretation of things than he does).

I generally find the debates about various interpretations of religious dogma somewhat boring.  It’s kind of like listening to people argue about the length of unicorn horns, and using various sources of mythology to back up their claims.  But yesterday, he had a female minister on (already contentious) who had written a book on practicing yoga in a Christian way.  He let his guest begin by talking about yoga, and the slow stretching and breathing, and how that really gets your mind and body into a place where you are relaxed and ready to meditate and pray.

He then steered the conversation towards the Hindu roots of yoga, and was really concerned that people who do it were falling prey to “Eastern religious mysticism”.  His guest obviously disagreed.  He then asked if yoga was good for people… not Christian yoga, but normal, traditional yoga.  Her response was “Well, the Hindu’s think so!”  This was impossible for him to swallow, and he went into a speech how Jesus was very clear that the only people who reach the Father come through him, etc.  They cut to commercial, and the announcer said “Coming up, Bob’s guest claims that there are many paths to heaven!”  I literally laughed out loud in my car, knowing that this was going to drive Bob apeshit.  It did, and he went into his standard railing against moral relativism and universalism, and once again said that there is only one true path to Heaven, and so on.  The guest simply said “Well, you and I disagree on that theology.”  Good stuff.

If you ever happen to be talking to Bob, mention that you think people get into heaven based on the kind of life they lead, and that even atheists or aboriginal Africans will go to heaven if they are good people, and watch him lose his shit.