Yes, if you believe their worldview. No, if you believe in Paul's worldview. The same can be said about tai chi, karate, etc.
Make sure you hold on to 1 Corinthians 8:
If your spiritual conscience is weak or insecure, I advise against practicing Yoga. Try some neutral fitness exercises instead. Personally, I have tried Yoga, tai chi, karate, etc. but I don't practice any of them. I practice Psalm 1:
Should Christians bow down before other gods?
No, Exodus 23:
Still, there was an exception according to Elisha in 2 Kings 5:
See also
Is it okay to empty for mind when meditating?.
Yes, I think the story in 2 Kings 5 is important, as it suggests God understands the "impossible" situation we sometimes find ourselves in as Christians. In the Early Church Christians wanted out of military service because in serving in Roman wars there was a lot of "sin" involved, including sins of aggression and covetousness.
But eventually, Christian states formed and there came to be the idea of a "Just War." Christians now joined the military ranks and eagerly cooperated in wars. However, sin still existed even within Christian states because all people are corruptible by Sin. So Christians still have, a times, opted out of military service for reasons of conscience.
But what about the person wanting to serve a more secularistic government? Opting out may or may not be allowed. Is there a way Christians can serve "imperfect" governments with mixed motives, some good and some bad?
Yes, the story in 2 Kings shows that God understands our limitations. We unavoidably serve under flawed leaders and can serve, with God overlooking some of the problems with appearing to support what our leaders are doing. We can, for example, serve to protect our country from invaders while at the same time abstaining from outright agreement with all of the policies.
In becoming citizens of a polytheistic society like our Western democracies it may appear we actually agree with the philosophy that views all religions as equal. But we can live in such societies without placing our "imprimatur" upon it. We simply keep our hearts pure before God.
Quite frankly, I could not for some years even watch television--I only saw corruption, and slowly became more and more isolated from society. My daughter was home-schooled, and when we eventually put her in public school she had trouble fitting in. She had to go back to home-schooling.
I eventually learned to filter out parts of movies (in my mind) so that I could enjoy some entertainment--there is not much made available in our corrupt society that is "watchable" at times. Everything from TV to the Internet to Video Games is inundated by vile images.
But I've been able to be less "intolerant" and therefore more able to communicate to our world in their own terms. We must decide for ourselves what is acceptable before God, because everything we do should be "for His glory"--even the freedom to be entertained.
But we may indeed have a responsibility to learn the language of the world to win the world, and we certainly may have a responsibility before God to defend our country!
