A Christian participating in acupuncture wrong?

Question

This article is about how it wrong for Christian to get acupuncture. I'm going to have to disagree with it.

What are your views on this?

http://www.gotquestions.org/acupuncture-Christian.html

The same with yoga, search that site and you'll also find the anti-yoga article.

Answer 1

My view is that so many
Christians have been taught
that everything they do is wrong. It's the guilt trip that
today's preachers love to lay
on the people.
this new breed of Christian
might as well go into a room and stay their until they die
because even going to the
bathroom can be a sin.
Jesus came to give freedom
to his people, not bondage.

Answer 2

Most acupuncture/pressure cures can be easily attributed to the placebo effect. If you think you'll get better, you will get better. I had acupressure for a few years about twenty years ago, and it worked like a charm . . . untill the pain was enough that I doubted that acupressure would work. It didn't that time, or any time after that. Depression is nothing to take lightly, but most cases are treatable with drugs. I heard Danny Bonnaduce (sp?) say that the problem with with antidepressants isn't that they don't work, it's that they work well enough to convince you that you don't need them anymore. Any time that you can't find hard information on a treatment, it's probably not real. Rent Penn and Teller's Bullsh*t, season 1: fung shui episode. Trust doctors. They saved my life.

Answer 3

While the ancient practice of acupuncture is certainly founded in Toaisim, It, like many other things, has been examined by science and found to have merit. The physiological meaning of acupuncture has nothing to do with religion, Christian or otherwise. (Well, God made us that way so there a very wide connection.)

Christmas was a pagan holiday that the Catholics hijacked to gain supporters. Are we going to give up Christmas?

Answer 4

I'm not Christian, but this is a classic example of the insanity that fundamentalism seems to create in people. I'll approach this scientifically: there was a study recently, I'm sorry, I don't have a link to it, that showed that acupuncture works, but not because of any "chi" that is being moved or released in the body-- they gave people with pain problems acupuncture. One group was given traditional acupuncture (hitting specific spots in the body), and the other group was randomly poked with needles. Both groups showed an improvement in pain problems, proving that the theory behind acupuncture is somewhat bubkis, but that it still works somewhat, nonetheless, for pain management anyway.

So, if you're having concerns about becoming a Taoist or an atheist, fear not! You can safely poke yourself with needles all you want. Your soul is not in peril.

Answer 5

I dont see how any method of bettering your temple is bad. Provided it doesnt break the 10 commandments.

And yes, I meditate, do yoga daily and have had acupuncture and consider myself a Christian.

I think it is quite egotistical to hold up a 2,000+ year old book and say "This is the ONLY way!"

Answer 6

Lol. You can't stay away from everything that sounds demonic or paganistic. If that's the case, don't verbally say any of the days of the week, for they are based upon mythological gods!

Instead, the bible gives us principals to live by when not addressing exact detailed circumstances.

Firstly, accupuncture may have derivatives in Eastern religion, but the principals are science in nature, and are proven accurately factual. There are pressure points and each of the points affects certain physical elements of the body.

The same principal in taking Excedrin, seeing a doctor, or going to the Chiropractor. They are not healers and certainly not spiritually enhanced angels! But they re-arrange the elements to provide a more quicker mode of healing God already created in us.

There are Christians who would get so superstitious, it borders on "fear", and our God is not the author of confusion or fear, for "fear hath torment", and we do not have the spirit of fear.

However, a word of caution; as with anything, as a Christian, do not get into the "spirit" of it. Especially with yoga.

The principal in Yoga is simply learning how to physical force yourself to unwind and relax. That is good. But, the ungodly spiritual base of it is absolutely unhealthy for christians to receive and be a part of. Same with Visualization.

You must learn how to rightly divide what is spiritual and what is not. You may see a doctor who by happenstance is an atheist. Can he not perscribe the right medicine for you?

Take true, calm steps to what is right.

Answer 7

It's only wrong if you want it to be. Who's to say what the energy flow really is? Christians could say that acupuncture helps to get in touch with the Holy Ghost, and that God is healing them through prayer (prayer and meditation supposedly have similar effects on the mind and body). Acupuncture doesn't have to be connected to Taoism...my acupuncturist only talks about what I need to eat, then sticks me up and says "Do your thing, I'll be back in 20 minutes to check in." No religious speech whatsoever.

Answer 8

I don't think there is anything wrong with it. God gave our doctors ways to help us and them a different way that works on some people that nothing else has. I am particularly interested in how they can help your fluid balance. The one I talked to held his hands over my stomach and told me the blood flow wasn't as good as it should be in my legs and he is right. He said he can fix it "very easy" with acupuncture. So, I am going when I get the money. Insurance should pay for it.

Answer 9

There's a number of things wrong with that article, I think.

While I'm not Christian myself... just because a medical practice has origins in a, for sake of argument, false religion, that doesn't mean the medical practice itself is wrong. For instance, I don't remember who found it, but I think it's native americans... discovered that making tea with the bark of a certain tree helped headaches and whatnot. Later, science found aspirin in the bark of that tree. So, for sake of argument, what if that discovery were made by a native american seeking harmony with nature according to his/her beliefs? Does that make aspirin wrong and evil?

It's a fact that the insertion of needles into a person's body according to the art of acupuncture has had healing benefits. Ultimately, does it matter what the origins of medicine are? According to Christian doctrine, God made it all anyways... who cares who discovered it and why?

There's my two cents.

Answer 10

I disagree as well.
I have a sister who swears that she can use her arm today because of acupuncture. It obviously worked, when our western medical "science" did not.
Go figure.
As for yoga, I can testify that doing the yoga postures kept my body supple and made it much easier to give birth to my children.