Q: I’ve been offered a job to manage the redesign of a Web directory for yoga centers in India. If I accept it, am I directly participating in the spread of false beliefs? Should I refuse it? Thank you! — Stef

Answered by Fr. Edward McIlmail, LC:

It’s good that you are asking this question. The Holy Spirit might be nudging you to be careful.

For the record, Ask a Priest can’t make this decision for you. Only you can decide what to do.

That said, anything that promotes yoga could directly or indirectly promote the non-Christian spirituality behind it. (For reading about the dangers of yoga, see this post.)

Such spirituality, especially when made more easily accessible via the Internet, can tempt Catholics and Christians in general to embrace something that undercuts their faith.

There are times when we can licitly provide a service or product which ends up benefiting a group with which we don’t necessarily agree.

A software company, for instance, might sell a program to a yoga center that helps it run its business efficiently. Or a utility worker might upgrade the electrical system in a strip mall whose tenants include a yoga center.

Those kinds of activities are allowable since they involve goods or services that are morally neutral and if the software seller or utility worker isn’t intending to promote non-Christian spirituality.

The situation is somewhat different when a pivotal service (such as the Web directory) is provided for yoga centers as such. This is, in technical terms, a more proximate form of material cooperation.

Helping with a Web directory could also draw someone deeper into the yoga orbit. It could also set a precedent: What would the person do in the future when asked to work on other projects with beliefs antithetical to Christianity?

So, the question is: Do you want to go down this path?

You might consider simply letting this contract go if there are other ways to earn money.