Photo from Amazon.

E.W. Jackson, the man who would like to be Virginia’s next lieutenant governor, said yesterday that he doesn’t really think yoga opens up a person’s soul to Satan. He even has a friend who does yoga!

At a press conference yesterday, the minister corrected this misconception about his views, saying, “What I said was that Christian meditation does not involve emptying oneself but filling oneself … with the spirit of God. That is classic biblical Christianity.” He added, according to the Richmond Times Dispatch, that one of his ministers is a yoga instructor.

This apparent confusion comes from a passage in his 2008 book, “The Ten Commandments to an Extraordinary Life”:

[Satan] is happy to invade the empty vacuum of your soul and possess it. That is why people serve Satan without ever knowing it or deciding to, but no one can be a child of God without making a decision to surrender to him. Beware of systems of spirituality which tell you to empty yourself. You will end up filled with something you probably do not want.

Potato, potahto, right? And yes, this passage is from the same book that has a major typo on its cover.

Jackson also said during the 45-minute press conference that he doesn’t actually think birth defects are caused by sin, “unless, of course, there’s a direct scientific connection between the parents’ behavior and the disabilities of the child.” Again, a passage in his 2008 book led to this gotcha media moment:

Keep in mind that the whole cosmos has been made imperfect — wounded — by sin. It is the principle of sin, rebellion against God and His truth which has brought about birth defects and other destructive natural occurrences. Leaving aside that for a moment, recent discoveries about the genetic code of each human being are a fulfillment of scripture. Your genetic code is the handwriting of God, written before you or the world existed. Our genetic blueprint is proof of the existence of the Living God and His infinite intelligence, purpose and design. Sadly, many will ignore the deeper spiritual truth which underlies the advance of this scientific knowledge.

Jackson did admit he filed for bankruptcy in 1993 and used marijuana and other controlled substances when he was young. He did not address previous comments he made calling gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people “very sick people psychologically, mentally and emotionally.”

Virginia’s Republican gubernatorial nominee, Ken “The Cooch” Cuccinelli, recently told a radio station he “absolutely” wants to be judged separately from Jackson: “[Virginia voters] have a history of making decisions one office at a time and E.W.’s going to have to introduce himself individually to the rest of Virginia, something that I did in 2009 as attorney general and frankly that I’m doing again for governor. It is different for different offices, but there’s no question that we’ve got to get over the line each of us one at a time.”