Forget about “teach the controversy” and all that stuff about allowing teachers the “freedom of speech” to share their religious opinions. According to the LA Times, Christian parents want the public school system scrubbed clean of any curriculum that even hints at having religious overtones.
Yoga is taught at the local YMCA; at nearby Camp Pendleton, it is used to help Marines who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder after having been in combat.
But soon after yoga teachers began leading students at five elementary schools in twice-weekly sessions of stretching, breathing and relaxing, four dozen parents protested to the school board, saying yoga is a system of spiritual beliefs.
The program, which consists of a series of stretching and strength-building exercises with “kid-friendly” names, has some parents even threatening to sue.
But attorney Dean Broyles, representing the parents, said a lawsuit may be necessary to oust yoga from the school district.
“I think school officials are confused about Eastern mysticism,” said Broyles, president and chief counsel for the Escondido-based National Center for Law & Policy, which deals with issues of religious freedom and Christian values.
“If this were a program letting children sit silently and engage in Christian prayer, the district would never allow it,” Broyles said.
And Christian parents would never ask for it, right? Do you suppose Mr. Broyles would mind letting us have a peek at some of the other cases he’s working on at the NCLP?
Boy, they’re gonna be so disappointed when they actually read some history about modern yoga and learn it only dates back to the ’60s, and is primarily based off Indian gymnastics. I guess because it uses words from a language they don’t speak, it must be religious. I wonder how they feel about having algebra removed, or maybe that’s OK since I’m sure they also know Al-Ghazali denounced mathematics as a great, counter-religious evil nearly a millenium ago.
Study hall? Lunch break? Riding the bus? All are forbidden!
Anyway, can you imagine their response if the school reduced Christian prayer activity into an aerobic workout? “Kneel, sit, stand, sit, kneel, sit, stand, now cross yourself!”
Then it’d be a Catholic school.
Yup. I went to a Catholic High School and had to attend mass at least once a month. My memory of mass is basically “Stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down, kneel.”
While doing calisthenics:
There was a “letter of the week” that appeared on wingnutdaily back in 2005. The point of the letter has obviously never sunk in with the idiots who run the site, nor with its readers. Excuse the length of the quoted part:
http://www.wnd.com/2005/10/32839/
Too bad only one in a million of them is capable of grasping the point.
I grew up in Hawaii, about 20 minutes from Waihiawa. Never in my own high school history had I *ever* heard any kind of prayer said before games. While I agree with the message (don’t assault people with religious crap), I’m calling b.s. on the “Buddhist prayer”.
It’s just ceremonial Eastern mysticism. They’re not forced to participate. Anyone who doesn’t wish to participate is free to leave the room, or, better yet, just ignore it. Besides which, no true Christian would walk around with money, which is the tool of Satan.
I expect @Zugswang is correct but (a) many new-age not-religious-but-spiritual types practice and promote yoga for “centering” and as preparation for meditation; and (b) everyone has at some point seen a Nat. Geo. type picture of a gaunt wild-haired dude posing on the banks of the Ganges in some impossible stance, and/or seen a statue of Siva in a writhing posture.
All such subliminally-absorbed cultural impressions make it easy to assume that yoga must be some tricksy eastern religious practice that the eggheads and liberals are trying to sneak into our culture in the guise of exercise, the better to rot the foundation of the republic.
All these people better not have kids participating in most martial arts.
Where I live, there’s “Christian Martial Arts”; more than one company to choose from.
Possibly elated by the events of the past few days, I felt optimistic enough to believe the parents had come to their senses on the whole “teaching science in science class” thing.
I’m naive like that.
Having had yoga as a PE option in high school, I can tell you that it’s all stretching and breathing, with a relaxation period at the end of class. That’s it. No prayer. No mystical mumbo-jumbo. No religion. Just stretching and breathing.
Sorry to say, but they don’t want religion removed from the curriculum, they want anyone else’s religion removed.
I have come across some freak-out about yoga. The only sources for that that I have seen is extreme devil paranoia propaganda. The same people who hear satanic messages in music, think the anti-crist is hiding in the closet, etc.
To some people it’s as simple as “yoga isn’t in the bible, therefor it’s not christian”. And anything not christian is automatically of the devil. I remember in my childhood for a while my parents wouldn’t even let me and my brothers listen to Michael Jackson. They’re not as strict anymore, thank goodness.