The Religious Practice of Yoga Being Used In Schools: Parents Sue for Separation of Religion from State

Yoga is definitely a religious practice and this is understood by many secularists as well as yogis. Because its deeply rooted in Eastern Mystic religions, it should be seen by everyone for what it is: a religious practice. As such, schools need to stop this practice if they are going to curtail other religious practices (reading a Bible, praying, etc) and be consistent. Following the excerpts from the news article, I post links to information about the dangers of yoga and how its not merely exercise, but an integral part of Eastern religions.


WND reports:

Parents who are upset over the introduction of yoga lessons – funded by a private foundation that promotes yoga – into their children’s school curriculum have filed a lawsuit to bring them to a halt....

The lawsuit notes Harvard-educated religious studies professor Candy Gunter Brown’s findings that the school’s yoga program is religious in nature, having its roots in Hindu, Buddhist and Taoist beliefs.

In a report from Fox News, Broyles stated that the yoga program goes too far.

“EUSD’s Ashtanga yoga program represents a serious breach of the public trust,” Broyles said. “Compliance with the clear requirements of law is not optional or discretionary. This is frankly the clearest case of the state trampling on the religious freedom rights of citizens that I have personally witnessed in my 18 years of practice as a constitutional attorney.”

...According to Broyles, children who have opted out of the program have been bullied. He also noted that students who opt out are missing out on 60 of the 100 weekly minutes of physical activity required by the state, since they usually sit and read during yoga instruction.

~End quote

Its true; yoga is very much a religious practice.  For multiple articles on the dangers of yoga go here.

Al Mohler states:

Reading The Subtle Body is an eye-opening and truly interesting experience. To a remarkable degree, the growing acceptance of yoga points to the retreat of biblical Christianity in the culture. Yoga begins and ends with an understanding of the body that is, to say the very least, at odds with the Christian understanding. Christians are not called to empty the mind or to see the human body as a means of connecting to and coming to know the divine. Believers are called to meditate upon the Word of God — an external Word that comes to us by divine revelation — not to meditate by means of incomprehensible syllables.

Nevertheless, a significant number of American Christians either experiment with yoga or become adherents of some yoga discipline. Most seem unaware that yoga cannot be neatly separated into physical and spiritual dimensions. The physical is the spiritual in yoga, and the exercises and disciplines of yoga are meant to connect with the divine.

Douglas R. Groothuis, Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary and a respected specialist on the New Age Movement, warns Christians that yoga is not merely about physical exercise or health. “All forms of yoga involve occult assumptions,” he warns, “even hatha yoga, which is often presented as a merely physical discipline.” While most adherents of yoga avoid the more exotic forms of ritualized sex that are associated with tantric yoga, virtually all forms of yoga involve an emphasis on channeling sexual energy throughout the body as a means of spiritual enlightenment.

End quote.