Parents Sue School For Making Children ‘Religious Guinea Pigs’ — By Teaching Them Yoga

Think Progress

A San Diego couple is suing the area’s school district for allegedly violating their children’s religious freedom by offering yoga classes for physical education.
Stephen and Jennifer Sedlock actually have the option to opt their children out of taking the classes, which the school’s superintendent describes as, “stretching, moving, breathing.”

But their lawyer, a part of the conservative National Center for Law and Policy, still believes there is a strong case for why yoga classes are an unconstitutional violation religious freedom:

In a press release issued by Escondido-based National Center for Law and Policy, attorney Dean Broyles said the Encinitas yoga program was a “breach of public trust” that sets a “dangerous precedent.”
“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,” Broyles said.
The lawsuit, which alleges civil rights violations, was filed in San Diego Superior Court. It ultimately seeks to suspend the yoga program indefinitely and “restore traditional physical education to the district.”

Things that make you go:


How, by any measure of logic, is this a case of violation of religious freedom? What is religious about Yoga? It is a popular form of exercise practiced throughout the world, regardless of religion. To me it's like saying if a Christian does jumping jacks then jumping jacks are Christian.

the stupidity of religious fundamentalists never ceases to amaze me. maybe if they did some yoga they wouldnt be so damned retarded.

reply to post by MastaShake


Fundamentalist communion wine is extremely potent.
Or it's gone bad...

Your assessment is incorrect, because yoga is a part of Indian spiritual practice.

However, on that note:

1- Some martial arts could be considered just as much a part of Asian spiritual practice as yoga is, to Indian spiritual practice. But I doubt some of these same parents would freak out about kung fu classes....

2- The practice of "hatha" yoga (the type they are most likely practicing) is an element of Indian spiritual practice because of the indian / asian belief that the body and mind connect to the spirit through spiritual life energies flowing through the body called "prana" (india) or "chi" (asia.) If you don't believe in these bodily energies, I don't see why this should be anything blasphemous, or sinful. These practices are done because it is thought that bodily health is important to spiritual health-- simple as that. So really, anything that increases physical health would help with prana / chi.

3- We're talking about stretching and breathing here. Not prayers to some hindu god. How very ridiculous....

4- I hope this means this school will also be cancelling any pledge of allegiance, as this mentions "god" which might infringe on someone else' religion or lack of one.....

5- Did I mention how stupid this is?

reply to post by iwilliam


My assessment is correct, spiritual is not religious and exists only as a perspective. There's no theology or doctrine taught with Yoga.

these probably are the same people that see demon, or devil signals in hand signs, pictures, logos, or anything from hollywood or the music industry.

By the statement of "restoring traditional physical education" do they mean the holy right of doge ball?

You should watch the documentary Dharma Brothers. It's about the use of meditation and yoga in a maximum security prison in America. It was proving a success until the church found out and closed the project down. It's sad as it was working with the prisoners making them less violent in a volatile environment.

I just get amazed everytime I read something like this, truly the moronic views of those with agendas border in stupidity.

I guess this type of news do not make the fundamentalist core agenda look any better or attractive to bring more devote followers into their circle.

While I know that is plenty of intelligent and well educated people within the fundamentalist groups is those out there that made the majority look like dumb and stupid.

Sad truly.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


Gotta keep prison labor fully stocked.
Jesus said so.

Yoga definately has religious teachings in it, and it's kind of funny to watch people rail on christmas, yet have no problem with these things.
Stretching is important, relaxing is important, so why not just exercize and stop pushing boundaries?
It's just bizarre, considering 1) christmas has nothing to do with the Father (except the giving part)
2) Mysticism is rampant in gov't (nasa school curriculum)
Why is christianity singled out? Serious question. It's so blatant these days/

Why aren't people who are concerned with this type of crap, petitioning the gov't to banish names like apollo from the space program?> Apollo is a religious icon, jupiter, nike, mars
Why are the days of the week named after planets who are named after gods?

A good example of "Give them an inch and they will take a mile" . If you can think it up, you can sue. SCOTUS should never have allowed God to be taken out of schools. It was down hill from there, and there is no bottom.

reply to post by Leuan

Yoga definately has religious teachings in it

Can you share those teachings?

and it's kind of funny to watch people rail on christmas,

Who railed on Christmas besides some idiot that went on Bill O'Reilly's propaganda er... show?

yet have no problem with these things

These things? Exercise? Where in the Commandments does it say Thou shalt not exercise?

why not just exercize and stop pushing boundaries?

What boundary? Why should there be a boundary on exercise?

I don't understand the rest of your post.

reply to post by Leuan


Actually thats very interesting issue about the planets, Most of the known planets were named by the Romans before Christianity as they enjoyed astrology, the planets that were discovered after, the names were kept within tradition and adopted by the later emerging Europeans.

That is why they will never be renamed as far as I know.

reply to post by jimmiec


Which God? In some religions prayer involves getting face down on the floor, in others it involves spreading salt around you in a circle, others dance... are all of those okay with you? Or did you just mean the Christian kind?

Well I see why the lawyer jumped on this case:

My faith impacts every area of my life, including how I practice law. I seek to exhibit integrity with my clients, with the opposition and with judges.

www.broyleslaw.com...

I wonder if this is why its bad in his and the parents eyes:

Some Christians integrate yoga and other aspects of Eastern spirituality with prayer and meditation. This has been attributed to a desire to experience God in a more complete way.[160] The Roman Catholic Church, and some other Christian organizations have expressed concerns and disapproval with respect to some eastern and New Age practices that include yoga and meditation.[161][162][163] In 1989 and 2003, the Vatican issued two documents: Aspects of Christian meditation and "A Christian reflection on the New Age," that were mostly critical of eastern and New Age practices. The 2003 document was published as a 90 page handbook detailing the Vatican's position.[164] The Vatican warned that concentration on the physical aspects of meditation "can degenerate into a cult of the body" and that equating bodily states with mysticism "could also lead to psychic disturbance and, at times, to moral deviations."

Such has been compared to the early days of Christianity, when the church opposed the gnostics' belief that salvation came not through faith but through a mystical inner knowledge.[160] The letter also says, "one can see if and how [prayer] might be enriched by meditation methods developed in other religions and cultures"[165] but maintains the idea that "there must be some fit between the nature of [other approaches to] prayer and Christian beliefs about ultimate reality."[160] Some fundamentalist Christian organizations consider yoga to be incompatible with their religious background, considering it a part of the New Age movement inconsistent with Christianity.[166]

en.wikipedia.org...
The type he falls into is highlighted......he is pretty biased in this.

Originally posted by Kali74
reply to post by Leuan

 

Yoga definately has religious teachings in it

Can you share those teachings?

and it's kind of funny to watch people rail on christmas,

Who railed on Christmas besides some idiot that went on Bill O'Reilly's propaganda er... show?

yet have no problem with these things

These things? Exercise? Where in the Commandments does it say Thou shalt not exercise?

why not just exercize and stop pushing boundaries?

What boundary? Why should there be a boundary on exercise?

I don't understand the rest of your post.

====
yogi [ˈjəʊgɪ]
n pl -gis, -gin [-gɪn]
(Philosophy) (Non-Christian Religions / Hinduism) a person who is a master of yoga
yogini [jəʊˈgiːniː] fem n

reply to post by Leuan


You know, we got yoga in our local gym, to tell the truth, it has nothing to do with religion and more to do with exercises.

I guess only if you are looking for to become a yoga master will you be introduced into the true teachings of yoga, what we got in the US in our gyms is nothing but a bastardized version of breathing exercises that are sold to the members as yoga.

you should go and take a class.

reply to post by topherman420


Interesting, thanks for sharing that. It's still extremely illogical to me though. If a religion or religious group chooses to adopt something new into their practice that doesn't make the thing itself religious.


reply to post by Leuan


You provided a definition of a word, where are these religious teachings of yoga?

Originally posted by marg6043
reply to post by Leuan

 

Actually thats very interesting issue about the planets, Most of the known planets were named by the Romans before Christianity as they enjoyed astrology, the planets that were discovered after, the names were kept within tradition and adopted by the later emerging Europeans.

That is why they will never be renamed as far as I know.

Actually, I think it was before the romans, but don't quote me on that. We all know, the romans love to collect philosophy so it's a grey area. Egypt and mesopotamia most likely had gathered info on planetary movements.

Anyways, I find it fascinating that the name apollo was chosen, when it's a clear reference to the anti christ. Nobody cares, though