A school program to fight childhood obesity that includes yoga is drawing complaints from some Christian parents in the Quesnel area in B.C.'s Cariboo region.
They say yoga is a religion, and shouldn’t be taught in public schools.
Chelsea Brears, who has two children in the school system, said her son was asked to do different poses and “to put his hands together.”
Brears, a Christian, said she doesn’t want her children exposed to another religion during class time.
“It’s not fair to take prayer out, and yet they’re allowing yoga, which is religion, in our schools.”
Local rancher Audrey Cummings doesn’t believe Christian children should be doing yoga at all.
“There’s God and there’s the devil, and the devil’s not a gentleman. If you give him any kind of an opening, he will take that.”
The two women have complained to the education minister and the Quesnel school board.
But school board chair Caroline Neilsen said the yoga is being taught as a stretching exercise, not as a spiritual practice.
Neilsen also noted that children who don’t want to practise yoga can do different exercises or leave the classroom.
Wait, wait, wait - yoga definitely has a spiritual side to it. Now, can they teach a secular yoga, no doubt - but where are the manic church-state separationists making sure that they don’t?
I have no problem with it - but I am waiting on the church-state separationists to demand that the class be named ‘stretching’ in order to prevent the slippery slope of the next step: theocracy. After all, if a ‘moment of silence’ is too darn close to mandating a Christian prayer, surely as a matter of consistency B.C. must do away with yoga in schools.
[quote]John S. wrote:
God damnit, its these crazy retards that give Christians a bad name.[/quote]
Amen brother! What are these red necks talking about? Why does the media only quote the double-digit IQ red necks when trying to find out what Christians think?
[quote]thunderbolt23 wrote:
After all, if a ‘moment of silence’ is too darn close to mandating a Christian prayer, surely as a matter of consistency B.C. must do away with yoga in schools.[/quote]
Good point thunder. Next they might try to teach the kids not to kill one another, which sounds alot like “Thou shalt not kill.” Which as we all know is just plain religious brainwashing.
[quote]Lorisco wrote:
John S. wrote:
God damnit, its these crazy retards that give Christians a bad name.
Amen brother! What are these red necks talking about? Why does the media only quote the double-digit IQ red necks when trying to find out what Christians think?
[/quote]
Because they’re the common Christian (I kid, I kid).
The media likes extremes. Centrists are boring. Look at Alan Colmes on the Fox Network… snooze.
And @ thunderbolt… A)It’s not mandatory at all. B) Meditation is spiritual, but not religious. As in, it’s not tied to a single religion. In fact, meditation has always been an important part of Christianity. It has health benefits as well. C) The class is mostly stretching. The “praying-like” hand pose actually stretches the forearms as well as promotes balance throughout the torso.
These crazy people give a bad name to Christianity.
[quote]Cunnivore wrote:
thunderbolt23 wrote:
After all, if a ‘moment of silence’ is too darn close to mandating a Christian prayer, surely as a matter of consistency B.C. must do away with yoga in schools.
Good point thunder. Next they might try to teach the kids not to kill one another, which sounds alot like “Thou shalt not kill.” Which as we all know is just plain religious brainwashing.[/quote]
Who says we can’t have a moment of silence?
Now your going on about the Atheist crazies… whom don’t represent us anymore than Pat Robertson represents you (which I really hope he doesn’t).
Moment of silence is a cultural respect. You CAN pray, or you can use the time to think about the tragedy, or try to help yourself come to terms. It is noth prayer. At all. Most Atheists really don’t give that much of a shit.
I, for one, just skip “under God” during the pledge. I just shut my trap. I don’t care, nor am I offended by it. I don’t really like the principal, but I’m not incredibly offended (I’d still like it gone though…).
Yoga and a moment of silence are both secular.
A moment of Christian/Muslim/Jewish/Buddhist/Tao prayer and Buddhist/Christian/Muslim/Jewish/Tao meditation however, are religion and don’t belong in a public institute.
Kids can pray in school whenever they feel like it. They just can’t disrupt a class, or make everyone else pray too, or make a big public display of it.
Only a zealot would find that to be a problem.
Pray on the bus. Pray before class starts. Pray during recess. Pray before lunch. Pray after lunch. Pray whenever there is 5 minutes of down-time, which happens dozens of times during the school day.
Just don’t make everyone else follow your lead, or rub it in peoples’ faces. Keep it private and personal (as your religious beliefs should be). You know, have a little discretion. I realize that this is a lot to ask of a zealot, though. They don’t just want to pray to their God… they insist that you pray to their God too.
[quote]thunderbolt23 wrote:
Wait, wait, wait - yoga definitely has a spiritual side to it. Now, can they teach a secular yoga, no doubt - but where are the manic church-state separationists making sure that they don’t?
I have no problem with it - but I am waiting on the church-state separationists to demand that the class be named ‘stretching’ in order to prevent the slippery slope of the next step: theocracy. After all, if a ‘moment of silence’ is too darn close to mandating a Christian prayer, surely as a matter of consistency B.C. must do away with yoga in schools.
[/quote]
I think you’re making a very valid point. It’s funny, I just walked in from work, and I was the listening to the radio as I was driving to a late-night radio talk show that is hosted by a Christian pastor. Anyways, he just was discussing this very same story as I was pulling into my driveway.
I’ll get to the point. I have a strong suspicion that the anti-religion zealots out there who hate everything related to god and faith (although usually they are exclusively anti-Christian) are not opposed to this teaching in the schools.
I wonder, if yoga was associated with Christianity, if there would be more of a reaction from the atheistic anti-faith proponents. I am fairly certain there would be inconsistency between the restistance from anti-faith groups to yoga classes as opposed to a Christian art history class.
I know I have nothing against the teaching of yoga in an elementary school. Even if they teach its origins in philosophy/religion I’d be ok with it.
The same idiots who are upset about something as innocuous as a yoga class, would lose their minds even worse, if the class took a field trip to a synagogue or a buddhist temple.
That’s the level of intelligence we are discussing. You can’t even educate their kids about other viewpoints or cultures, without them feeling threatened.
That is incredibly weak.
Next, they will freak out about the school cafteria because they think the school is trying to turn the kids into vegetarians.
How does yoga fight obesity? Being a limber blimp still leaves you a blimp.
Have the fat little fucks run around the school at a good pace instead. No controversy and they’ll be burning actual calories instead of sniffing their socks.
Why is this a surprise to anyone? Every time anything Christian is mentioned in school some wacko steps up and hires a lawyer. Now a fringe faction of the Christian population has done the same thing.
[quote]Beowolf wrote:
Moment of silence is a cultural respect. You CAN pray, or you can use the time to think about the tragedy, or try to help yourself come to terms. It is noth prayer. At all. Most Atheists really don’t give that much of a shit.
[/quote]
We do if it takes up an extra minute of our time. Why should I have to observe silence because someone thinks its “respectful” to a particular moment? Can’t we just carry on and pray or meditate or whatever in privacy where it belongs. If I wanted a communal observation of silence I’d go to church or the libary.
[quote]pookie wrote:
How does yoga fight obesity? Being a limber blimp still leaves you a blimp.
[/quote]
Actually Yoga burns a good bit of calories if done right… I do a program by Diamond Dallas Page called “Yoga for Regular Guys” on my non-lifting days and have had great results with it (http://www.yrgworkout.com/) and I downright love it.
[quote]ExisKorlan wrote:
Actually Yoga burns a good bit of calories if done right… I do a program by Diamond Dallas Page called “Yoga for Regular Guys” on my non-lifting days and have had great results with it (http://www.yrgworkout.com/) and I downright love it.[/quote]
Is the calorie burning mostly attained “…by adding some old-school calisthenics, core strengthening exercises?” (From the description on the website.)
I still think a good old-fashioned run would burn more calories, improve their cardio-vascular shape and do away with any controversy. Hell, have them run in puddles and call it “rapidly walking on water.”
The program is probably meant to expose obese children to a variety of activities in hopes that they will get “hooked” on one that interests them.
As for Yoga, it is an inherently secular spiritual practice as nobody “converts” to Yoga. People of any religion can practice the most spiritual aspects of yoga without giving up any of their religious beliefs.
Besides, there is a mountain of scientific evidence that the breathing exercises and meditation are ridiculously good for you.
[quote]thunderbolt23 wrote:
Wait, wait, wait - yoga definitely has a spiritual side to it. [/quote]
Doesn’t that depend more on who you ask? You can find someone who derives a spiritual message from almost anything, whether it be yoga or a bobble head jesus on their dashboard. Spirituality is an individual thing, I went to church for 15 years of my life and never felt anything remotely spiritual inside the very same building in the same congregation where people were singing and crying with as much joy as I have ever seen. I sat there completely bored and being driven insane by the SAME WORDS that these people were crying over.
I know most people in my school sat there and barely moved whenever we did a Yoga unit, surely they weren’t seeing the spiritual side to it if they couldn’t even bother to move(I don’t find it to be spiritual in any sense, personally). I never once was told during the yoga units in school about anything remotely spiritual, never the word “god” unless someone pulled their groin, Never any talking other than the gym teacher saying ‘switch side’ and ‘breathe deep’ or a brief explanation of the position. Where is the spirituality in that?
A lot (not everyone of course) of people on this site find spiritual value in weight lifting. Should High School sports teams not be allowed to lift weights in the school gym because some people find it spiritual? Should the school gym be done away with?
That would only happen if yoga was religious. You said “yoga definitely has a spiritual side to it”. Spirituality does not equal religion, and provided neither are forced upon an unwilling recipient you won’t see any outcry over this.
Anyway, fuck yoga. The only thing worse my school gym course ever had us do than yoga was CUP STACKING. Waste of time, give us a basketball and set us loose or something.
