Alabama lifts Yoga ban in schools after almost 30 years, still bans meditation.

[Syt]

https://www.npr.org/2021/05/21/999020140/its-now-legal-to-practice-yoga-in-alabamas-public-schools

Alabama Will Now Allow Yoga In Its Public Schools (But Students Can't Say 'Namaste')

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has signed a bill to allow public schools to offer yoga, ending a ban that stood for nearly 30 years. Christian conservatives who back the ban said yoga would open the door for people to be converted to Hinduism.

The new law allows yoga to be offered as an elective for grades K-12. While it erases a ban that, over the years, some schools had not realized existed, it also imposes restrictions on how yoga should be taught. Students won't be allowed to say, "Namaste," for instance. Meditation is not allowed.

"Chanting, mantras, mudras, use of mandalas, induction of hypnotic states, guided imagery, and namaste greetings shall be expressly prohibited," the bill states. It also requires English names be used for all poses and exercises. And before any students try a tree pose, they'll need a parent's permission slip.

Alabama adopted its yoga ban in schools in 1993 — one of many fronts in the culture wars in the United States. And it was a fight to undo the ban: State Rep. Jeremy Gray, a Democrat, first introduced a bill to revoke the yoga taboo more than a year ago. His new bill got final approval Monday — the last day of the legislative session.

As NPR member station WBHM reported, Gray "did not like language added by the Senate that required parental permission slips and bans meditation associated with Eastern mystical traditions, but he went along with them to avoid missing the session deadline."

Gray has said his experience with yoga began when he played college football at North Carolina State University.

Describing yoga's potential benefits, Gray said in March, "Studies have shown that yoga helps children cope with daily stressors" and improves their behavior, flexibility and strength, along with their concentration.

His own practice has never stopped him from going to his Baptist church, he said last month. He also noted that in sports-loving Alabama, the state's elite football programs have long embraced yoga.

The pro-yoga legislation was opposed by conservative groups, including former state Chief Justice Roy Moore's Foundation for Moral Law, and the Alabama chapter of the Eagle Forum, a conservative group that was founded by activist Phyllis Schlafly in 1972.

"Yoga is a practice of Hindu religion," the Eagle Forum of Alabama said in an email that urged maintaining the ban. It added, "Religious practice in the school's constitutes a violation of the establishment clause of the 1st Amendment as public schools cannot promote the practice or ideology of religion."

The group also alleges that each yoga pose was designed not as an exercise but to "be an offering of worship" to Hindu gods.

The Universal Society of Hinduism disagrees. It calls yoga part of the world's heritage, in a statement applauding Alabama lawmakers for voting to lift the yoga ban.

"Alabamans should not to be scared of yoga at all," said Rajan Zed, the society's leader, promising yoga will benefit the state's students. Saying many yoga practitioners are not Hindu, he added that "traditionally Hinduism was not into proselytizing."

The Eagle Forum played a role in the ban's creation, according to Jimi Lee, who leads Yoga & Love, a nonprofit in Alabama. Speaking to WBHM last year, Lee said that in 1993, the yoga ban was one of several controversial policy shifts involving religion, including a school prayer bill. Alabama's prayer law was later struck down, he said, but the ban on yoga and other practices remained.

In the debate over revoking the ban, Christians and atheists became "strange bedfellows" in opposing yoga, Lee said, noting that atheists "don't want anything even remotely religious to be taught in schools."

Despite the new law's limitations on how yoga is practiced, news that the ban is now being lifted received a welcome.

According to veteran statehouse reporter Brian Lyman of the Montgomery Advertiser, the yoga ban's demise represents the end of "one of the stupidest moral panics in Alabama history, which is really saying a lot."

Oh, Alabama.

[Sheilbh]

The pro-yoga legislation was opposed by conservative groups, including former state Chief Justice Roy Moore's Foundation for Moral Law, and the Alabama chapter of the Eagle Forum, a conservative group that was founded by activist Phyllis Schlafly in 1972.

"Yoga is a practice of Hindu religion," the Eagle Forum of Alabama said in an email that urged maintaining the ban. It added, "Religious practice in the school's constitutes a violation of the establishment clause of the 1st Amendment as public schools cannot promote the practice or ideology of religion."

Incredible

[The Brain]

The governor's true. Montgomery's got the answer.

[Monoriu]

This is crazy on so many levels. 

1. Why would schools offer electives?  Students should be taught to the exam.  If it is on the exam, you study it.  If it isn't, you don't.

2. Why oh why would yoga be acceptable as a school subject?  Geography, physics and mathematics are fine.  Yoga is, I don't know.

3. How on earth is this constitutional?

4. How is this consistent with the whole idea of the "land of the free" and all that? 

5. I have a hard time believing that schools in Alabama don't promote the practice of any religion.

6. Why would anybody get the idea that yoga is the practice of Hinduism? 

[Eddie Teach]

We have physical education requirements, which may be general or a specific sport. There wasn't much to choose from when I went to high school, only special classes were for football and cheerleaders. In college, I enrolled in a racquetball course.

Some yoga practicianers do link it with Hindu beliefs, though that is rare in the West. And China, I suppose.

[Valmy]

This is crazy on so many levels. 

1. Why would schools offer electives?  Students should be taught to the exam.  If it is on the exam, you study it.  If it isn't, you don't.

2. Why oh why would yoga be acceptable as a school subject?  Geography, physics and mathematics are fine.  Yoga is, I don't know.

3. How on earth is this constitutional?

4. How is this consistent with the whole idea of the "land of the free" and all that? 

5. I have a hard time believing that schools in Alabama don't promote the practice of any religion.

6. Why would anybody get the idea that yoga is the practice of Hinduism? 

Physical Education is a part of our education curriculum but only a tiny part, like you usually only get one hour of credit and it is usually pass/fail and so long as you show up and participate you pass and sometimes there might be a short exam. It was always a bit of a bother for me since it was kind of a big time commitment for very little credit but you really don't want to fail so you show up and do all the work anyway.

That is unless you are getting a physical education degree because you want to be a coach or physical education teacher or something. Then you have to take lots of those classes, obviously.

Yoga has been suspect for being pagan and of Satan for decades so sometimes people have will have a disclaimer that the Vedic stuff is going to be ignored in a Yoga class.

[grumbler]

The governor's true. Montgomery's got the answer.

But I think Montgomery is still trying to take Caen.

[grumbler]

The reason "anybody [would] get the idea that yoga is the practice of Hinduism" is because it IS a practice of Hinduism.  In fact, Hinduism has four yogas, of which the physical yoga we think of in the West is just a small part of one of them.

Western yoga doesn't have to be religious, but it incorporates a lot of Hindu principals, and every yoga teacher I have worked with has also included the elements that are outside the physical elements (positive thinking, right diet, and the like).  I, like most of those I trained with, only ever bothered with the physical side, and my teachers accepted that.

[Razgovory]

This is crazy on so many levels. 

1. Why would schools offer electives?  Students should be taught to the exam.  If it is on the exam, you study it.  If it isn't, you don't.

2. Why oh why would yoga be acceptable as a school subject?  Geography, physics and mathematics are fine.  Yoga is, I don't know.

3. How on earth is this constitutional?

4. How is this consistent with the whole idea of the "land of the free" and all that? 

5. I have a hard time believing that schools in Alabama don't promote the practice of any religion.

6. Why would anybody get the idea that yoga is the practice of Hinduism?

1. The point of school is to educate future citizens.  A well rounded to education is a essential to that.  Elective allow students to find out what they are good at so they can make good choices about what career to follow.

2. Yoga would have been a physical education credit.  Physical education improves a students ability to study.

3. I don't understand this question.  Is it why is teaching yoga constitutional or why is banning yoga constitutional?  There is nothing about either one that would seem to cause a constructional problem.

4. Again, I don't understand this question.  There is no fundamental right to have a school teach any given subject.

5.They aren't suppose to.  I'm mildly surprised that schools in Alabama teach something besides Football.

6.  Not a clue.  I don't know anything about Yoga.

[celedhring]

I do meditation and I find it tremendously useful to manage stress and be able to concentrate. The guys that taught me gave it no spiritual dimension whatsoever. Just a mental exercise.

[Barrister]

The reason "anybody [would] get the idea that yoga is the practice of Hinduism" is because it IS a practice of Hinduism.  In fact, Hinduism has four yogas, of which the physical yoga we think of in the West is just a small part of one of them.

Western yoga doesn't have to be religious, but it incorporates a lot of Hindu principals, and every yoga teacher I have worked with has also included the elements that are outside the physical elements (positive thinking, right diet, and the like).  I, like most of those I trained with, only ever bothered with the physical side, and my teachers accepted that.

The flip side to the Alabama argument that yoga can not be separated from the hindu religion, is the modern leftist belief that practicing yoga without those hindu principles constitutes "cultural appropriation".

Why are you appropriating ancient Indian cultural practices, grumbler?

[Jacob]

The flip side to the Alabama argument that yoga can not be separated from the hindu religion, is the modern leftist belief that practicing yoga without those hindu principles constitutes "cultural appropriation".

Why are you appropriating ancient Indian cultural practices, grumbler?

Is that what modern leftists believe?

[Valmy]

India intentionally spreads its culture as a form of soft power so I don't think so.

Besides I don't think anybody thinks Yoga isn't Indian.

[Barrister]

The flip side to the Alabama argument that yoga can not be separated from the hindu religion, is the modern leftist belief that practicing yoga without those hindu principles constitutes "cultural appropriation".

Why are you appropriating ancient Indian cultural practices, grumbler?

Is that what modern leftists believe?

Some do.

https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/05/yoga-cultural-appropriation/

Please note Sign #1 - treating yoga as a solely physical activity

And look - I'm fairly dismissive of "cultural appropriation" except in some highly specific areas, so grumbler should feel free to do whatever he likes.  I think the smiley indicated it being somewhat tongue in cheek.

But yes - this is one of those areas where Horseshoe Theory seems to apply - that the far left and far right wind up making basically the same argument.


(and yes - I just googled yoga cultural appropriation and that was the first hit.  But i have definitely seen that argument made before)

[Jacob]

Some do.

In the same way that the modern right believes in banning abortion, in persecuting homosexuals and transsexuals, in beating children, and oppose interracial marriage.

Well... some do.