Hatha. Bikram. Ashtanga. Kundalini. Gentle. Classical. Family. Mom & Tot. These are but a few of the types of yoga classes offered locally. Encinitas is widely considered one of the original hubs of yoga practice in the U.S., with well-known Indian teachers bringing the practice to town in the early 1970's. It has since blossomed into a center for teaching, learning, and practicing this ancient....thing. I say thing because there is presently a major debate about what yoga is and what it represents to our children, our schools and our local society. Is it exercise? Is it an art? Is it a religion?
If you have a child in the Encinitas Unified School District, you undoubtedly know what I am angling towards. For those of you who do not, here is a brief synopsis: A locally based non-profit called the Jois Foundation has provided a $533,000 grant to our district of nine elementary schools to provide twice weekly 30 minute yoga sessions to our kids over the next 3 years. This grant is in conjunction with a study being conducted by the University of San Diego and the University of Virginia on the effects (good or bad) of the kids having access to 30 minute yoga sessions. Specifically, the mission is "to design and implement a research study to measure the impact of system-wide implementation of yoga, health, and wellness curriculum." The Jois Foundation is supported by Sonia Jones, the wife of hedge fund empire billionaire, Paul Tudor Jones. An avid, ashtanga practitioner, Sonia became a benefactor for the Jois family who is widely attributed with bringing Ashtanga yoga to the states from India.
Archaeologists have found yoga related carvings in India dating back to 3,000 years before the birth of Christ. These carvings suggested people 5,000 years ago were utilizing systematic poses as a form of strength, discipline and honor. Yoga was then incorporated into several different regional religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. Since then, these religions have grown, as has the practice of yoga. In modern times, people of all religions have begun to reap the mental and physical health benefits of the practice. From lowering blood pressure to cleansing the lymphatic system, few people I have spoken to have ever left a yoga class feeling worse than when they came in. I think this is true of most forms of exercise. (http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=78815)
So this brings us to the controversy now creeping into town like the storm clouds over head this weekend. A small group of parents feel that this grant, study and practice is actually an attempt of "religious indoctrination" of our kids. Referencing Hinduism and its use of yoga as a major component, these parents are threatening to sue our school district to discontinue the program. On October 10th, the North County Times quoted one father saying, "I will not allow my children to be indoctrinated by this Hindu religious program. Because of this, you're forcing me to segregate my children." According to the newspaper, he went on to say that the children whose parents do not allow them to participate in the yoga classes are "ostracized and bullied, comparing the situation to Nazi Germany." The parents threatening the lawsuit are reportedly Christian, being advised by a pastor and counseled by an attorney whose website describes his non-profit firm as specializing in "the protection and promotion of religious freedom" among other issues.
I am a Christian. I do yoga at the YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association). Never upon leaving the class have I felt pressured to believe anything different from what I believed when I entered the class. I think my Jewish friends who have done yoga would say the same thing. (I also think my Jewish friends would take great offense to someone comparing their kids not participating in a school program to Nazi Germany.) The great irony is that these individuals feel their civil rights are being violated and are being represented by an attorney who supposedly fights for religious freedom. They are the small faction that misrepresents Christianity through ignorance, fear and defiance. Every major religion has its own group of wingnuts who, through extremist views, ruins its for the whole.
This group of parents will not have their collective view point swayed, that is something I can say with almost all certainty, without even knowing any of them. To sit and argue with them would be to throw a rock against a stone wall...nothing is going to budge. Religion is at the core of the most brutal, bloody conflicts throughout all of history. What does yoga really represent to these parents? The devil. Fundamentally, they have connected the dots from a foreign religion, to a practice, to scripture, to a class being offered at their kids school. At at the end the picture is of a false profit, an alternate god, an indoctrination of the anti-Christ. So is anybody going to change their minds? No.
The greatest problem with this entire situation is that this small group is not content to simply have their own children not participate in the program. They do not want the program to exist, period. Not for their kids, not for my kids, not for anybody's kids in the EUSD. So much like this group is throwing around the "civil liberties" card, I am going to throw my hat into the ring and suggest that they are in fact violating my son's civil rights by forcing their own beliefs on the larger community. I do not view yoga as a religion. Similarly, I do not view karate as a religion. Both practices incorporate body, mind and spirit and my son does both. But at the end of the day, we remain a Christian family. This small group of people, who is actively preparing to plunge our already financially-strained school district into an expensive lawsuit, must not be as resolute or comfortable in its faith. I am fairly confident that my son will not be converted to the dark side when he is in Child's Pose. I give him more credit than that.
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