In a lawsuit filed last month, a couple with two
children in the Encinitas schools charge that the district is
unconstitutionally promoting religion by giving yoga classes twice a week to
students during the school day.
School officials insist that the yoga classes are
for physical fitness – and have nothing to do with religion or religious
indoctrination.
The outcome of case could impact hundreds of other
public schools nationwide that incorporate yoga postures and breathing
exercises into their wellness and fitness programs.
Because “yoga” is used to describe a bewildering
variety of classes and programs that dot the American landscape, from retreat
centers and ashrams to shopping malls and gyms, it’s easy to forget that yoga
originated in ancient India as a school of Hindu philosophy.
Many yoga practitioners embrace the religious roots
and spiritual meaning of yoga while many others view yoga largely as a healthy
exercise and stress reduction regimen.
Public schools, of course, adopt the “healthy
exercise” definition in order to comply with the First Amendment’s prohibition
of school promotion or endorsement of religion. That’s why yoga programs
adopted by schools all claim to be secular, although they negotiate the
traditional religious framework in a variety of ways.
On one end of the spectrum, a program offered to
schools called “Grounded” retains Sanskrit terms such as asanas (poses) and
doesn’t shy away from referencing the Chakra System, the “seven major energy
centers in the body” as understood in many Eastern religious traditions.
On the other end, Yoga Ed – which claims to be in
150 schools in 27 states – eschews Sanskrit terms and avoids anything that
could be construed as religious teaching (meditation, for example, is “time in.”)
According to Yoga Ed, yoga is science, not religion.
Not surprisingly, attempts to completely secularize
yoga have met with resistance – and not just from Christian parents like those
in Encinitas.
Many Hindus argue that authentic yoga is inseparable
from its philosophical roots in Hinduism. To underscore this point, the Hindu
American Foundation launched a “take back yoga” campaign in 2010 to remind
people of yoga’s Hindu origins.
Moreover, many yoga practitioners view yoga postures
and breathing exercises as inherently spiritual, giving spiritual benefits even
to those who practice yoga solely for health reasons without any interest in
the religious meaning of their practice.
To what extent, if any, yoga practices can be fully
divorced from religious roots or spiritual efficacy is a metaphysical and
theological debate that can’t be resolved in a court of law.
What courts can and must do, however, is determine
if a school’s yoga program explicitly conveys religious teachings or messages.
This means that the more a yoga program avoids religious language and
metaphysical explanations, the more likely it is to be upheld as
constitutional.
If the court does uphold yoga classes in Encinitas
(as is likely,) schools elsewhere will get the message that yoga can be
sufficiently secularized to pass constitutional muster. Parents who object will
have no recourse but to opt their children out (an option Encinitas currently
offers).
The larger question of whether yoga practices are
inherently spiritual will remain unanswered – and hotly debated.
Is yoga still yoga when stripped of all religious
trappings? That’s a religious issue the First Amendment can’t resolve.
About the author: Charles C. Haynes is director of
the Religious Freedom Education Project at the Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave.,
N.W., Washington, D.C., 20001. Web: http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/.
E-mail: chaynes[at]freedomforum.org.
This article was published by the First Amendment
Center.
No comments:
Post a Comment