Stretching is kosher, not namaste as yoga seeks spot in US schools

Playground staples like Tag and Red Rover were included on the list, as were games that have always been at the centre of heated debate, like dodge ball. And then there was yoga.The practice, along with hypnosis and meditation, has been downright illegal, barred by Alabama law from the state’s public schools for nearly three decades, with detractors warning that allowing it in classrooms would amount to a tacit endorsement of a “non-Christian belief system”.But over the years, yoga has soared in popularity, including in Alabama. Across the state, it is taught in dozens of sweaty studios, Christian churches and prisons.

And now, if some lawmakers have their way, public school students may soon also be allowed to unfurl their mats and stretch themselves into child’s pose or downward facing dog.  “It’s relatively unusual to have a law against yoga or meditation in school,” said Candy Gunther Brown, a professor of religious studies at Indiana University and author of ‘Debating Yoga and Mindfulness in Public Schools’.  “But,” she continued, “if you ask the question differently: Are you going to see more controversies over yoga and meditation? I think we’re going to see an increase rather than a decrease, and it’s precisely because they’re becoming more popular.” Under the proposed law, the introduction of yoga would be at the discretion of local school systems. It would be stripped of its spiritual aspects and non-English terminology. So while various stretching poses would be allowed, “namaste” 

would remain verboten, as would using chants or mantras.“Sometimes you have to have a stepping stone,” Rep. Jeremy Gray, a state lawmaker who introduced the legislation on yoga in schools said, of the compromises that led to the limitations. 

But critics argue that altering terminology means little because yoga is inherently a religious practice.“We think we can take anything and remake it to fit our lifestyle,” said the Rev. Clete Hux, the director of the Apologetics Resource Center in Birmingham, Alabama. 

“They’re trying to separate yoga from Hinduism, or separate it from its religious roots,” Hux said. “But according to Hinduism, you can’t do that. Basically, there is no Hinduism without yoga and no yoga without Hinduism.”

Many who regularly practice yoga have had to grapple with its Hindu and Buddhist influences and whether it interferes at all with their own codes of belief. Others have devised strategies to work around it, like the Christian participants who recast sun salutations as “son” salutations, in a nod to Jesus Christ. In Alabama, Gray said the debate among lawmakers has evolved considerably. He introduced a similar legislation last year, and it quickly failed. But this time around, he has found bipartisan support. “It works,” Gray said. “It’s not just one thing that it does. It can work in many aspects. I just like it. I’ve seen where it has worked on children. I’ve seen how it has worked on myself.”