The state of Alabama’s 28-year ban on yoga in public schools could be extended a little longer.
Following testimony from Christian conservatives who believed it would contribute to proselytizing in public schools by Hindus, the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday deadlocked on Rep. Jeremy Gray’s bill to lift the prohibition.
“Yoga is a very big part of practicing Hindu religion,” said Becky Gerritson, a longtime conservative activist. “If this bill passes, then instructors will be able to come into classrooms as young as kindergarten and bring these children through guided imagery, which is a spiritual exercise, and it’s outside their parent’s view, and we just believe that this is not appropriate.”
“I’ve been doing yoga probably for 10 years now,” he said. “I’ve taught classes for five years, and I can tell you I still go to a Baptist Church every Sunday.”
The bill will allow Alabama public schools to offer yoga as an elective course. The bill restricts yoga to exercises, mandates that practices be named in English, and prohibits “chanting, mantras, mudras, use of mandalas, and namaste greetings.” The Alabama House approved it on March 11 by a majority of 73 to 25.
Following complaints from right-wing groups that hypnosis and meditation methods were being used in public schools, the Alabama State Board of Education banned yoga from public schools in 1993. Before the State Board of Education, a woman testified that a meditation tape caused her son to become “visibly high.” Hypnosis, guided visualization, and meditation are also prohibited at the moment.
Gray said his own yoga practice has provided him with mental and physical benefits, and he wonders why it isn’t taught in public schools.
“Athletes do it at Alabama and Auburn universities,” he said. “People do it at Methodist Churches. So many people do yoga; why is Christianity the dominant religion in Alabama? So much of this is asinine.”
According to John Eidsmoe, senior counsel for former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore’s Foundation for Moral Law, claims fitness advantages may be gained in other ways. The bill should be amended to require parents to sign permission slips for children enrolled in yoga classes “and state that they understand the Hindu origins of this.”
He said, “The very breathing and stretching, these are the essence of Hindu religion, and they’re the means by which the energy of the gods flow into us and through us and united us with themselves.”
The bill was approved by a tie vote, which meant it failed. Republican Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Tom Whatley moved quickly to reconsider the vote and carry the bill over, allowing it to be voted on again. Whatley said he wanted to give two senators who backed the bill a chance to vote on it because they were absent.
“This is a more modern trend that Americans are doing around the world,” he explained.
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