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YOGA TAUGHT IN a San Diego County school system is not a gateway to Hinduism and doesn’t violate the religious rights of students or their parents, a California appeals court has ruled.
The 4th District Court of Appeal in San Diego upheld a lower court ruling that tossed out a family’s lawsuit that tried to block Encinitas Union School District from teaching yoga as an alternative to traditional gym classes.
While the practice of yoga may be religious in some contexts, yoga classes as taught in the district are, as the trial court determined, ‘devoid of any religious, mystical, or spiritual trappings,’” the court wrote in a 3-0 opinion.
Stephen and Jennifer Sedlock and their two children had brought the lawsuit claiming yoga promoted Hinduism and inhibited Christianity. They were disappointed with the ruling and considering their options.
No other court in the past 50 years has allowed public school officials to lead children in formal religious rituals like the Hindu liturgy of praying to, bowing to, and worshipping the sun god,” attorney Dean Broyles said in a statement.
Paul V. Carelli IV, a lawyer for the district, said there were no rituals occurring in the classroom and no one was worshipping the sun or leading Hindu rites. The district said the practice is taught in a secular way to promote strength, flexibility and balance.
Yoga is now taught at schools across the country, but the district is believed to be the first with full-time yoga teachers at all schools.
A three-year grant from the K.P. Jois Foundation, a nonprofit group that promotes Ashtanga yoga, provides twice-weekly, 30-minute classes to the district’s 5,600 students.
About 30 families opted out of the classes begun in 2011.
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I like how you use a picture of a woman whose staring straight into her very own gee.
She is basically her own head rest! =O
Her eyes seem closed. “It’s easier to change a man’s religion than his diet”. Or woman. Most discussion about mental health do not discuss diet / nutrition ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrxdoIn6DQQ
If I can see my own gee I will give myself a medal :)
“After a careful review of the extensive evidence presented in the trial court concerning the nature of the particular yoga program at issue in this case, we conclude that the program is secular in purpose, does not have the primary effect of advancing or inhibiting religion, and does not excessively entangle the school district in religion”
http://fox5sandiego.com/2015/04/03/appeals-court-rules-yoga-can-continue-in-encinitas-schools/
If only there was such an uproar in America about the drugging of their children ! Some of them have their toddlers on Psychiatric drugs and worship at the altar of “Big Pharma” $$$
http://blogs.wsj.com/experts/2015/02/19/why-are-so-many-toddlers-taking-psychiatric-drugs/
There’s need to get into a flap over it.
Christianity is becoming a bit of a tyrant tbh. They seem to be forcing it on everyone which is exactly what they are giving out about other religions doing!
But it’s Christianity. They right ones. Every other religion is superstition and the other thousands of gods are just made up superstition. Jehova is real, definitely.
Well Christ does make an appearance in other religions.
Kinda like Bob Dylan and the Traveling Wilburys, he gets more exposure.
All the more ironic considering the US founding fathers were enlightenment rationalists and religious skeptics.
It could be a lot worse they could be running around destroying villages and lobbing heads off to “force it on everyone”.
In the same way Spiderman made a guest appearance in other Marvel comics. Doesn’t make him any more real.
No records Jesus until over 100 years after he supposedly died. And you know how the Romans loved to write everything down. Strange.
Yeah it seems to me its not the christian religious community that are the ones forcing their views on people these days at all.
Could you imagine how some in the west who profess to reject religion would react if it had been hindus complaining about christian rituals? They would be right up there supporting the hindus! Christian bashing is trendy these days I suppose.
Vincent, I can assure you that I find all religions silly and primitive. Not just Christianity.
Trust me Vincent, when it comes to laughing my @ss off at how idiotic religion is, I don’t discriminate.
“Christian bashing is trendy these days I suppose.”
Oh boo hoo!
The U.S. Founding fathers were enlightened, were they? Is that why they owned spaces?
*slaves?
Top cat, Christians were doing that not too long ago
Christian bashing was popular in Roman times too, they used lions back then.
“What is wrong with inciting intense dislike of a religion if the activities or teaching of that religion are so outrageous, irrational or abusive of human rights that they deserve to be intensely disliked?” – Rowan Atkinson
How is it becoming a bit of a tyrant ? if anything the influence of Christianity is declining. Even in the US.
@Neal Ireland Hello
Probably not enlightened by today’s standards, no. But what I meant by “enlightenment rationalists” was that the were alive during, and proponents of, “The Enlightenment” and that they were rationalists, especially regarding religion.
Most of them were deists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism
Then there is the Jefferson Bible which omits any references to miracles or the supernatural.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Bible
Yes but like a rat cornered in a burning barn it knows it’s time is up so it lashes out louder and harder than ever. The sooner Christians realise that them not being able to push their views and superstitions on other people is not persecution the better.
I hope they are made pay the full costs of the school’s defense against this most ridiculous of law suits and it costs them their house.
Surely they will be happy living in ‘Gods House’ lunatics
Even better… Take their mega church, raise it to the ground and put up a shopping mall.
Murica!
F¥ck Yeah!
Dang.
there are lot of christian yoga teachers using yoga for health and professionally by selling those DVDs and they are christian forever. anyone can practice yoga. People of different religions don’t sue the bishops for visiting a historic christian site of cathedral for telling them about christianity, do they?
Parents have more money than brains. Unreal!
Gees if I was as flexible as your one in the photo Id save myself a fortune on batteries!!
surely any form of exercise is good. and can these religious people not understand that jesus was about love and enlightenment. he after all was jewish not christian and didnt judge others
Yoga in schools? Only in hippy dippy pinko California.
No top cat , plenty of schools here do occasional yoga sessions as part of their PE
Jesus, frank. Keep that quiet. The Iona crowd’ll be suing the Department of Education if they hear that foreign/heathen things are happening in our Catholic primary schools!! They’ll be looking for some Opus Dei flagellation to be brought in as a counterpoint
Top Cat misses the good old days of comely maidens dancing at the crossroads, DeValera and McQuaid’s catholic theocracy was a golden era for conservative men people like him, not so much for women and children. Be not afraid Top Cat!
What schools do it here? No wonder we’re raising a generation of windbags.
If anything Top Cat yoga would aid in the dispersal of that wind.. Perhaps you need a few sessions yourself to let go of all that hot air.. I’m sure it’s rather uncomfortable.
top cat used the phrase ‘pinko’.. It shows what age he’s living in. Never mind him
Personally I would rather not bow to a Sun God as part of an exercise regime, which is one of poses in yoga. Think it’s insidious exercise unless purely doing it for exercise not philosophical elements too. Suing was step too far but child should of had a choice to decline taking class.
Sun salutations are a type of stretch.. When they go into cow pose or downward facing dog – are they worshipping animals? Or is it just the name for that specific pose?
Good point re name of pose. I never thought of it that way tbh. I know there are benefits of yoga exercises once not encouraged to chant etc.
Chanting? Have never heard of that at a yoga class, but I’m not suggesting it can’t happen..
Sounds more like Buddhist meditation to me..
I know many classes end with a meditation session, but am yet to personally come across chanting in a yoga class. Besides, can you imagine trying to get a group of teenagers to take you seriously when you asked them to chant? More likely they’d just dub the teacher crazy and erupt in fits of laughter at the concept.
Ahh as you can see I’ve never been to a yoga class so my bad. I still have some reservations but think i’ll try one out domstolen.
Sometime meant
Lol, was wondering what domstolen meant! Thought it was just a new one on me!
Perhaps you should give it a go, in my limited experience it’s got about as much religious connotations as weight lifting or running! (as in, some people can go a bit overboard, but it’s just exercise, you’re free to be as obsessive about it as you like, or not as the case may be!)
Expect lots of stretching. Lots of deep breaths and stretching a little further with each exhalation.
Standing / sitting as still as you can in what looks like an impossible posture for what seems like eternity (it isn’t really, it just feels that way when you’re concentrating solely on it), to help your focus and balance. Oh – and remember to breathe!
Usually at the end you even get to lie on the floor and meditate for a bit!
Nothing sinister.. Although most people will wear tight clothing.. Mainly because when you get sweaty, baggy clothes flapping around you is really icky!
If they are so sure they picked the one true religion why would they be bothered by a made up one?
Christians are insecure Rob that’s why they feel the need to defend Christianity all the time, not to convince non believers but to convince themselves because deep down in their subconscious they know they don’t really believe it. If they did truly believe they wouldn’t need to defend it, they would be confident in the knowledge.
I’ve seen God’s wonder. Even in my dad ‘s shelve something could happen. I saw a book, a christian book, ‘Experiencing God’. It was an old book from the 1900s . My parents were pastors but I don’t even like to read the bible, pray or just anything a christian suppose to do. Many times I asked the lord to show himself If he’s really the only true god .The book cover seems quite interesting, so I took it and read it. After reading it in about 2-3 pages, I found that what I did after all this time was wrong. I ask for forgiveness from the lord and what I had since then was a miracle.I continued reading it till now for it has 100+ pages.I do read the bible everyday and I find it’s very interesting. I’ve been praying since then too. The lord did show his kindness and I felt his love to me.Don’t you ever give up in seeking the lord. He works in my life and your life.
Taylor, looking for God’s wonder – you may as well be looking into your own gee.
All to those that doesn’t believe in the existence of god, don’t you think it’s wrong ?! If anything happens to you, I mean something serious, don’t you think you should depend on God ?? With god you can get joy and peace,without god ?? How can you’ll feel free without god?? Science?? Believe in Jesus and there you’ll will find joy, peace and even freedom.
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